COLUMN: Quantity leads to quality in Blues shooting

The St. Louis Blues have been on a hot streak lately.

The Blues (7-5-1) went 3-1 during their recent home streak and continued on the road with an 8-2 win at Colorado over the past weekend. Their road win against a team that won the Stanley Cup in 2022 is an encouraging sign for the Blues, as they are set to play 10 of their next 13 games on the road after a home matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday in St. Louis.

A big reason behind the Blues' recent success is their shooting, as in they're shooting more than earlier in the season. The Blues are 5-0 in games where they take more than 30 shots on goal. Before the recent homestand, St. Louis only took 30 shots on goal or more once and were 3-4-1 during that period.

"It’s something we’ve been harping on for quite a while but we’re starting to get a hold of it here," Blues head coach Craig Berube said after St. Louis' 2-1 win over Arizona on Thursday, Nov. 9. "We got to keep pushing that. We got to love to shoot and then recover.”

Ironically, both the game before the homestand and after were at Colorado. It's almost as if Ball Arena serves as a measuring stick for the Blues this season. They lost 4-1 on Nov. 1 when they were selective in their shooting (28 shots), then came back on Nov. 11 and took 42 shots on goal and got a pair of hat tricks in their 8-2 win. It turns out a lot can clearly happen over the course of 10 days.

A game like Saturday also did wonders for Pavel Buchnevich, who along with captain Brayden Schenn, had a hat trick against Colorado. Buchnevich, who has been one of the Blues' leaders in points since arriving from the New York Rangers in 2021, has been struggling early this season and scored only one goal in 20 shots through 10 games.

Berube said after St. Louis' Nov. 7 loss to Winnipeg that he believed Buchnevich would eventually shake out of his slump, and his faith was rewarded. Before that game, his assist on Thursday led to Robert Thomas extending his career-high goal streak to five games.

“Buchy has been making a ton of great plays,” Thomas said after Thursday's game.

Despite their quick uptick, the Blues are still among the bottom of the NHL in shots on goal. With 368 total shots, they're above only the San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks, teams that are at the bottom of the league standings. Their 2.77 goals-per-game rate is also higher than only eight teams in the league.

While more shooting leads to more scoring is a general rule, there are some exceptions. The New York Rangers, leaders of the Metropolitan Divison, have 11 wins despite having under 400 total shots-on-goal on the season. They're five points above the Carolina Hurricanes, who are the only team in the league with over 500 shots. Joining the Rangers in the bottom ten of shooting are the Dallas Stars, who are currently leading the Central Divison with 21 points, six more than the Blues.

Another issue the Blues have is they are tied with the Washington Capitals for the lowest amount of power-play goals, and it's not like they are without opportunities. Before Saturday, the Blues had only one power-play goal, and that included a game in which they had seven power plays and came up empty-handed.

But that's a column for another day.

For the Blues to continue winning, not just against Tampa Bay on Tuesday but on the road as well, they gotta keep sending pucks toward the net, even if it means with reckless abandon.