St. Louis entered the game with the league’s #1 powerplay, yet were shut out for their first 11 PP minutes and in fact had allowed a shorthanded goal against. Alas they would not be denied and won the game – in the last minute – on the PP after a Tobias Enstrom penalty with just 2:13 left in the game to win it. Alexander Steen scored his NHL leading 11th goal off a nice feed from Jay Bouwmeester.
This winning goal came after Bryan Little buried an Andrew Ladd feed off a great rush by Ladd shorthanded earlier in the period. The captain showed the heart the Jets need on a great hard working effort to create that goal.
Alex Pietrangelo had given the Blues the lead early in the 3rd on a slick move around Ondrej Pavelec coming in from the point shortly after an Evander Kane giveaway.
The teams traded first period goals with St Louis scoring by Brendan Morrow scored off a poor rebound on a long shot from Ryan Reaves. Blake Wheeler answered on a 5v3 powerplay after the shot from Ladd went up and over St. Louis goalie Jaroslav Halak and Wheeler batted it in.
St. Louis finished the game by outshooting the Jets 33-23 but the Jets managed to match St. Louis' physical game outhitting the Blues 21-16 and outplaying the Blues significantly at times. However the veteran Blues squad avoided panic and played their game all night – eventually wearing down the Jets.
10 Thoughts
1) Polarizing goalie Ondrej Pavelec was not great tonight. A very poor rebound resulted in the Blues first goal. Poor positioning and biting early cost him on the second. The third was a well placed shot, but certainly stoppable as well, as it was just a backhand.
2) Jets still have no secondary scoring. Matt Halischuk played well and generated some chances on his line with Michael Frolik and Mark Scheifele, but overall there is just nothing happening on the those bottom lines. A shakeup is needed. AHL ppg C/LW Eric O’Dell might be of some help, no?
3) Is Big Buff not the most frustrating player in the league? Mistakes, mistakes, yet then he breaks out making some great plays flying up the wing or blasts from the point.
4) Toby, Toby. Enstrom simply cannot take that penalty. No ifs, ands, or maybes about it. Got to have better situational awareness in that situation, particularly as a veteran. He had support in the form of Bogosian behind him.
5) PP breaks out of it's slump, but it's with an asterisk of the 5v3. It was set up VERY nicely in the box + 1, moved the puck well. However the 5v4 powerplay continues to struggle as the Jets very standard overload with emphasize to get it to the point continues to be incredibly easy to defend.
6) Hard to complain about the PK on this night, but the Jets passive PK is annoying. Give players like Pietrangelo and Steen time and they will make you pay, which they certainly did in the end.
7) Devin Setoguchi is oh so close. He continues to impress, just not quite getting the bounces. Had the best Jets chance of the night taken away by a terrible penalty call for “hitting too hard”.
8) Depth defensemen all looked solid, if unspectacular again tonight. Adam Pardy in particular has been solid. I had misgivings about his footspeed, but he looks engaged and makes smart plays with the puck. Clitsome moved up in the play well, doing slightly better than earlier in the year.
9) Ladd – Little – Wheeler continue to drive this team, even when split up. The Jets go with those 3, and tonight they played solid and nearly stole a point from the strong Blues squad.
10) Olli Jokinen continues to look good, points just aren’t not coming – they will though, if he keeps this play up. Evander Kane still cannot pass, every chance is a blind shot at the net.
