Blues looking at Game 3, nothing more; Berube non-committal on a
goalie; fixing the PK woes; team remains confident despite 0-2 hole
The Blues know the hole they're in. They're just not looking at the big picture.
And why would they?
There's no sense in looking beyond the next obstacle, and that's a pivotal Game 3 of the Western Conference First Round series against the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday (9:30 p.m.; FS-MW, NBCSN, ESPN 101.1-FM).
The Blues are down 2-0 in the series after falling in Game 1, 5-2, and then despite rallying from a two-goal, third period deficit to tie, fell in overtime, 4-3, in Game 2 when Bo Horvat scored his fourth goal of the series.
So instead of looking at the fact that the Blues, in order to advance and keep their hopes alive of repeating as Stanley Cup champions, must win four of the remaining five games in the series, they simply look to Game 3 and Game 3 only.
"Our mindset's going to be one game at a time," defenseman Carl Gunnarsson said. "Can't look forward and say you've got to win this many games. With this, I know it's a fact, but we just as mentality for the team, I think we've just got to make sure we focus on the next one and not worry about going forward longer than that. One game at a time, as boring as it seems, but that's how we've got to go right now."
Despite the inconsistencies in their game, the Blues, who are winless in Edmonton, feel like they've been building towards winning hockey. It just hasn't translated yet, and that's why they simply don't want to look past Game 3, when though Game 4 is Monday.
"We're just looking at tomorrow," forward Zach Sanford said. "Tomorrow's a must-win. We've done a lot of good things and we've got to carry those over and clean up a few things and go one shift, one period, one game at a time."
* No decision on starting goalie -- Blues coach Craig Berube hasn't made a decision yet who will start in Game 3.
Jordan Binnington, who helped backstop the Blues to their Cup last season, was solid in round-robin games but has allowed nine goals on just 47 shots (.808 save percentage) in Games 1-2 and has been outplayed thus far by Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom, who has stopped 63 of 68 shots in the series, good for a .926 save percentage.
Jake Allen, who started a 2-1 shootout loss against the Dallas Stars in the final game of the round-robin, could get the nod, and even if the Blues stick with Binnington for Game 3, on back-to-back nights, Allen could easily get one of the next two games, but should be get Game 3 and play well, who knows where this goes.
"No, I'll decide later on," Berube said. "With Binnington, he stops a lot of those pucks, but at the same time, we're giving breakaways up too. I think it goes hand in hand with our team and Binner. We're giving up too much defensively.
"I'm going just on tomorrow. I'm not going to worry about after that game until it's over what's going to happen. We have back-to-back games coming up. We'll make a decision after that game."
* PK woes -- Of the 24 teams that reached the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Blues sit at the bottom of the stats as far as penalty kill efficiency goes, with a 68 percent rating.
But in this series against Vancouver, it's no secret that they've been even worse, killing just four of nine Vancouver power plays.
"We know we've got to be better," Gunnarsson said. "We've got to kill more penalties."
So what's been the underlying problem other than trying to stay out of the penalty box?
"A few of them, I think we've been playing them well, and it just ends up on their stick and boom, that's a goal," Gunnarsson said. "When you kind of have that swagger on the PK, those bounces go your way and now it's kind of turned. I think we've just got to stick with it and we know our system. We just have to trust it. I think that's the only thing. In the first game, I know there were a couple mistakes that led to goals, but I'm going to count that last one too, the game was almost over at that point. We know we've got to be better, but we know we've got a good system and we've just got to get back to it. We'll get one good kill and we'll go from there. But yeah, it's a little tough right now."
Call it puck luck, call it lack of swagger. Berube said there's execution issues that need to be corrected.
"Just the middle of the ice has got to be tightened up for me," Berube said. "They've gotten two goals in the middle of the ice. The seam passes, those are the areas where we've got to tighten up on our PK and not give them anything from the inside. If they shoot it from the top, we've got to block a shot or we need a save, but we've got to limit the stuff in the middle of the ice."
* Staying positive, confident -- A loss like the Blues suffered Friday could offer devastating affects, especially after the frenetic comeback to tie the game, including Jaden Schwartz's goal with 6.4 seconds left in regulation.
But with what this team went through last season, including going from worst in January to first in June, confidence will not desert this group.
"I think at that point, everyone felt like we were taking over," Gunnarsson said of the comeback. "Looking at both the games, I think we should have won one of them, and it's just how it goes. In the playoffs, it's really tough. Last night stung really bad, but you've just got to get back up again. I feel like we'll get back to that mentality tomorrow that we had at the end of the game. We felt like we were going to win it, and we've just got to get back to that because I feel like we can take this over. I think everyone feels like that, too. We're playing better and better right now."
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