One lapse in judgment cost Blues point in shootout loss to Coyotes

Undisciplined penalties have been problematic in 2020-21; veteran 

Schwartz cost Blues valuable point with poor judgment near end of game 

KORAC'S KORNER

Commentary By LOU KORAC
ST. LOUIS -- Time and time again, coach Craig Berube has had to endure questions regarding penalties from the Blues.

As much as the media members asking questions would rather stay away from the seemingly Groundhog Day questions surrounding the Blues when they lose, it's hard to do that when another bad, inexcusable loss came as a result of an ongoing issue with this version of the Blues: penalties.

(St. Louis Blues/Scott Rovak)

Blues captain Ryan O'Reilly, who had two goals and an assist Monday vs.

Arizona, was critical of team's inability to close out shootout loss.

Their 4-3 shootout loss to the Arizona Coyotes, the third straight loss for the Blues (7-4-2) in this seemingly marathon series came down to one play, one instance that never should have happened.

For one, it came as a result of a poor decision by one of your veteran hard-working, skill guys that should have known better given the situation.

Yes, I'm talking about Jaden Schwartz, who's worked as hard as anyone in my years of covering this team on this beat. But even in what amounted to an inadvertent situation, his boneheaded decision to recklessly momentarily lose control of his stick and get whistled for high-sticking Niklas Hjalmarsson, while on the power play no less, in the waning moments of the third period that likely would have killed the remainder of the time on the clock and secured a 3-2 win, cost the Blues a point and gave a division rival two points, in my opinion.
Let's set the stage here: there's 2:25 on the clock, and our hometown's Clayton Keller -- we'll get to him later in this story -- took a poor penalty of his own, in the offensive zone, and was called for holding Torey Krug at the 17:35 mark.

Game, set, match, right?

Well, probably should have been because even had they not scored with the man-advantage, the Blues would have taken the game clock down to 25 seconds, and for the Coyotes to get goalie Darcy Kuemper off the ice and get any time in the offensive zone, they would have been hard-pressed to get the equalizer.

Now we come to the bad, bad decision by Schwartz. It was an offensive zone face-off, and right off it, Schwartz inexplicably got his stick up in the face of the former Blackhawks nemesis Hjalmarsson 56 seconds into the power play and negated it with a high-sticking penalty.

Say what?

Given the situation, a veteran of Schwartz's ilk should know better, and it's an inexcusable gaffe, one that cost his team the game.

What it did was turn all but the final 25 seconds into a 4-on-4 game, and when the Coyotes pulled Darcy Kuemper from goal, it made it a 5-on-4, and ultimately when Keller came out of the box, a 6-on-4 and just enough time for Arizona to fight for the equalizer.

And when Keller threw the dagger one-timer behind Jordan Binnington for the tying goal with 0.7 seconds left in regulation, it lunged a dagger right into the Blues.

But it all boiled down to taking another silly penalty, and this time, it cost the Blues a precious point while giving Arizona two they likely wouldn't have gotten.

"There were two penalties in the third period and we shouldn't have taken either one," Blues coach Craig Berube said of Schwartz's minor, and an inexplicable cross-checking minor by Zach Sanford midway through the period. "You've got to know the situation and you've got to be smarter there. But our guys battled hard tonight. I thought that we played pretty well, controlled most of the game and really competed hard ... deserved to win, but you can't make those mistakes like that with the penalties."

Sounds like a broken record, eh?

Well, maybe because it is, or has been for Berube. For a team that came into Monday's game 28th in the NHL on the power play but actually looked good going 1-for-4 with 11 shots, and a team that was 28th on the penalty kill, perhaps staying out of the box -- as cliche as it sounds -- might be a good idea.

They're minus-14 in net gain as far as penalties taken and penalties drawn, which is tied for worst in the league with Washington, and the 142 penalty minutes, including the third-worst 58 minors, is fourth-worst in the NHL. and includes 10:55 penalty minutes per game, fifth most in the league. 

It cost them big time Monday.

"Well, 0.1 seconds left, they score," Berube said. "We took a penalty when we had a power play. They pulled their goalie and made it 5-on-4 and then 6-on-4 when they came out. I mean it was almost killed off. They made a play with one second left."

The Blues would go on to lose in a shootout 2-1 and lose the game 4-3, and leave a bitter taste in their mouths.

"I just don't think we played well enough, played hard enough," Blues captain Ryan O'Reilly said. "Again, we didn't out-compete them. It's embarrassing. We just lost three in a row at home to that team (and it) just sparked them to give them that much. Four not-so-great games. It's very disappointing. It's embarrassing."

But let's not kid ourselves. The Blues are simply an undisciplined hockey club. They've taken way too many penalties -- officials making questionable calls or not -- and it's led to a lot of the inconsistent play. And being undisciplined and being near the bottom of the league on the PK doesn't bode well.

There was another silly penalty in the third period tonight by Zach Sanford as well. The 26-year-old, after getting rattled by a good, clean check by Arizona defenseman Alex Goligoski moments before an inexplicable cross-checking minor halfway through the third period, was bailed out by his PK group on that one.

"Well no, I mean you've got to control your emotions," Berube said. "You've got to play with emotion, but you've got to do the right things."

But these are the types of penalties the Blues simply cannot deal with when power-play opportunities seem to wind up in the back of their net.

And when Schwartz gave Arizona life with his stick infringement late in the game, it ultimately gave the Coyotes a small glimmer of hope when all that hope was lost.

"Yeah, it could have gave us a better opportunity, but there's so many other factors that are involved in it too," O'Reilly said, detracting from blaming Schwartz's minor on the loss. "Myself, I have to be aware and bring the group together a bit more to be better in these high-pressure situations."

Now that is something that makes quite a bit of sense from the new captain, but something that shouldn't have to be necessary.

This roster is chock-full of Stanley Cup champions, one that understands the intense pressures of what it takes to win it all, including being disciplined at the most opportune times. But with Arizona scoring two more times with the man advantage on Monday, that's 17 goals allowed by the Blues' PK on 56 attempts, good for 29th place at 69.6 percent. 

That's awful, and when it's that bad, the bad fouls make things even more complex.

"At times we cleaned things up a bit and there was a little bit there and had some good o-zone time, but still, not enough,” O’Reilly said of the overall game Monday after he tallied a pair of goals, including No. 200 in the NHL, and one assist. “I don't really know what to say. It's tough because we keep getting beat and we're disappointed with the way we respond and this is a group in here with guys that have built this culture here where something like this would never happen. Obviously I'm responsible for it and some other guys as well, but it's tough. It's not the culture here. Just too many forced errors and not strong enough. It's not our identity and it stings, it really stings.

“Obviously the 6-on-4 there, they seemed to look to shoot the puck. Center makes a big block, Bortuzzo makes a big block. I've got to find a way, I've got to stay tight there and cover that and at least keep it out of that area. They put it in, they made a nice goal play and put it in. We almost squeaked it out, but we didn't deserve to. We don't deserve to right now and that's the way it's been going.”

(St. Louis Blues/Scott Rovak)

Blues goalie Jordan Binnington (50) makes a save during Monday's 4-3

shootout loss to the Arizona Coyotes

I disagree with O’Reilly in a sense that the Blues did deserve to win Monday. They were, overall, the better team. They changed things up and got some good results from certain people, possessed the puck more often in the offensive zone, which is their staple, and pumped 43 shots on Kuemper. They blocked 28 shots, which shows the commitment to sacrificing the body in the defensive zone, which could still use some work in breaking up plays in zone, but the commitment was there Monday.

But once again, it’s the undisciplined play that will be their undoing at this rate if this continues, because that was a bad point to give away.