ST.
LOUIS – Boy, did they
need that.
It
looked ominous, like a franchise-tying eighth consecutive defeat, but
the St. Louis Blues showed some resolve, got a little puck luck, some
clutch goaltending from Jordan Binnington, a first NHL goal and a
victory for the first time in 16 days.
Pius
Suter’s go-ahead goal with 1:23 remaining in regulation capped off
a two-goal rally by the Blues, who ended a seven-game losing skid
with a 3-2 win against the two-time defending Western Conference
champion Edmonton Oilers at Enterprise Center on Monday.
Dalibor
Dvorsky scored his first goal in the NHL in his fifth game, Robert
Thomas had a goal and an assist in his return after missing four
games with an upper-body injury, and Binnington stopped 24 shots for
the Blues (4-7-2), who were 0-5-2 their past seven games.
“We
needed it, but I think we’re a process-oriented team,” Blues
coach Jim Montgomery said.
“We
believer that if the things that we believe, we have to be good at,
whether it’s habits or details or certain parts of our process of
the game, winning net front battles. And then the results that come
from that is Grade A chances and then game
management was really good tonight. And that
belief
leads to good results. For me, this was the third good hockey game in
a row that we’ve played, and if we keep playing like this, we’re
going to in a lot of hockey games.”
They
were finally able to shed the gorilla on their backs despite Connor
McDavid becoming the fourth-fastest player in NHL history to reach
1,100 points with two assists. McDavid only trails Wayne Gretzky,
Mario Lemieux and Mike Bossy in that department.
Let’s
look at Monday’s game observations:
*
Congratulations to Dvorsky, and his goal was clutch – It was
definitely coming, and we predicted it here that Dvorsky’s first
one was on the cusp.
Down
2-0 on goals by Jack Roslovic (PPG) and Andrew Mangiapane, the Blues
didn’t cower down and go away.
They
got a late power-play in the second period when McDavid upended
Colton Parayko, and Dvorsky made them pay.
His
one-timer from the right circle when Justin Faulk put it on a platter
for him has been on display the first couple games, but this one
found the bar and down short side on Calvin Pickard at 16:08:
“Obviously
it was awesome,” Dvorsky
said.
“Nothing else to say. Great pass from Faulk there. Just tried to
shoot it and I’m happy it went in.
“To
be honest, I wouldn’t care if I kicked the puck in or shoot it. The
first goal is the first goal. I’m happy it went in this way, but
whatever, first goal, doesn’t matter how I scored.”
What
it did was bring a bit of a lifeless crowd into the game needing –
and looking – for something to happen. They got it, and the Blues
channeled their energy and momentum in the right direction because
Thomas would tie the game 2-2 at 18:38.
“That’s
a massive goal for us,” Thomas
said.
“You see the way we just kept on rolling after that goal. Some you
need a big power play. That was a wicked shot. Definitely should get
a lot of credit for really changing the tide of the game.”
The
Blues weren’t necessarily playing bad, but they were victims of an
unfortunate Oskar Sundqvist holding penalty late in the first period that the
Oilers turned into a power-play goal by Roslovic eight seconds later
at 18:38, and then after a Parayko shot was blocked at the blue line,
a fortuitous carom into the neutral zone led to a 4-on-2 odd-man rush
where Mangiapane made it 2-0 at 2:27 of the second period.
The
Blues, once again, were missing some high Grade A scoring
opportunities, and they had three in succession prior to Mangiapane’s
goal from Suter, Brayden Schenn and Philip Broberg but couldn’t
convert.
“On
the bench, I felt we were pretty confident,” Montgomery
said.
‘Yeah, we’re down 2-0 and yeah, they’ve made some high-end
plays, but we had three odd-man rushes before they scored the goal to
make it 2-0. So that gave us a lot of positive talk on the bench and
then the power play came through.
“Great
job by the kid cranking it home. What a shot. You get your first
goal, that’s one you want to talk about. I went bar down on a
one-timer. Pretty cool.”
Dvorsky
and Jimmy Snuggerud were bookend flanks on power-play unit No. 1. Get
used to seeing it now and into the future, because these two have
tremendous shots and they’re not afraid to use them.
“Coaches,
all the guys (preach
shoot)
as well,” Dvorsky
said.
“When I have the opportunity to shoot, I should do it. It was
probably a good thing I shot that puck.
“We
played a great team game, so I felt like our overall team game kind
of got the fans going. I just try to do my best every time I’m out
on the ice. I get so much help from my teammates here. I love being
here and playing here.”
*
Puck
luck – The Blues received some good puck luck on Thomas’ tying
goal when he finished off a play from a sharp angle that hit the near
post, off Pickard’s stick and his body and back into the net to tie
the game 2-2:
Good,
solid shifts following the Dvorsky goal led up to the goal and
momentum scoring twice late in the second.
“A
little lucky, off the post, off the goalie and in,” Thomas said.
“We’ll take it. … Sometimes you get those bounces and that was
a big one.
“Even
their second goal, we come out that period, we’re playing well, we
have a ton of chances, they block a shot and end up with a 4-on-2 and
they’re able to score and we just keep going right back at them.
For me to jump in the lineup and have the guys playing like that,
have that mentality, it wasn’t too hard for me.”
*
Suter right place, right time again – The Blues didn’t have a ton
going in the third period but defended pretty well.
They
had just three shots on goal until Suter made it 3-2, but Suter and
Schenn each had another glorious scoring chance early to give the
Blues a lead.
