ST.
LOUIS – It
was pretty low-keyed around here for the St. Louis Blues after their
last home game on Wednesday.
They
were lambasted by the Chicago Blackhawks, 8-3, and dropped to 0-2-0
at Enterprise Center and outscored 13-3. Coach Jim Montgomery was
wanting to see “more of a competitive spirit by our team.”
Well
he got that and then some on Saturday night against a very good
Dallas Stars, and the Blues responded with arguably their most
complete effort of the season, winning 3-1 for their first home win
of the season.
Jordan
Kyrou scored his first goal of the season, Jimmy Snuggerud added his
third in three games, Pius Suter iced it with an empty-net goal, and
Jordan Binnington came within 2:18 of earning his first shutout of
the season, but the Blues’ netminder made 18 saves.
“Obviously
way better game overall,” Kyrou
said.
“I thought our habits were great. I thought our effort was great,
our compete was great. It’s great to get that first win at home.”
Lets
look at Saturday’s observations:
*
Best stick
game in years? – Well, according to Montgomery, it was, in fact the
best game using
their sticks to break up plays since
a special time around these parts.
“Our
sticks were probably the best I’ve seen them since probably the
year after the Blues won the Cup,” Montgomery
said.
“That was a really good year and that team had great sticks.
Something we’ve been preaching and the players are starting to do
it. Hopefully we can develop that consistently.”
The
Stars have plenty of weapons, and in particular, if you allow them to
gain a head of steam, especially from their defensemen moving pucks
in transition, you will get burned.
The
Blues as a group were killing plays, and when the Stars were gaining
the zone, the D-men were efficient in not allowing pucks to get to
the net, they intercepted seam passes, tied up sticks in front of
Binnington and used those break-ups to their advantage.
“We
were just moving our feet,” Kyrou
said.
“We were staying on top, not really diving down and not letting
them get too many odd-man rushes, just staying on top of them and
good sticks.
“They’re
a super dynamic offensive squad. We want to kind of limit them as
much as possible and try to take away any sort of speed that they can
get. Obviously with the forecheck it kind of helped.”
*
Forecheck was highly efficient – The Blues had a great advantage
with offensive zone time and a large part of it was due to their
forecheck. They got in on the body, and the forecheck and stick work
went hand in hand this game.
The
Stars were having to chase the puck for extended shifts in the
D-zone, and for an efficient team that’s good at turning pucks out,
they had their issues handling the Blues on this night.
It
helped fuel the two goals scored in the second period when the Blues
outshot the Stars 12-5.
“I
think it was a big factor, but more importantly, we tried to force
too many offensive plays because we had time to make plays,”
Montgomery
said.
‘Instead of just possessing it and then either finding someone open
in the slot five to seven seconds later, we wanted to find someone in
the first period right away. But in the second period, I think that
might have been our best period of the year so far.”
*
Needed a bounce back – Quite simply, the game Wednesday against the
Blackhawks was embarrassing for the Blues.
It
was a game of pond hockey at its best but for all the wrong reasons.
An effort and executed game like that against a top-notch Western
Conference team would not have looked pretty.
But
the players regrouped, realized it was put up or shut up and they
rose to the occasion.
“We
knew we needed to respond,” Binnington
said.
‘… We’re
still building something here. We got right back to work on Friday
and now we’re building each day and it was a big response by us.”
Added
defenseman Cam Fowler, who
had an exceptional defensive game with partner Colton Parayko, “That
was a lot better. Obviously we were disappointed with the effort that
we had in that last game and even the game before that on home ice.
We didn’t come out to play either of those games. Tonight was a lot
better overall team effort against a really good hockey team. A good
victory for our group moving forward.”
*
Kyrou’s goal example of effort paying off – What
amounted to be a tight-checking game where mistakes would need to be
limited and the first goal would provide to be a huge one, Kyrou took
matters into his own hands, and it was the start of the goal that put
the Blues ahead 1-0 at 2:27 of the second period that signified the
rewarding feeling of making a solid defensive play and turning it
into offense.
Kyrou,
who had his stick work on par in this game, was able to backtrack
into the neutral zone, check the puck back before working up the
right side into the zone, cut it back to Brayden Schenn, get it back,
ease past Matt Duchene before beating Jake Oettinger low glove:
“
Feels
good to get the first one finally,” Kyrou
said. “Great
play by ‘Schenner’ to get it to me there. I kind of just saw low
glove side so I just shot it there.
“Obviously
none of us had a great game the other day, including myself. I wanted
to try and have a bounce-back game.”
Montgomery
was certainly appreciative.
“
Kyrou
in particular, his first goal was just an incredible reload where he
back-checks and he has his stick on the ice and his God-given ability
took over,” Montgomery
said.
*
Tucker middle net drive on Snuggerud goal – Blues
coaches always encourage the defensemen to pinch offensively, and
when the Blues got a 3-on-2 breakout, Tyler Tucker knew exactly what
he needed to do: act like a forward.
As
the defenseman starting the transition, he left the puck off for
Pavel Buchnevich while taking his man with him to the net. Buchnevich
would get off a shot from the slot, get another attempt that allowed
Snuggerud, at the net where he should be, enough wherewithal to poke
the puck past Oettinger at 13:52 for a crucial goal and a 2-0 lead:
“It
was a really good example of it,” Montgomery
said.
“We want our defensemen to be active. I actually think that once we
get in sync and we get in rhythm, our D-corps can be one of the
highest-scoring D-corps in the league. I think we already have a fair
amount of goals from our D-corps, but I think it’s going to be more
and more. We’ve had a lot of good deflections off their shots.”
*
Binnington glove save on Johnston – The
Blues had control of the game, but a strong team like the Stars, you
knew a third-period push was coming.
If
Dallas gets an early goal to make it a one-shot game, it would have
been game on.
But
when Binnington gloved Wyatt Johnston’s effort in tight to keep it
a 2-0 game at 5:35, it just felt like at that moment it would be the
Blues’ night:
“He’s
a nifty player and I know he can get it up quick,” Binnington said
of Johnston. “It just worked out well there. Unfortunately they got
one at the end there, but it’s hockey so it was a fun game, fun
atmosphere and fans were great too.”
*
Suter effort on ENG typified solid team game – The
Blues were buckled down after Mikko Rantanen in fact spoiled
Binnington’s shutout with 2:18 remaining. That meant that the
5-on-6 group would have to go to work again, and Montgomery had some
of his most trusted and reliable defenders on the ice at the time.
Suter
was one of them, and his effort along the wall to not only be able to
push a puck out of the zone, but fight through Miro Heiskanen before
diving and having enough to poke the puck down the ice for the
clincher was the icing on the cake of several strong efforts in this
game:
“The
more we’re getting to know him, the more we realize how smart he is
as a hockey player everywhere, and his defensive instincts are really
good,” Montgomery said of Suter. “I
really liked how well we checked,
and it was for 60 minutes. That was a really good team effort. They
feel really good about themselves. When you work and you play as five
(man units) … our goaltender had to make some great saves, but they
weren’t 15. They were less than five.”
