The Blues are three games into the new season, and even though it is obviously early, there are some promising signs happening with the Note:
- The power play is clicking, and looks 100% better than it did a year ago, when it was the league's worst power play at 14.1%. Through 3 games, the power play is 7 for 14, and has been dominant and the key to victory over Nashville and Toronto.
- The kids are producing. TJ Oshie, Patrik Berglund, Steve Wagner, Roman Polak and Alex Pietrangelo have all been contributing, and none looks like they don't belong at this point.
- Tkachuk and Boyes are both off to good offensive starts, netting four and three goals respectively. Boyes also contributed a beautiful shootout goal to help sink the Maple Leafs on Monday afternoon.
- The Blues showed great resiliency Monday in coming back from a 3-0 hole in the first period, taking advantage of a 5 minute major boarding penalty to Ryan Hollweg. The Blues scored twice during the penalty, to bring the game back to a 3-3 tie. It was the kind of early deficit that last year would have caused the Blues to fold up the tents and go home, especially in the second half of the season.
As I said, it is very early, and there are a lot of signs for concern as well. The Blues are giving up too many SOG, surrendering 34 and 39 in the last two games. Chris Mason had an awful first period Saturday against the Islanders, surrendering 4 goals. The Blues are going to need him to be a reliable backup to Manny Legace.
Additionally, the team is essentially playing 3 rookies on defense, and I expect there to be a number of ugly games the next few months, as the young guys work through the inevitable growing pains. In spite of all this, there are more positives than negatives in the first three games, and the Blues look to be moving the frachise in the right direction. It's been difficult to be optimistic about this team the last few years....but this is the most excited I've been about Blues hockey in a while.
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