DENVER — If the Blues are going to win this series — or even a game in this series — they must find a way to unlock some offense. That starts in the neutral zone and with crisper passes and disciplined attacks — something, anything to put the Avalanche defensemen on, you know, the defensive.
Here at Ball Arena on Monday, there was a disheartening dismantling of the St. Louis offense, already fractured with the loss of David Perron. The Blues lost Game 1, 4-1, because Colorado’s superstars made magic, but the Blues also lost the game because they only had the lone goal. And worse, only a few more scoring chances the entire game. The Blues finished the night with 23 shots — the Avs had 18 in the first period alone.
“They're competitive — they pace around you and swarm you with numbers,” Blues coach Craig Berube said of Colorado’s defensemen. “We’ve got to be better, we’ve got to be harder in the battles and we’ve got to compete for those pucks (in the offensive zone). And when we get opportunities, we’ve got to get more pucks shooting the net.”
Meanwhile, the speedsters on Colorado’s top line dominate like the villainous opposing team in every hockey movie ever (until the team named in the title, of course, gets good). As the Avs move in transition, you can feel the energy from the enraptured fans — they know what’s coming. Landeskog, Rantanen, MacKinnon, oh my.
Now, the greatest matchups in sports are ones with collisions of styles — and, henceforth, some collisions.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the fast-breaking “Showtime” Lakers would face the “Bad Boys” from Detroit, who would punish anyone who pitter-pattered into the paint. In St. Louis, the “Greatest Show On Turf,” sorry to bring this up, ran into the Bill Belichick New England defense. In boxing, we’ve seen it often, famously with Muhammad Ali and, well, all the greats he fought, be it Joe Frazier, George Foreman or St. Louis’ Sonny Liston. And from a hockey standpoint, it’s harder to find two more contrasting styles than the blitzing offensive Avalanche of Colorado and the defensive-heavy Blues.
Well, in Game 1, the Lakers, Rams and Ali won. There were some collisions — fights and face-washes, too — but in the end, speed beat the Blues. But not just Colorado’s offensive speed — the defensive pressure and gap closures, too. The Blues’ defense was out-defended by its counterparts in burgundy and blue.
Quite simply, the Blues didn’t deserve to win this one. It was even a huge accomplishment just for them to get one goal.
“They were, by far, the better team tonight,” said Ryan O’Reilly, the Blues captain and former Avalanche player.
Oh, and it is hard to fathom just how much Colorado dominates the Blues on the power play. There’s good and then there’s great and then there’s this. In the regular season, the Avalanche scored on 13 of the 38 power plays against the Blues. This is something that will haunt the Blues in the series, and could be the reason the Blues are golfing in late May.
Sure enough, the Avalanche scored on its first power play of the game, a gorgeous shot by Cale Makar, a defenseman.
I’ll tell you, being here since Saturday, there is a feeling around Denver that, frankly, feels a lot like St. Louis during 2019. A permeating confidence heading into this series. A feeling that this year could be “the” year. The Blues, to them, are simply one of unlucky teams plucked to get pushed around, and then aside, by the Avalanche en route to the silver chalice. Well, the Blues didn’t give these confident Coloradans much to change their opinion.
Really, a fair question to ask is — how much worse would this game have been without Binnington?
Jordan Binnington saved 46 of 49 shots in Game 1 (the fourth goal was an empty-netter). He kept the Blues in this game with every level of save a goalie can make. He was as locked-in as the Blues’ offense was locked up. He made rare saves that even had names, such as the “scorpion.” That’s when a goalie is falling forward but somehow lifts one of his legs like a scorpion leg, perhaps the grasping pincher, to block a shot.
“His mental toughness is high-end, for sure,” said Berube, who famously gave Binnington his first start at Philadelphia on Jan 7, 2019 — a shutout. “He’s a confident guy and believes in himself and believes in our team. He went through a tough stretch this year but he fought through it and really turned everything around. So he’s mentally a very strong person and he’s got experience in these situations.”
It was quite simple — Binnington kept the Blues in this game. It is quite simple —Binnington can’t do the scoring, also.
