By Brad Lee
When your team is on the playoff bubble, a point is a point is a point, but another shootout loss at home makes us feel like a loss last night is still a loss.
And as Jeremy Rutherford pointed out this morning in the Post-Dispatch, the Blues really suck in the shootout.
The Blues failed on all three of their shootout attempts in a 4-3 loss to the Canucks and they’ve now scored just once on 12 chances this season. Brad Boyes netted the Blues’ lone shootout goal Nov. 17 against Nashville in the team’s only shootout victory this season.
What that blurb doesn't point out is that the shootout win was the team's first game that went beyond overtime. So that means they've been shutout in the shootout for three straight games. Great googly moogly.
If you did a search of this site or our messageboard in the netherworld of the Interwebs, you'd find much gnashing of teeth that Mike Kitchen refused for some time to let younger guys get a chance in the shootout. And when he did, Lee Stempniak at the time performed. Andy Murray really can't be criticized too much for his choices of shooters. Paul Kariya was held back as the fourth option one game and they didn't get to him. Stempniak and rookie David Perron have gotten a couple chances, but can you really argue with giving Bradley Boyes and Andy McDonald a chance every time? No.
It's like the power play. This team struggles with the power play for no good reason. They have enough talent, in our opinion. They have the opportunities. It just shouldn't be this bad. Same thing with the shootout.
We'll have one or two more things up today, but in the meantime, please leave your thoughts, venting of frustrations and new combination of curse words in the comments.