Blues Weekly: Power Play, Parayko, Buchnevich & More

In this edition of Blues Weekly, I will get into their past four games, the power play struggles, and a couple of points on key players.

Blues Split Four Games Over Past Week

The Blues went 2-2-0 over the past week with wins over the New Jersey Devils and Montreal Canadiens, and losses to the Colorado Avalanche and Winnipeg Jets. They are 5-5-1 this season, including a record of 0-3-1 against Central Division opponents. They’ve lost the Jets twice this season in regulation, which seems to be a common theme over the past few seasons against Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck. They are 1-7-1 over their last nine games against them, so it’s been a struggle.

In the past four games, Robert Thomas has scored four goals and one assist for five points. I think it’s safe to say that he’s been their best forward by a mile. Another trend for the Blues in the past week has been more shots on goal. They are averaging 30 shots on goal in their past four games, including 35 shots each in their wins over New Jersey and Montreal. Although the Blues haven’t found their consistency yet, they’ve been playing better overall as a team. In their losses to Colorado and Winnipeg, they played fine overall but struggled to finish quality opportunities on offense.

Blues Power Play Struggles Continues

Somehow, the Blues power play has not improved at all in production through 11 games this season. They are 1-for-28 on the season, which is good for 3.6 percent and 32nd in the NHL. They went 0-for-1 against the Jets and had several quality chances, but couldn’t convert.

They’ve been generating better looks, but they are still not converting them. They need to be more direct with the puck, but that’s been an issue for quite some time with this group. It wouldn’t surprise me to see them finally make the switch by going with Scott Perunovich in the lineup to run the second unit. The power play production needs to get better.

Parayko Has Been Solid So Far

Coming into this season, defenseman Colton Parayko was viewed as a lost cause after struggles over the past few seasons. He received an eight-year extension before the 2022-23 season with a salary cap hit of $6.5 million. After 11 games this season, he’s been much better than he was over the past two seasons.

Some of his numbers don’t look great, but overall he’s looked better in terms of skating and defending. The last three games haven’t been great, but he entered that stretch with 11 blocked shots in two games – against the Avalanche and Vancouver Canucks. He’s been more willing to use his size and shooting ability this season, which has been clear. A consistent Parayko would be one of the best-case scenarios for the Blues this season, especially with six seasons left on his contract after 2023-24.

Slow Start for Buchnevich This Season

One of the most surprising parts of this season so far for the Blues has been the struggles of Pavel Buchnevich. In his first two seasons with the Blues after the trade from the New York Rangers, he’s been an elite player. In 2021-22, he had 76 points in 73 games and followed that up last season with 67 points in 63 games. Availability has been a bit of an issue and he’s already missed two of 11 games this season.

In nine games this season, Buchnevich has three points and only one goal, which he scored on Oct. 24 against the Jets. His lone goal stands as the Blues’ only power-play goal right now. I think the production will improve, but it’s been a rough start for his point production. He should be trusted to figure it out and start to produce, but it’s been a struggle so far.

Blues’ Week Ahead

This week of games won’t be easy for the Blues with games against opponents they’ve already lost to – Coyotes and Avalanche. They’ll also play the Lightning, which will be their fourth game against the Eastern Conference this season, and they are 3-0-0 against their previous three Eastern Conference opponents. The Blues need to find some level of consistency, but this will be a tough week to find that.