
The Blues are coming home with a 1-1 split.
Is a win in one game a turnaround?
In the regular season, no – one game is a small sample size. One game is a “we should wait and see if this sticks.” In the playoffs, however, one game can change an entire series’ momentum, and the Blues are banking on that being the case tonight.
Clearly, head coach Craig Berube’s tweaks worked:
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Oh, what a difference a game makes. The Blues continued their postseason power play streak, netting a five on three goal from David Perron to keep the streak going. The most drastic change is clearly the improved face-off performance, which Berube credited to the team just having a bad game on Tuesday:
“They just had a bad night (Tuesday). A lot better night for sure (Thursday). I thought everybody was really good on faceoffs, which is important. We start with the puck and they don’t.”
Clunkers happen – but the adjustment after a rough game is what truly matters, and the Blues fixed nearly every problem. While the Predators looked fine with the Avalanche steamrolling them, the Blues’ goal was to split, go home, and take care of business. That’s a doable gameplan with the Avalanche. During the regular season, they were a home powerhouse with a record of 32-5-4. On the road, however, the Avalanche were 24-14-3. Clearly no slouches away from Ball Arena, the Blues should still be able to look at that road record as something to take advantage of. With a home record of 26-10-5, the Blues aren’t exactly slouches at the Enterprise Center either.
The team’s scoring this round continues to come from the key contingent that they relied upon during the Minnesota series: David Perron, Vladimir Tarasenko, Ryan O’Reilly, Jordan Kyrou, and Brandon Saad. Pavel Buchnevich assisted on Kyrou’s goal Thursday night as well as on Perron’s first of the night, so keep your eyes on him tonight. He has six assists so far this post-season and should be about ready for a breakout goalscoring game.
Thursday evening was a big win for the Blues. There’s absolutely no question that it could very well be a momentum shifter – all that matters is if the Blues take advantage of that. There’s no reason why they can’t.