ST.
LOUIS – A
season that hasn’t exactly gone the way the St. Louis Blues wanted,
for one night at least, got plenty of motivation looking at an
opponent on the other side of the ice that would surely get their
competitive juices up.
Wednesday’s
opponent, the Winnipeg Jets, served a reminder of the anguish and
agony that ended the Blues’ season last year, a seven-game series
in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs when the Jets won in
improbable fashion dubbed the ‘Manitoba Miracle.’
Each
team was in a similar position in the standings this season, and a
win would matter in the utmost of circumstances, and the Blues would
prevail by the slimmest of margins, winning 1-0, at Enterprise
Center.
Justin
Faulk scored the lone goal of the game, and Joel Hofer redeemed
himself from a subpar outing on Monday against the Nashville
Predators, and didn’t have to stand on his head but was
steady-solid with a 24-save effort for his third shutout of the
season and fifth of his career.
“It's
hard to know what to expect with the way the season has gone, to be
honest,” St.
Louis coach Jim Montgomery said.
“It was nice to see the way we started the game, the way we did
compete. It did turn into the playoff-type game that
wasn’t as physical as the playoffs (against the Jets in the Western
Conference First Round last year), but it was physical for this
regular season, that’s for sure.”
The
Blues improved to 13-15-7 on the season, while the Jets fell to
15-16-2.
Let’s
look at Wednesday’s game observations:
*
Berggren, Stenberg each solid in Blues/NHL debut – Implementing two
new players into a lineup can be a challenge, especially for a team
searching for an identity.
For
the Blues, Jonatan Berggren and Otto Stenberg actually provided a
breath of fresh air.
Let’s
start with Stenberg, who made his NHL debut and finished with 13:38
of ice time.
The
first-round pick (No. 25) in the 2023 NHL Draft didn’t look out of
place, and Montgomery even gave the forward 1:00 of his 13:38 on the
night on the penalty kill.
“I
thought Stenberg was really responsible and good puck support,”
Montgomery
said.
“His intelligence keeps the team connected. We don't get too spread
apart. He puts the breaks on. He has good habits, stops, comes right
back to the house. Made some really good reads
on our penalty kill and our D-zone coverage too. I thought it was a
really good start to his career.
“We
saw it in training camp that this is a real smart player. His details
are really good. His stick’s in the right place, he makes it
predictable for his other teammates about where the puck should go so
you can anticipate and that just helps us spend less time in our
D-zone or helps us clear pucks on the penalty kill.”
Stenberg,
who played on a line with Brayden Schenn and Jake Neighbours and gave
Schenn a terrific cross seam pass that Schenn put wide in the second
period, did not look out of place in his debut, and with his parents
David
and Cecilia watching:
As
for Berggren, who the Blues claimed off waivers from the Detroit Red
Wings on Tuesday, he
played 12:45 and was quite noticeable himself. He had three shots on
goal and probably deserved a couple of assists on real high-end
passes he made to Dalibor Dvorsky for a breakaway in the first period
and finding Pius Suter in the second period that nearly resulted in a
goal.
“Some
high end passes,” Montgomery
said of Berggren.
“The backhand one, that's high-end vision there to send in
(Dalibor)
Dvorsky
on the breakaway and
then the slip play he makes in the offensive zone to (Pius)
Suter
(in
the second period),
who almost stuffs it in on the weakside. He had a couple more really
connected passes.”
Berggren,
who had two goals and four assists in 15 games with the Red Wings,
definitely wanted to show and prove something after getting a bit
humbled in that fashion.
“It
felt good,” Berggren said. “It was a lot of fun to play a game
and the boys were so nice. I think it was really fun to play.
“I
think that’s the key is to go out and play. I play hockey all my
life. It’s a different team. It was a little bit weird in the
beginning to see blue instead of red, but as long as the game
continues, I felt better and better.”
The
line with Berggren, Suter and Dvorsky produced 11 of the Blues’ 26
shots in the game and it was dangerous in the offensive zone on
multiple occasions.
“I
talk about being connected and that means they’re in triangles,”
Montgomery said. “There’s two at the goal line, there’s one
above them or there’s one down behind the net and two are inside
the dots. So that made them really dangerous offensively. I thought
they were our best offensive line and I thought it was because they
didn’t force plays, and because they didn’t force plays, they had
a lot of O-zone time. They seemed to find each other really well.
They were playing so well, we thought about putting one on each line.
… they were very good for us.”
*
Hofer redemption – The
fact that Montgomery came back with Hofer for a third straight game
after he wasn’t at his best Monday in a 5-2 loss to the Nashville
Predators speaks volumes of what the organization thinks of the
25-year-old.
