ST.
LOUIS – For the St. Louis Blues to accomplish what nobody thought
they could do coming out of the 4 Nations Face-Off on Feb. 22 was
nothing short of remarkable.
And
even in going 19-4-3, good for a .788 points percentage, it still
took until the final game of the regular season to punch their ticket
to the Stanley Cup playoffs.
That’s
just the degree of difficulty of gaining entry into the playoffs as
the second wild card from the Western Conference, no less, was what
it took to get this done.
So
how did it happen?
Coach
Jim Montgomery knows.
“Great
leadership, led by our captain who scored the first goal tonight,”
Montgomery said, referring to Brayden Schenn. “I thought
consistency by the staff and the players with our communication and I
just thought that we grew so much culturally and in our team
identity. And those two things, when our players started using words
like togetherness. The words I used were their words this morning.
Selfless, sacrifice, love.”
Let’s
start at the top:
When
Montgomery was hired to replace Drew Bannister on Nov. 25, mere days
after being fired by the Boston Bruins, the Blues were 9-12-1 and
sort of running amuck, through a quagmire of sorts.
And
sure, there was a coaching surge initially, winning five of their
first seven games under Montgomery, but then there were also
challenges of not being able to string wins together regularly.
Consistency was a topic of discussion. The Blues were the last team
in the NHL to put together a three-game winning streak this season.
How
could they possibly be a playoff team, let alone be considered to be
taken seriously? Their coach stayed the course, and the players bought in.
“System,
positivity, always great to be around, believing in you, how you’re
a good player, let you do stuff in the offensive zone,” forward
Pavel Buchnevich said of Montgomery. “Everybody was super-pumped
when ‘Monty’ was coming. Half of the team know him from previous
work here (2020-22 as an assistant coach under Craig Berube) and we
know how good he is as a coach and even a better person.”
The
Blues won their last game prior to the 4 Nations, 6-5 against the
Chicago Blackhawks, and came out of the gates and dropped a 4-3
shootout loss against their first-round playoff opponent, the
Winnipeg Jets, a game in which they led in the final minute of
regulation. It’s a game in which the Blues liked more so than the
one they lost, but then on the following night on Feb. 23, the team
began a stretch of what’s laid the foundation for where they are
now, winning six of seven before starting their franchise-record
12-game winning streak on March 15, and here we are.
“A
lot goes into it,” Schenn said after scoring his 18th
and final goal of the regular season Tuesday. “This is what you
train for in the summer, and this is what you play for all year -- to
have a chance at the Stanley Cup. You just have to get in and
anything can happen. We saw that years ago. We've been on a good run
here and, at the same time, we just can't be happy that we're in.
Playing Winnipeg, Winnipeg is obviously a good team and they're going
to present a good challenge for us. But I don't think anyone gave us
a chance really, where we were. I'm glad we kept it together. They're
too many good pieces in this locker room to not get in the playoffs.
We felt if we played hard for one another, we can get the job done
and it just took 82 games.”
Several
things stood out, too many to name.
“I
mean, there's a lot of things,” Schenn
said.
“I've talked about it all along, guys being selfless, playing hard
for one another. Something we've been trying to do for a couple of
years now ... when you start winning hockey games, you actually start
getting more individual results and guys feel better about themselves
individually and about the team. It's just a mindset that you have to
come in and play for a team and good things happen when you do that.
It's nice to be in and some pressure relieved of how the past week’s
gone,
and it's nice to seal it that way.”
In
goal, things tightened up as well between Jordan Binnington and Joel
Hofer.
At
the break, Binnington was 15-19-4 with a 2.89 goals-against average
and .897 save percentage. Hofer was 10-7-1, 2.88 GAA and .903 save
percentage.
From
the break on, Binnington was 13-1-1 with a 2.10 GAA and .910 save
percentage; Hofer went 6-1-2 with a 2.19 GAA and .904 save
percentage.
When
the Blues lost Colton Parayko on March 5 to a left knee injury that
required it to be scoped in a 3-2 shootout win against the Los
Angeles Kings, much hope was lost.
