After a day off on Thursday following a 2-1 shootout loss to the Calgary Flames the previous night, St. Louis Blues coach Jim Montgomery put his team through the gamut on Friday.
The coach had to stop several drills multiple times to get points across.
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It resonated on Saturday when the Blues finished off a long but short on games played through Canada with a 3-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena in Vancouver on Saturday.
Pavel Buchnevich had a goal and an assist to reach 500 points in the NHL, Logan Mailloux (two assists) had his first multipoint game in the NHL, Pius Suter and Jordan Kyrou also scored for the Blues (28-30-11), who finished their trip 1-1-1 and are 7-1-2 in the month of March. They are six points behind the Nashville Predators for the second wild card in the Western Conference. Jordan Binnington made 14 saves for the win.
The Blues did have two goals called back (Jimmy Snuggerud and Dylan Holloway) in the game, one for goalie interference and one for playing the puck with a high stick, a change from Wednesday when they tied an NHL record for most challenges successfully won (three) in one game.
Let’s look at Saturday’s game observations:
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* A more direct approach — Unlike their 2-1 shootout loss to the Flames on Wednesday, the Blues had a more direct approach and played with a purpose, especially in the offensive zone.
They limited their giveaways in areas that weren’t in dangerous areas, and when pucks were in Vancouver’s zone, particularly the first and second periods, forwards were on the hunt with effective forechecks, keeping plays alive that enabled them to create opportunities and driving middle lanes to the net.
In the first period, although they didn’t score, Cam Fowler and Holloway had opportunities coming down the slot due to effective pressure.
There wasn’t a whole lot more to that first period, other than a very quick one due to at one point, the play running for 8:52 without a whistle and a 5-4 edge in shots on goal for the Blues, but they elevated their play in the second period when they took control of the game, and it all started with Suter scoring against his former team at 10:17 to make it 1-0.
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It started when Snuggerud’s forecheck got a piece of Filip Hronek’s backhand clearance in the Vancouver zone, and the Blues were able to keep the puck alive, eventually with Holloway finding Robert Thomas in alone on Canucks goalie Kevin Lankinen, who made the save on Thomas, but Suter, who came on when Snuggerud came off on a line change, made an immediate beeline to the net and was able to steer it in with his body after making stick contact down on a knee:
The Blues, who outshot the Canucks 11-6 in the middle period, went right back to work and Buchnevich’s one-timer from just inside the right circle made it 2-0 at 11:36 when another cycle play wound up at the point, with Mailloux finding Philip Broberg, who had space to skate in along the left side into the left circle, pump fake a shot before going back cross seam to just inside the top of the right circle for a one-timer by Buchnevich:
They say a two-goal lead is the worst in sports, especially hockey, but this one had the feel of being pretty safe despite the Blues laying off the gas in the third period and seeing the Canucks pull within one on Hronek’s power-play goal at 8:32 to cut the deficit in half at 2-1 on a wrist shot that deflected off Mailloux’s stick.
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* The Big 5-0-0 — Buchnevich completed the Blues’ win when he could have deposited a puck into the goal himself but chose instead to give Kyrou the power-play, empty-netter at 19:12 for a 3-1 lead, giving him 198 goals and 302 assists:
The line with Jake Neighbours and Kyrou produced a 14-1 edge in Corsi-for, according to naturalstattrick.com and a Fenwick-for of 9-1.
* Mailloux keeps playing 20-plus — Getting to play with Broberg means the rookie will get big minutes, and for the 11th straight game, Mailloux played 20-plus minutes, To go with his first multipoint game in the NHL after getting the secondary assist on Kyrou’s goal, Mailloux played 21:59 and was a plus-1.
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In his past 11 games, including Saturday’s 21:59, Mailloux has played 26:56, 24:58, 21:16, 21:41, 23:39, 20:16, 25:03, 22:52, 20:32, 20:35.
Mailloux’s last game when he played fewer than 20 minutes was Feb. 26, the first game out of the Olympic break; he has two goals and two assists and is a plus-3 in the past 11 games.
* Top line keeps driving offense — With Snuggerud helping set up the first goal with his forecheck and Thomas and Holloway each picking up an assist on the Suter goal, it was another game in which this trio drive the Blues’ offense with the ability to skate and check and make plays.
Thomas now has at least a point in 12 of his past 13 games (six goals, 10 assists) with a plus-16 going back to Jan. 9; Holloway has a point in eight of nine games (four goals, seven assists) with a plus-12, and Snuggerud has a point in seven of 10 games (five goals, seven assists) with a plus-10.
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The line produced 12 of the Blues’ 21 scoring chances for.
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