
Will the Blues bounce back tonight or get bounced?
When the Blues last left Denver, they were tied 1-1 with the Avalanche and banking for home-ice advantage to get some control of the series.
Oh, how things have changed.
Since then, the Blues have lost Jordan Binnington, gotten owned by Nazem Kadri, embarrassed themselves in multiple ways, and now find themselves down 3-1 and on the brink of elimination. There’s not much else to write about the last two games that we haven’t already written – the Blues are allowing way too many shots on Ville Husso (they allowed 37 on Monday night), taking too few shots of any decent quality, focused too much on doing stupid crap to Nazem Kadri (David Perron’s $5000 lighter in the wallet thanks to that), and their scoring is centered around Perron and Ryan O’Reilly with a goal here and there from a few others. The team that led the league in goal scoring has gone quiet.
Ryan O’Reilly called tonight’s game “do or die” after game four, and he’s right. What the Blues decide to do to prevent the die is up to them. They can win in Colorado, but can they bounce back after the hot mess that they left on the ice at Enterprise Center? Have they played their last game this season in St. Louis? Ben Hochman questions that, and settles on yes. There’s not a lot in the team’s recent play to convince many people otherwise, but the Blues are capable of surprises.