Parayko
was having a career season offensively and leading the Blues in
minutes played. But instead of playing the oh-woe-is-me card, the
Blues went on a 13-3-1 run without their top defenseman, who returned
on Saturday in a 4-3 shootout loss at the Seattle Kraken. The Blue
line held it together, including Cam Fowler, who was acquired from
the Anaheim Ducks on Dec. 14 and chose St. Louis because he thought
he would win here.
The
33-year-old, who last played in the playoffs in 2016-17, really
helped fuel his career with an incredible run with the Blues from the
moment he played his first game.
“There’s
a lot that goes into it,” Fowler said. “We looked at the makeup
of the team and where I could come in and try and make an impact. You
just look at the players they have, guys that have won the Stanley
Cup (Schenn, Parayko, Oskar Sundqvist, Robert Thomas, Binnington),
world class goaltending, high-end players offensively. I just felt
like it was a good fit for me and my family and I’m grateful that
they trusted me to come in here and try and help this team. It’s
been a heck of a ride for the last few months and I feel like I’ve
been here much longer than that just by the way everyone’s treated
me and the guys that we have in this locker room. I’m thankful for
that and looking forward to the opportunity of playing in the
playoffs again.”
The
Blues were third in goals against average at 2.31 per game, behind
the Jets (2.20) and Kings (2.29) since the break.
From
a forward perspective, it starts with Robert Thomas.
Thomas
finished the season with a 12-game point streak (four goals, 21
assists) and was tied for second in the NHL since Feb. 1 in points
with 45 (nine goals, 36 assists) behind Tampa Bay Lightning forward
Nikita Kucherov (46 points; 14 goals, 32 assists) and Boston Bruins
forward David Pastrnak (45 points; 19 goals, 26 assists).
Thomas
is first since the 4 Nations break with 40 points (eight goals, 32
assists); Jordan Kyrou was a point-per-game player (26 points; 13
goals, 13 assists) in 26 games; the injured Dylan Holloway
(lower-body injury suffered April 3 against the Pittsburgh Penguins)
had 23 points (10 goals, 13 assists) in 21 games, followed by Pavel
Buchnevich, who also had 23 points (nine goals, 14 assists) in 22
games; Fowler had 22 points (three goals, 19 assists) in 25 games,
and Jake Neighbours had 21 points (nine goals, 12 assists) in 26
games.
The
Blues were No. 1 in the NHL since the break averaging 3.81 goals per
game.
“I
feel like break really help us,” said Buchnevich, who scored in six
of the final eight games. “Everybody kind of (reset) thinking how
their game (is) going and now we start playing for each other,
support everywhere, sacrifice blocking shots. You look at all lines,
everybody contribute. We come (together) as a team, but everybody
like to be around (each other). It’s positive energy every time and
it’s helped us.”
And
let’s not discount the young guys, like Zack Bolduc, who tied Kyrou
for most goals since the break (13). Bolduc finished the season with
19 goals, and Jimmy Snuggerud, playing in just his sixth game since
coming out of college at the University of Minnesota, had a goal and
an assist, his first NHL goal and multi-point game, in a 6-1 convincing win over Utah Hockey Club on Tuesday to punch their ticket.
“What
they’ve learned is what it takes to win in this league,”
Montgomery said. “It’s such a great experience to understand the
grind and the mental grind, more than a physical grind, that it takes
to win battles, to win every foot of ice in this league that’s the
greatest league in the world in big moments and being able to come
through in big moments. This is going to give us years of good vibes
because the experience of learning how to win, it’s not easy to
find that in the league.”
For
Snuggerud, it’s gone fast, but it’s been enjoyable.
“It's
cool, honestly,” he said. “I grew up watching hockey and the
dream goal is to play in the Stanley Cup playoffs and to have this
group in here to do it with, it's so special. It should be a fun
upcoming few weeks.”
And
now they go in playing with house money as the underdogs against the
Presidents’ Trophy winners and Central Division winners.
“Everyone
looks at Winnipeg and that's the first-place team in the league,”
Schenn
said.
“We've got a lot of work to do, they're a good team and they don't
give up much. You don't really pay attention to Winnipeg a whole lot,
and then I started watching when my brother [Luke]
got
traded there and they're a good defensive hockey team with a good
goalie. It's going to be an exciting series and we're looking forward
to the challenge.”
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