Berube feels Blues being targeted

Coach, players don't deny they need to clean penalties up, also feel they're 

getting short end of stick on calls; angry bigger discipline wasn't taken on Stone

By LOU KORAC
There's no denying the Blues have taken their fair share of penalties this season, and legit ones too.

(St. Louis Blues photo)

Ryan O'Reilly (90) and the Blues feel they're being wrongfully targeted

by officials regarding penalties. They're third in penalty minutes.

Coach Craig Berube has been insistent in the early part of the season that the Blues have to stay out of the box, plain and simple. Berube's defended the officials, and he's called out his players for a lack of discipline.

Not on Tuesday.

Berube had enough.

After a 5-4 win against Alex Pietrangelo and the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena, a game in which the Blues (4-2-1) couldn't hold a 4-2 lead midway through the third period, there was a call on defenseman Marco Scandella that was called for cross checking with 9:45 remaining in the game that put the Blues down two men for 39 seconds.

Of course, Vegas (5-1-1) scored on the ensuing power play and made it a 4-3 game, eventually tying the game 4-4 late on a Max Pacioretty goal with 3:25 remaining before the Blues won it on Brayden Schenn's shootout goal.

But the Scandella call was questionable when viewed live, and Berube made it known that he didn't like it.

There was also a call on Vegas defenseman Alec Martinez, for a slash, that many felt didn't warrant a whistle in the second period.

"Scandella's penalty is a joke, like I don't get it," Berube said, not caring at the time whether he'll get fined by the league for criticism of officials. "You keep going about your business, but come on, we're playing hockey here. Like let us play hockey. I'm just tired of it, going to the box six, seven times a night. Let us play hockey. It's a tough game out there, things happen, but you've got to let them go."

The Blues were forced to kill six more opponent power-plays on Tuesday. They're tied for third in the NHL with 81 penalty minutes on the season in seven games, an average of 11:34 per game, which is fourth in the NHL.

That kind of reputation garners extra eyes, but even the mild-mannered Ryan O'Reilly, for the second straight game, didn't like a call but also knows the team has to be better at not turning a particular game into a special teams' contest., and with the Blues being at or neat the bottom of the league in both penalty kill and power-play, they're better suited to playing 5-on-5 hockey.

"That 5-on-3 call I think was very soft. We all thought that," O'Reilly said. "That was a tough time in the game to give them that. I guess if you want to complain about that, you (also) have to stay out of the box and again make it easier on 'Binner.' With the amount of pressure they come (with), they force us to take penalties. We just have to support each other better and sometimes whether it's just hold on and not forcing plays to kind of maybe just being smarter and hold onto pucks, wait for support to get there. I think in doing that, I think it will limit their grade 'A' chances which forces us to take penalties. Something to clean up for sure."

Added forward David Perron, who scored twice: "I think the Scandy penalty, he outmuscled the guy. He's a very strong guy I just think it was ... I don't know if odd call is the right word for me to use, but I think it was not necessarily a penalty if we didn't get all the power plays before and there's a couple we throw over the glass. Mine personally, we've done that stretch break like 10-15 times last year and not even close to doing that once. That one got away from me and obviously I was a little embarrassed, but that is why it happens."

And what's frustrating the Blues even more is what was not identified with a more stiffer punishment when Vegas captain Mark Stone was called for roughing on the Blues' Tyler Bozak, at 13:29 of the second when he stopped in his tracks near the center ice red line and leveled Bozak in his chin with a shoulder hit that knocked the Blues veteran forward out the rest of the game.

Stone was issued a minor for roughing, but that's it.

"Terrible call," Berube said. "We're getting penalized six penalties a night. I don't see it, I really don't and I'm tired of it."

Bozak will get looked at on Wednesday but could be dealing with a concussion like teammate Robert Bortuzzo, who was level from behind by Colorado's Valeri Nichushkin and hasn't played since, missing the past four games. No punishment was issued with that either.
So in stepped Justin Faulk to take matters into his own hands after Stone wouldn't accept Schenn's challenge. Faulk scraped with the Vegas captain in an effort to let him know such a play is unacceptable.

"Yeah, we didn't like the hit," Faulk said. "I think there's multiple guys within our room that would have done it. It's just some things you do for teammates and move on. I just stepped up and tried to do that."

Don't think for a second Faulk's teammates didn't take notice either.

"He's like the Swiss Army knife right now. He's doing everything," O'Reilly said of Faulk. "D-zone, he's making great plays, being physical. Offensively he's creating a ton, he steps up with a big fight there for Bozie. The guy is doing everything. It's very impressive. He's a big reason why we're winning some of thee hockey games the way he's playing. Collectively through the lineup, we have to follow his lead and help him out more."

The Blues are 31st in the NHL in difference between taken penalties (39) as opposed to penalties drawn (26), which is minus-13.

There were penalties taken Tuesday (Schenn's tripping while on the power play in the second, Colton Parayko and David Perron each getting called for delay of game) that warranted sitting in the box, but players seem to get a bigger appreciation for the job they do if officials allowed them to play more.

(St. Louis Blues photo)

Forward Jordan Kyrou (25) scores for the Blues past former teammate

Alex Pietrangelo (7) and Robin Lehner in a 5-4 shootout win Tuesday. 

"I sure hope we don't have to live with it for a while. We talk about it every day," Faulk said. "Guys know that we've got to be better at that, and it's not all the penalties are bad. It's just there are some stupid ones that we need to clean up. We have no issue killing off hard penalties, whether it's roughing or whatever, something along those lines that's a hard play that had to be made. Just the little things, all the stick penalties, slashing, hooking, all that stuff needs to get out of our game. It's making it real tough on us. We're a 5-on-5 team. We think we can handle guys and other teams in the offensive zone and play hard against them and really make it tough for them. Every time we take a penalty, we kill our momentum. It just needs to stop and we definitely need to clean that up to be better."

* NOTES -- Defenseman Vince Dunn was a healthy scratch Tuesday following a 6-3 loss to the Los Angeles Kings in which Dunn was a minus-2 and responsible for three goals against.
"He's got to clean up the mistakes, that's the bottom line, and that's it, that's all I'm going to say about that," Berube said. "He knows. We talked. I love Dunner, but you've got to clean the mistakes up."

If it should have served as a wake-up call to Dunn's teammates, consider it served loud and clear.

"We are a very deep team and we have guys that are working hard and getting in the lineup as well," O'Reilly said. "Obviously I think it's just sending a message. He's a fantastic player. I think he'll respond the right way like he has done before. It is what it is. I know he's going to work hard and come back and he's going to help us a lot."