The St. Louis Blues have had a wonderful run this season. Just making the playoffs was an awesome achievement, and they should be very proud of themselves, no matter what happens from here. None of this is about trying to throw a bucket of cold water on a fine young team.Reality, however, is about to set in. The Blues youthful exuberance on offense has been absolutely no match for the Vancouver Canucks disciplined defensive work in the first two games of their Western Conference quarterfinal series. In almost a carbon copy of Wednesday night's opener, Vancouver beat St. Louis 3-0 in Game Two Friday at GM Place in Vancouver.
No question, goalie Roberto Luongo has been superb in these first two games. However, Vancouver's wins have almost been more about the shots he didn't have to stop than the ones he did. The Canucks have done a great job protecting Luongo, limiting the Blues to one shot in virtually all their offensive rushes.
At this point, St. Louis has become a one-trick pony. They're incapable of generating any serious chances five-on-five, despite winning a ton of faceoffs. Instead, they have to rely on the power play. That's bad enough because it puts you at the mercy of the officials, but it becomes worse when the short-handed team makes a habit of out-working your team.
There was no better illustration of this than a power play the Blues got with about four minutes to play and the score 2-0. Despite a glut of faceoff wins, the Blues never were able to mount a serious offensive threat, because they were unable to win any battles for the puck along the boards. It was the classic case of a team pressing to make something happen, but in doing so, they forgot about the simple little things that make the offensive part of the game work.
For Vancouver, it's a comfortable-looking 2-0 series lead. Unless St. Louis can find a way to get something going, especially five-on-five, it will be a quick trip to the golf course. Just make sure Erik Johnson is buckled in to his cart.
Some controversy at the end of the game, as it appeared that Kevin Bieksa mixed it up with B.J. Crombeen. We'll see if the league has anything to say about it.
