The St. Louis Blues have evened up their series with the Vancouver Canucks after losing the first two games. Here are some takeaways from Game 4.
Champions overcome adversity. There’s a reason the St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup last season. They showed it in Game 4 against the Vancouver Canucks. The Blues took their momentum from their overtime win in Game 3 and turned it into a 3-1 win in Game 4 to tie the series at two games apiece.
Until Game 4, the Blues didn’t look like the same team that won the Stanley Cup roughly 14 months ago. It looked like the infamous Stanley Cup hangover hit them a little later than expected. Their win in Game 3 woke them from their slumber. This is the first time in this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs we’ve seen the Blues look like the reigning Stanley Cup Champions.
Though this series is far from over, the Canucks had a 2-0 series lead, had a chance to go up 3-0, and failed to. That’s the opening the Blues needed to seize control of the series. Here are three takeaways from Game 4 on Monday.
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1. Where Did Vancouver’s Power Play Go?
Vancouver’s power play was terrific heading into Game 4. They had converted on 33.3% of their chances, the highest mark in the postseason. In Game 4, their power play hardly looked like the most efficient in the league, as they failed to convert on each of their seven power plays.
Let me put that another way. The Canucks spent over 20% of the game with one more skater on the ice than the Blues and scored as many power play goals as I did. Zero. That’s simply not going to cut it.
And it wasn’t just an issue of puck luck either. In 12+ minutes on the power play, I counted nine scoring chances for the Canucks. You should be averaging over one scoring chance per minute on the power play. And only two of those nine were what I’d consider “high danger” chances. Natural Stat Trick was a tad bit more generous than me and gave them three high danger chances on the power play.
When the Canucks get power plays against a team as good as the Blues, they have to convert. The Blues will make you pay if you don’t. And they sure made them pay in Game 4.