The
St. Louis Blues closed out the preseason in impressive fashion with a
4-0
win against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center in Chicago on
Saturday.
The
Blues (2-3-1) used a half and half lineup, inserting a number of
younger players they still wanted to get a look at along with a
couple veterans fighting for spots.
One
of those is Milan Lucic, in camp on a professional tryout who scored
his first goal; Robert Thomas and
Otto Stenberg each had a goal and an assist, Logan
Mailloux had two assists, and
Aleksanteri Kaskimaki also scored
for
the Blues, who
scored three times in
the second period,
and Joel Hofer made eight
saves through
two periods before Colten Ellis cleaned up the third with nine
stops.
The
Blues will now work during the week starting
on Sunday before
opening the season Thursday at home against the Minnesota Wild.
Here
are tonight’s observations:
*
It’s going to come down to Lucic/Texier for the final roster spot –
With Mathieu Joseph out of the lineup Saturday, one has to assume the
Blues have seen enough from him to feel he’s earned his roster
spot.
As
for Lucic, this was the most noticeable he’s been since he’s
arrived in St. Louis. His goal is a perfect example of how he has to
play, work to keep a puck in the offensive zone, keep it it alive,
find the open man, then move to the net and park his big, strong
6-foot-3, 235-pound body, getting a piece of Mailloux’s shot off
the left circle at 13:13 of the second period to give the Blues a 2-0
lead:
Lucic
finished the game with a game-high eight
hits in
14:35.
He has to be making an impact with his body in order to have success.
He did so in this game.
"Establishing the front of the net winning battles," Lucic said. "I felt like I could have done a better job of winning battles coming into this game. Our whole team, it was probably our best effort as far as winning battles, keeping pucks alive, playing in the O-zone. So not only myself, a lot of guys got rewarded for that tonight."
Texier
had one really skilled play with roughly two minutes left when behind
the net, he was deceitful in coming back against the grain with a
pass to Pius Suter that was stopped in front, but this was his chance
to really make some high-end plays against a AHL-type lineup and just
didn’t do so playing on a line with Suter and Jordan Kyrou.
This
is going to be a tough call for the Blues, who do have the luxury of
extending Lucic’s PTO every 10 days if they feel like he needs more
time to showcase himself and keep from putting Texier on waivers.
I
just don’t have a sense where they will go with this at the moment.
It’s literally a 50/50 call.
"That's a better question for management, but as far as for me, it's a tough bump in the road getting a groin injury there," Lucis said. "I know a lot of people are judgmental about my skating, but in order for me to be effective, I definitely need my legs and my speed to play the way that I do. To be able to battle through the last three games with a groin injury, I felt like I got better from Tuesday to Thursday to Saturday. Happy with what I was able to do this week."
*
Stenberg, Kaskimaki will be full-time players starting next season –
Otto Stenberg and Aleksanteri Kaskimaki, playing with Dalibor Dvorsky
on Saturday, will almost certainly be full-time NHL players next
season.
We’ve
talked about Dvorsky enough, and I still think he starts the season
in Springfield of the American Hockey League, as will Stenberg and
Kaskimaki, but I feel like the latter two have had such impressive
camps. They’re good, solid, responsible players who read the game
well. And it was on display on Kaskimaki’s goal to open the scoring
at 4:04 of the second period to make it 1-0:
Tyler
Tucker reads a chance to move the puck in transition to Stenberg, who
moved it up the lefthand side before reading a play to slide the puck
in stride to Kaskimaki, whose deft redirection didn’t appear to be
much but perhaps caught Arvid Soderblom off guard just enough for the
puck to squirt through the Blackhawks goalie:
They’re
both hard workers, and I think the coaching staff has most certainly
taken notice of their work and smart abilities, whether with or
without pucks.
Blues
coach Jim Montgomery spoke of Stenberg’s camp on Saturday morning.
Neither
of them will make the roster out of training camp, but they have each
put his stake in the ground, and firmly implanted it in the ground.
It won’t be too long. Kaskimaki-Dvorsky-Stenberg
will be a solid line in Springfield this year.
*
Hunter Skinner
will be a good insurance policy – Skinner, acquired in the Vladimir
Tarasenko trade Feb. 9, 2023 with the New York Rangers, was quietly
having himself a strong camp and nipping at the heels of Matthew
Kessel for the seventh defenseman on this squad.
He
didn’t do anything to squash his resume in this game either. He had
an assist in the game when he funneled a puck towards the goal that
Thomas tipped in for a 3-0 lead at 18:10 of the second period and was
a plus-2 in 16:53:
But
I liked Skinner’s physical nature in this game, and he made a solid
defensive play with roughly eight minutes left in the second when he
hustled back and broke up a play that started off as a 2-on-1 for
Chicago.
Skinner
had five shot attempts and three hits but it sure seemed like more
than that. He will be one of the first call-ups should the Blues need
a defenseman.
As
for Kessel, this was his best preseason game, playing a team-high
21:08 with six hits. He was engaged and playing like a player that
knew someone was looking for his job. But I thought Kessel did a nice
job of breaking up a number of Chicago rushes and moving pucks
quickly back out of the zone.
I
think he cinched his place on this roster.
* Thomas, Snuggerud are going to make magic – If there was any doubt that two of the Blues' top forwards are already in sync, just watch not only tonight's game but the ones they've played previously. Forget about Snuggerud's ability to shoot, this kid can make plays; we already know Thomas can. But if they can make plays for each other and complement each other, watch out. That's all I'm going to say. And for Pavel Buchnevich, who will start on that line, you better take advantage of the elite playmaking provided by two skilled players.
"It helps when you're playing with such good players," Snuggerud said. "I feel like it's something I've been trying to improve a lot because it's needed in the game of hockey. Being able to work on things like that makes the game more fun."
*
Quick hitters – Mailloux, who finished the preseason with four
points, will be in the starting lineup on Thursday, undoubtedly. He
played 20:52 and was on the penalty kill again, something the Blues
want to work with him on and again used his long body and stick to
disrupt plays. I think he makes a good option, if needed, as a
quarterback power play with his alert play to Thomas that resulted in
Stenberg’s goal at 4:24 of the third period that made it 4-0:
Theo
Lindstein, who had an assist on the Thomas goal, had his best game of
the preseason playing 17:55 with three shots on goal. He will benefit
greatly from a full season in Springfield. This is a project that the
Blues will be patient with, and I thought Leo Loof asserted himself
much better in this game than his last one last Tuesday. He played
18:42 and also had six hits.
That’ll
do it for the preseason. The opening night 23-man roster deadline is 4 p.m. (CT) on Monday. It all starts for real on Thursday.