So
it’s only fitting that Suter, who Montgomery had stated previously
is always in the right spots on the ice, worked himself back into the
play after Schenn found Parayko for a one-time shot from the blue
line that Suter corralled and deposited past Pickard with Oilers
defenseman Evan Bouchard lurking nearby:
“I’m
seeing him teeing it up,” Suter said of Parayko. “He’s got a
hard shot. I saw a guy I think trying to block it, so kind of was in
the way of both sides. I just stayed there and hopefully the bounce
and the rebound goes there.
“I’m
just kind of trying to be around where I was before. Both sides of
the puck. Some guys are faster, so you’ve just got to be in a good
position.”
And
he was again, and Montgomery explains why.
“He
knows where he scores goals from the hash marks down to the goal line
and he finds his way there,” Montgomery
said. ‘He has impeccable timing. When
you’re his size, you can’t plant yourself in front of the net
like a Jake Neighbours or like a [Alexey]
Toropchenko can. You have to get there
when the puck’s arriving. That’s what happened on the
game-winning goal. It was a real good shift by that line, who I
thought was a really good against the [Leon]
Draisaitl line tonight. They got that
game-winning goal, which was huge for us.”
*
Thomas return important – It’s no
secret that the Blues missed their No. 1 center, for obvious reasons.
But not only does Thomas add scoring for the Blues, he also draws the
top assignments – like he did against McDavid on Monday – and
takes many of the important draws.
“Obviously
massive,” Suter said.
“He’s such a good player. Top speed, confidence, holds on to
pucks. He just gets us going.”
There’s
just certain parts of the game Thomas touches that other skaters on
this squad can’t, and it was obvious from the opening puck drop.
“Well,
the puck possession would be one,” Montgomery
said. ‘The offense that he generated
tonight, that line was really good. But the important thing was I was
matching him up against McDavid and for the most part, they hit a
knob on a 4-on-2 and that’s the only goal they gave up. Went the
other way 4-on-2 and they made a bang-bang play. Theirs went in, ours
hit a knob, and that’s why I like the resolve (and) resilience that
we had after that. When you’re talking about Thomas, when you lose
your No. 1 center and you get him back, you see the difference. Talk
about people being deployed; he played 19 minutes, our second-line
center played about 17, Dvorsky played about 15 and our fourth-line
played about 12. That’s good balance.”
Thomas
and linemates Snuggerud and Pavel Buchnevich held McDavid without a
shot on goal for just the 28th
time in his 726 regular-season game career.
“’Pary’
does a great job,” Thomas said of
Parayko. “It’s hard. He’s got a
ton of speed. It’s impossible to really contain him. We’ve got
one of the best shutdown D’s in the league and he always steps up
and is big in these games.”
*
Broberg accepts challenge – Montgomery
said this of containing McDavid despite the two assists.
“I
thought that we were very aware when he was on the ice,” Montgomery
said. “We didn’t really shut him
down; he had two assists. He’s kind of like Michael Jordan, you
keep him under 30 and you’re happy, right? But that’s what
generational players do. I thought that we were able to negate his
speed at our blue line by our up-ice awareness of marking him up.”
But
when McDavid was able to gain the zone – as he often does with his
speed element – it seemed as if Broberg was there waiting for the
challenge, either killing a play, standing up to the talented Oilers
center or just neutralizing him and not giving him the time and
space.
“I
thought that this morning Broberg was looking for that challenge
because we showed a lot of clips obviously of him and Draisaitl,”
Montgomery said.
‘We have an acronym MDM, most dangerous man, and I added a ‘W’
for [McDavid]
because he’s the most dangerous man in the world in our sport, and
when I looked up and I said it, ‘Broby’ was like really intense,
like looking forward to the challenge intense, which is what you want
from your players.”
Broberg
finished with an assist, a plus-1 rating in 21:38 with three shots on
goal, two takeaways (both on McDavid) and two blocked shots playing
alongside Parayko.
“It’s
an element (a shutdown role) that
we’ve talked to him about starting this year,” Montgomery
said of Broberg. “He’s on the first
PK. That goes hand-in-hand with that kind of shutdown role. Now that
he’s with Parayko, I don’t know if it stays that way, but that’s
a good pairing right now and I like the pairing of [Cam]
Fowler and [Justin]
Faulk the way they’ve been moving the
puck, but we’ll see how the pairs continue to evolve here. But I
guarantee you Broberg and Parayko will be playing together in
Washington (Wednesday).”
*
Binnington’s key, timely saves –
It’s no secret that looking at the numbers, they haven’t been
good for Binnington and Joel Hofer.
But
on Monday, Binnington followed up Hofer’s strong start Saturday in
Columbus and did what was needed of him to give the Blues a chance:
make those saves in key moments.
There
was a sequence where Binnington made consecutive stops, one with the
blocker on Vasily Podkolzin at 7:33 of the second, then Noah Philp
from the right circle three seconds later before finishing a sequence
of saves off at 8:10 on Mangiapane from the slot. If any one of those
get in, it’s 3-0 and likely game over.
“Those
two saves after it went 2-0 were huge,” Montgomery
said. ‘It really elevated our bench. A
lot of people on the bench, a lot of players, I remember someone
saying, ‘Binner’s fighting for us.’ That’s what he does. He
gives you the confidence that you’re never out of a game because of
the competitive spirit he has in the crease.”
“He
had some big saves,” Thomas said. “There was one on Mangiapane
right in the slot. Those are saves that make a huge impact on the
game and that’s what we’re used to from ‘Binner.’”
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