Hofer,
as mentioned, didn’t have to stand on his head, but he saw pucks
cleanly, didn’t give off any juicy rebounds for a team that loves
to pound the net and most importantly, didn’t allow the Jets to get
any sort of forecheck going with his puck-handling, shutting down any
rims into the zone and distributing it quickly to get transitioned
out.
“Not
the best outing (Monday), but grateful that I was given the
opportunity,” said Hofer, a Winnipeg native. “I just wanted to go
out and work hard and give my team the best chance to win. Super
grateful. … I’m
just grateful. Every day here’s a great day. Whether I’m playing
or not, it’s a great opportunity and it’s a blessing to wear the
Bluenote and just happy I can contribute.
“All
wins are nice. It’s obviously nice to beat them. They’ve
obviously become a rival of ours. That was tough the last time we
played them. That was extra motivation for us. It’s just good that
we got the win tonight.
“Obviously
you want to go to battle and compete with the boys. It’s nice. I’m
a competitor. I want to play. It was super-important. It’s nice to
get a win.”
*
Boxing out Winnipeg’s big forwards – The
Jets love to crowd the crease, jam away in the slot, create havoc in
front of the goalie. But that was more difficult on Wednesday with
the way the Blues effectively boxed out.
Hofer
actually credited the guys in front of him more so for his shutout
than anything else.
“I
think it was more of the guys,” Hofer said. “That’s been an
emphasis of ours as of late at the net fronts. We were great at
boxing out. I saw most of the pucks tonight. They did a great job.”
And
the fact the two teams slugged it out in a seven-game playoff series
last spring stirs the pot a touch.
“I
think there’s some familiarity with how each other play stemming
from last year, but both teams I think are both in a position where
they’ve got to find their game and try and build something,”
Faulk said. ‘We were expecting it to be a tight game, a physical
and intense game. I think that was definitely it.”
*
Faulk’s offense – Last
season, Faulk was not involved in the offense as often, scoring just
four goals in 78 games.
With
his game-winner on Wednesday, that gives him eight goals and 18
points in 35 games, and the eight goals are amazingly tied for the
team lead with Dylan Holloway, Jordan Kyrou and Neighbours.
“He
has the physical gifts of skating of going past forwards when we
transition to offense,” Montgomery said of Faulk. “He joins the
play, he reads the play really well and joins it really well, whether
it’s in the O-zone or off the rush. And then he’s got a lethal
shot. That was a real smart shot, the goal, the game-winning goal,
the only goal of the game. Just the way he went far side and picked
it, that’s a high-end goal.”
Faulk
took advantage of a successful forecheck when Pavel Buchnevich
separated Dylan DeMelo of the puck creating a loose situation where
Robert Thomas got it, found Faulk coming down the slot and he picked
the top corner on Connor Hellebuyck at 13:17 of the second period:
*
First-period shift was a precursor that Blues were in it to win it –
It
was a bit of a stalemate approaching the halfway mark of the first
period of a 0-0 game, but things really heated up for the Blues and
it started when Thomas hit the post 8:39 into the period. It was
followed up by Buchnevich hitting the cross bar 8:54 in, then Suter,
who led the Blues with six shots on goal, missed on an opportunity
9:29 in.
The
Blues had multiple shifts where they put seven shots on goal in just
23 seconds (Suter had three, Logan Mailloux had two, including a
great chance off a pass from Berggren that hit Hellebuyck, and Cam
Fowler and Berggren each had one). They didn’t score but it was a
precursor of just what the Blues were looking to accomplish out of
this game and their plan for attack on the Jets.
“It
gave us some confidence,” Faulk said. ‘They didn’t go in, but
when you can spend some time in the O-zone and not only that, but
create some Grade A chances and get some confidence for the group.
Our first periods haven’t been great lately so to kind of go out
there and create some momentum was huge for us. It kind of leaked
into the rest of the night.”
*
Shutting down Winnipeg’s top line – it’s no secret that Mark
Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Gave Vilardi are Winnipeg’s top
offensive players. That line accounted for 48.5 percent of Winnipeg’s
goals this season, and the Thomas line with Buchnevich, Robby Fabbri
(until he was parked on the bench in the third period) and Alexey
Toropchenko with help from defensemen Philip Broberg and Colton
Parayko put the brakes on that trio.
Connor
came in with a nine-game point streak (four goals, nine assists), but
was held to three shots on goal; the line had five total.
“I
think they took it upon themselves to be on the right side of pucks,”
Montgomery said of Thomas’ line. “Didn’t give them many odd-man
rushes. I think they might have had one all game, so they were just
on the right side of pucks and a lot of that was 6 and 55, we get
that matchup. They’re long and fast and they have great sticks, so
that really helps the forward line that’s being matched up against
them.”
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