The St. Louis Blues wrapped up their swing through western Canada looking for a sweep. However, facing the speedy Calgary Flames gave them little time to work out the kinks of a tweaked Blues roster.
The St. Louis Blues would have had an excuse if they were not overly prepared when they took on the Calgary Flames. The Flames were second in the Pacific Division, the Blues were without two of their best forwards and it was the end to an always grueling road trip through Western Canada.
Instead, the two days between games in Edmonton and Calgary seemed to do the team good. Even with fears of facing one of the faster, yet physical teams in the league, the Blues came out and matched them stride for stride. For long stretches, the Blues outplayed the Flames too.
The Blues benefited from solid play by their entire team, but the fourth line especially. Their smart play with the puck and tenacious play without it continues to spark this team.
They got the goal that opened the game and gave the Blues a 1-0 lead. St. Louis and Calgary would trade chances back and forth, but not much happened until the Blues scored on a power play a little over halfway through the second period.
It looked like the Blues were going to cruise to a victory, but Calgary has scored the majority of their goals in the third period throughout the season. They continued that as Matthew Tkachuk continues to punish the team he grew up around scoring his third goal in nine games against the Blues to make the score 2-1.
Later in the third, the Flames tied the game on a miscue on a four-on-four. The puck ricocheted off the end wall, off the side of the goal and Jordan Binnington could not reel it in, leaving it for a quick goal right on the doorstep.
Despite the fact we continually worry about this team’s energy levels, they don’t seem to mind extra hockey. For the third time on this road trip, the Blues went to overtime and David Perron continued his hot streak to end things.
The Blues won 3-2.
Pros: Fourth line
The Blues fourth line proved Craig Berube to be correct for keeping them together. When the team acquired Jacob de la Rose, many including myself figured he would play on the fourth line and someone else would move up the roster. Instead Berube put him on the third line so he could keep some of the other lines intact.
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The fourth line, as it has been for several games throughout the early part of the 2019-20 season, was one of the team’s best trios. They do all the little things right.
All three players are strong on the puck and smart with it. You don’t see a lot of dangles, but they are not just giving it up on weak dump and chases.
Oskar Sundqvist does not have a lot of speed, but he was entering the zone in full stride and finding seams so as not to just bulldoze in. Ivan Barbashev continues to get in on the forecheck and hit people and really dig in to get possession in the corners and below the end line.
Mackenzie MacEachern just fits right into that trio too. He doesn’t shy away from the physicality at all and has enough offensive ability to force defenders to keep an eye on him.
The fourth line was buzzing on the offensive end all game. That might not be what they are looked to for, but they were still generating a lot of good offensive looks.
Even prior to their goal, they were getting chances in high percentage areas. Then, Barbashev’s goal was just the culmination of another good shift. Each forward touched the puck.
Pro/Con: Power play
We all knew the power play was going to cool down and even when you’re clicking, you won’t always get a goal. We saw some of the Jekyll and Hyde nature of this unit against the Flames though.
The Blues did score on the man advantage and we will discuss that in a moment. The problem began with the first two power plays.
St. Louis had a power play midway through the first period and another almost halfway through the second. It is fine to not score since the best of power plays only get goals around 25-30% of the time.
However, those two shifts were closer to the power play that we saw at the beginning of the season than what we have seen the last couple weeks. They did not allow the Flames to break out for a shorthanded chance, but there were plenty of shot opportunities passed on and the zone entries were not crisp.
Still, just as I was about to chalk this entire unit up as a negative, they turn around and score. Just 17 seconds into the team’s third power play, they string together some nice passes and David Perron found Ryan O’Reilly for the goal. Perron’s backhanded pass was quick and crisp and O’Reilly just whipped it past the goaltender to put the Blues up 2-0.
Just when you thought 1-3 would be good enough, the Blues got a power play in overtime. Perron continued to be red hot with the game on the line too.
Perron scored to win the game. It was his third overtime goal and fifth game winning goal in just 18 games. The winger has a knack for ending games this season.
Overview
This game was far too interesting when it did not need to be. The Blues jumped out, grabbed control and then saw it slip away.
The odd thing was it never felt like the Blues really took their foot off the gas. They just did not have an immediate answer when the Flames turned up the heat in the third period.
It was a game of strange bounces as the Blues first goal and the Flames last one boiled down to advantageous bounces right before the scores. Still, despite playing a solid game, you still felt like Binnington could have done something to knock the puck away before the Flames could collect it on their tying goal.
Normally, you do not like giving your opponent an extra point if you can avoid it. That said, with the Flames being in a different division, getting the win was all that was important.
The Blues’ decisiveness continues to be impressive in those big moments. Though the power play had some early hiccups, they cleaned things up and finished the game off with strong passes and a neat, quick finish with a Perron one-timer.
You don’t like these games continually going to overtime, but if you’re getting all two points, you take it and put those points in your back pocket. It stinks to lose another two-goal lead, but a win is a win and there really was not a lot to complain about.