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st. RUIS — Blues defense Colton 10 minutes into the game on Tuesday. bottom.
“We didn’t have a good game,” Blues manager Craig Bellube said of Paraico. “Tentative. He seems a bit tentative. He just doesn’t claim enough in the pack.
“Not always, but he definitely hasn’t been the year we’re expecting him to be, or the year he’s been expecting.”
Paraico wasn’t the only one to make mistakes in the Blues’ 3-5 loss to Buffalo. But Verve’s words weighed heavily on the organization that has protected Parajko when he wasn’t playing as heavy as his 6-foot-6, 228-pound frame.
Coming into Tuesday’s game, Parajko was plus-70 in his eight-year NHL career with the Blues. He is down to -19 this season after posting a season-low of -4 in 16:15 ice time.
“He’s played a lot of good hockey over the years here, so I’m sure he’ll get back to it,” Verve said.
Parayko was involved in Buffalo’s first four goals, including two in the first 1:25 of the game and three in the opening 9:07.
The Blues continue to treat the defensive zone slot area as a no-skating area, and backdoor goals seem to happen every night.
With the Sabers’ first goal, former Blues forward Taj Thompson came off the bench and streaked into the offensive zone, splitting Parajko and Alexei Trobchenko. could not be cleared. The puck was loose near the net and play continued when Parayko was unable to grab the stick, eventually allowing Thompson to set up Jeff Skinner with a wide shot from the slot.
“We’re doing a good job of splitting up the play on the slots,” Berbe said. Play and it’s 1-0.It’s very fast.Teiji Thompson coming off the bench.”
Here’s a close-up screenshot of how far Skinner is open…
How can that happen?
Blues defenseman Justin Faulk said, “In general, it’s probably not great puck play because it moves the players.” If there is a turnover, it is usually wide open in the middle.”
It happened again just 25 seconds later, with Buffalo’s second goal.
This time, Skinner had the puck behind the net for Bruce and was able to easily center the puck in front of the net via Nick Reddy. With Braden Shen and Vladimir Tarasenko standing nearby, neither faced Sabers’ Alex Tuhu.
“Including myself, we gave up slots in the first two minutes and found ourselves 2-0,” Shen said. “It’s the responsibility of us players. It’s preached in our locker room. I’m stopping by the house to help out (goalkeeper Jordan Binnington). We have some (shots at the slot).” give up, they’re jacked into our net and before you know it we’re chasing the game.”
Here’s a screenshot of the clear look that Tuch had on the net…
“It’s the same kind of thing. Slots are open,” Verve said. “We are running outside, we are not stopping, we are just defending the area where the puck is. 2-0″
Buffalo didn’t take long to make it 3-0. Luckily, it wasn’t another slot his shot, but unfortunately, this is his one of the backdoor tap-ins the Bruce has allowed this season.
They were chasing the Sabers in the zone, but eventually JJ Peterka was able to get a pass past Parayko onto Owen Power’s stick.
Here’s a screenshot of what Peterka saw and how Power got Thomas’ inside position…
“Our slots were just wide open,” said Blues defenseman Torey Krug. “They could have been camping outside and the pack ended up hitting their sticks and putting Binah in the wrong spot many times. We have to take care of the house more.” Hmm.”
Thompson gave Buffalo a 4–0 lead early in the second period, but the Blues made it a game. Scores from Shen, Ivan Barbashev and Jordan Cairo put him in the 4-3 deficit, but despite a 6-4 advantage, the Sabers cleaned up with empty nets.
“I know we put up some fights, but when the points are at a premium, we can’t put ourselves in that position,” Krug said.
But Bruce did so again. It continues to happen as a result of their slots being wide open. The Blues have his seventh-most shots per 60 minutes from that area in the league (30.62) and his ninth-most goals per 60-minute slot (2.42).
HockeyViz’s graph below shows that more shots are being taken from the slotted areas shown in red at an above-average percentage compared to the rest of the 5-5 league.
“Every team in the offensive zone, that’s what they want to do, try and create a way to slot that puck,” Falk said. “This is the most dangerous area on the ice. You have to play tougher with the puck. On the D side, keep close to your opponent.”
Velvet and his players said Tuesday they’ve been preaching it all season, but the problem remains.
“Well, we keep practicing and working on it,” Berbe said. “The guys have to be more committed. I think there are times when it’s too much of a chase instead of putting it on the outside and calming down a bit to protect that slot area and waiting for broken plays and blocked shots. There. We have to have more patience, but we don’t really.”
(Blues’ Colton Parajko chasing the puck with Sabers’ Taj Thompson Photo: Jeff Roberson/Associated Press)
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