When Jim Montgomery took over the St. Louis Blues on Sunday and gave added responsibilities to right off the hop to Dylan Holloway and Zack Bolduc in particular in the coach’s debut Monday against the New York Rangers, Bolduc was first to step up in the goal-scoring department and make quite the impact on that 5-2 win.
Holloway had two helpers, both on the Bolduc goals, but there was a sneaky suspicion that the 23-year-old was due for a game himself.
Holloway had gone 13 games without a goal, but he had such an impactful game on Monday, he was THN’s player to watch for Wednesday’s game against the New Jersey Devils.
Yes, Jordan Binnington was a rock, and he set the Blues’ franchise record for most wins by a goalie, but the start to that game by the Blues was imperative. They hit the Devils in the mouth early and often, and Holloway had a hand in doing so with two goals of the 3-0 win at Prudential Center.
Holloway scored at 6:23 of the first period three seconds after the end of a Blues power play to make it 2-0 after the Blues were able to hunt a puck down, recover it, and score when Brandon Saad dropped a puck to Holloway in the right circle, and he snapped a beauty past Jacob Markstrom:
He would score his second of the game and second multi-goal game (Oct. 24 at Toronto) at 16:05 to make it 3-0 when the Blues had three forwards at the net working for a loose puck after Colton Parayko’s one-timer from the left point:
“Sometimes things click. I’m just going to keep working like I always do,” Holloway said. “I’m feeling good about my game right now. I’m trying to stay confident, but at the same time, I have to have a short memory. You never want to get too high or too low.”
Forget about the offensive production, when a coach identifies small details and things not noticeable to the naked eye, you’re doing something right.
“There was a shift in the second where he was really impressive,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “It wasn’t nothing to do with his goals, but it was a long shift in the d-zone, he won a battle dead-tired on the wall, he won another battle, made a play in the middle and we were able to get a change. Those are the kind of things we’ve got to continue to be to grow in our game. That’s going to give you confidence you can win 1-0 games, 3-0 games, you can win 6-5.”
Holloway, who was plus-2 for the second straight game, played 17:48 and led the Blues with five shots on goal.
These have been flashes of why they signed him to an offer sheet.
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