Arizona Coyotes vs St. Louis Blues Recap
The St. Louis Blues defeated the Arizona Coyotes 6-1 Saturday night. Jaden Schwartz lead the Blues to victory as he picked up his first career NHL hat trick.
The Coyotes are known for being a defensive minded team. You’d never know that having watched them this season though. In what’s becoming a bad trend, the Coyotes played yet another sloppy game and paid for it. They were able to get away with it against a bad Oilers team, but were not so fortunate Saturday night against the Blues.
Coming in to tonight’s game, the Coyotes had not given up a power play goal all year, killing 10 out of 10 penalties. Tonight however, was a different story. They gave up 4 power play goals.
Mike Smith was solid in the first period, making big saves when the defense faltered. At the end of the first period, it was only 1-0 on a controversial goal that appeared to have been kicked in by David Backes. The goal was reviewed and to the dismay of Coyotes fans, was upheld. As the game went on, so did the scoring for the Blues.
After tonight, Mike Smith has allowed 15 goals in only three games. He wasn’t his best tonight, but due to the bad defense, he was facing very high quality scoring opportunities. Not to make excuses, the team relies heavily on Smith’s ability to make the hard saves when he has too. It was his ability to make those saves that resulted in the Coyotes Western Conference Finals appearance in the 2011-12 season.
Aside from the bad play in the defensive zone, the Coyotes struggled to sustain any offensive zone pressure. At even strength, the Coyotes were clearly over matched. They really on had their quality chances on the power play. Lauri Korpikoski would eventually convert on the power play scoring late in the third period.
It’s still early in the season and the Coyotes are only 2-2-0, but it won’t take long to get buried by the difficult competition of the Western Conference. The Coyotes need to find the defensive minded identity that they are known for before it’s too late.
Game Notes:
- Paul Stastny left the game in the first period with an injury and did not return.
- Martin Hanzal left the game and did not return. He listed as day to day with a lower body injury.
- Zbynek Michalek left the game with a lower body injury after blocking a shot.
- With the win, the Blues have won five in a row against the Coyotes in Arizona.
- The Coyotes have allowed nine first period goals in the four games this season.
Goals:
Coyotes:
- L. Korpikoski (1)
Blues:
- J. Schwartz (3)
- D. Backes (1)
- A. Steen (1)
- J. Lehtera (1)
Three Stars Of The Game:
- J. Schwartz
- V. Tarasenko
- L. Korpikoski