ST. LOUIS – This could have been one of those defining moment games for the St. Louis Blues.
But in the end, it was a bit of a microcosm of why the Blues seem to be good enough to keep you interested, only to be disappointed in the end.
The Blues rallied from a third period deficit, only to see it slither away late and in overtime, Connor Brown converted Connor McDavid’s third point of the night when he beat Jordan Binnington at 2:33 of overtime to help the Oilers recover for a 3-2 win at Enterprise Center on Tuesday.
The Blues (24-25-5) appeared as if they would get blown out of the building early on when the Oilers (33-16-4) were playing with afterburners in their skates and flying by the Blues, outshooting them 13-3 in the first 20 minutes but thanks to Binnington, who made 35 saves, the Blues were in the game and even down a goal on McDavid’s snipe power-play goal in the second, they found a way to elevate themselves onto a platform with one of the best sides in the league.
But as has been the case, especially of late, the Blues lose the lead late, thanks to the ninth 6-on-5 goal allowed, this one by Leon Draisaitl with 2:14 remaining that tied the game before Brown would win it.
“Our third period was our best period of the game,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. ‘I thought first period was not good enough. Second period we got better. I thought we started to develop a lot of scoring chances and then in the third period we scored on the power play and we had opportunities to push it to 3-1 a couple times and we’ve got to be able to close out games.”
Blues captain Brayden Schenn added, “We got it going there in the second period a bit, had some chances. I think we were more direct and harder to play against in the third. At the end of the day, we had some chances to make it 3-1 and didn’t capitalize unfortunately and gave some good players time and space and they made it happen for them.”
It was another opportunity to build off of the previous game, a 2-1 win at Utah Hockey Club on Sunday.
Let’s look at the Three Takeaways:
* Missed opportunities – As valiant as it was for the Blues to find a way not only to keep themselves in it but to gain a lead, thanks to a tying power-play goal from Jordan Kyrou at 5:12 of the third period, all inspired after Schenn took a heavy hit and ensuing interference penalty called on Mattias Ekholm:
And then Parayko put the Blues ahead 2-1 on a one-timer from the left circle at 8:58 thanks to a Robert Thomas pass with McDavid-like vision:
But the Blues had opportunities to put the game away. This is where your money players have to hunker down and put opportunities away when given the chance.
And it was none more evident than Thomas, whose empty-net miss despite being on a bit of a sharp angle would have come moments after Parayko’s goal, given the Blues all the momentum and likely, salted the game away:
This came after Thomas had two great looks in the first period, and then the Blues missing Grade A scoring opportunities as the game moved along, including Pavel Buchnevich with this one as close as one can be but he missed the net.
Alexandre Texier had a chance after Thomas’ miss in the third but his backhand hit the post.
Those are the instances where you need someone to pot that shot, but this is the Blues of 2024-25.
“They’re really good chances and I think if we keep getting to those areas, we’re going to get back to scoring like we were three weeks ago,” Montgomery said.
“You can say that for sure. We definitely had chances, chances throughout the game. It’s easy to say that we had chances then, but throughout the whole game, there’s chances for both teams and they can go either way. That kind of shapes the game. It’s funny how it works and how it all unfolds, but within that parameter for sure, we could have scored again.”
* Edmonton’s superstars were stars for a reason, players the Blues don’t have – Imagine if the Blues had ONE superstar-type player. Well, we all know the Oilers have two, and those two stars (McDavid and Draisaitl) combined to get the job done once the Blues left the door open.
Watch how McDavid, who has 30 points (10 goals, 20 assists) in 26 games against the Blues in his career, pulls this puck off the boards, gets into the circle and how quickly it’s off his stick and into the top shelf where Binnington had no chance at it:
And then when the Blues left the door open, with the game on the line, who else is going to touch the puck but McDavid and Draisaitl? Did the Blues actually think someone else would be in that situation?
McDavid gives one cross-seam look to Draisaitl in the right circle, and wham, one-timer to tie the game 2-2 with 2:14 remaining:
“There’s something we can do better,” Montgomery said. “All-world players, you’ve got to know where those two are on the ice because they’re going to look for each other, but we had a couple opportunities to get that puck in and spend valuable time in the offensive zone and we didn’t do it.”
Schenn was on the ice in the middle.
“I was kind of in the pocket like I was I was supposed to be and kind of run at McDavid,” Schenn said. ‘He’s dynamic, he sees everything out there and he’s able to find his buddy weak side and we’ve all in all got to do a better job at that.”
And then when you get to the skills portion of the game, also known as 3-on-3 overtime, No. 97 and No. 29 can do unworldly things against an opponent, and McDavid did in setting up Brown.
“That’s a high-end play,” Montgomery said. ‘I don’t like the fact we turned over the puck. We had possession and we shot it in. That gives them the opportunity to make that rush. Historically, when those two are on the ice, their 3-on-3 record’s incredible.”
Turning the puck over was when Parayko had to make a split-second decision after Thomas had the puck poked away from him by Evan Bouchard entering into the offensive zone.
Thomas was trying to go 1-on-1 at the Oilers defenseman, and Parayko, who was heading off for a line change, saw guys ready to jump on while unexpectedly getting the puck, he threw it around the boards behind Edmonton’s net and gave up possession fearing potentially too-many-men on the ice.
“Exactly, I didn’t know if someone was going to jump and there was a lot to process in such a quick time,” Parayko said. ‘I guess my gut instinct was just to get the puck away from our net and our bench as quick as possible, get good, fresh guys on and take it from there.”
McDavid did the rest:
* Blues fought back, figured out pace, thanks to Binnington – Once the Blues understood that there needed to be some octane skating in this game, they were on the same level as the defending Western Conference champs.
“There was a lot of belief on the bench,” Montgomery said. “You could tell our game was getting better and better. Just from the second period chances and looks we had, we thought we were going to get opportunities and we did.”
That’s why it’s a disappointment not to grab the second point, especially after Binnington was razor sharp in keeping his teammates in the game.
“Our game just got better as the game progressed from first to second to third,” Parayko said. “Obviously, points are huge right now. Two would have been ideal, but we’ll definitely take one and keep moving on.”
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