If you did not know the St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers were not rivals, this game would not have proven you any different. Both teams knew they had plenty on the line and looked like they were digging in.
The St. Louis Blues brought a seven-game win streak into Madison Square Garden. However, they were going up against a desperate team in the New York Rangers, who are clinging to hope of obtaining a wild card spot out of the insanely tight Metropolitan Division.
From the start, the Blues came out with a little jump. It was not a dominant opening for the Blues, but they did have the first four shots of the game before the Rangers could really get going.
Unfortunately, one New York started getting their legs, the game turned into a more Eastern Conference type game. Things got a little more open for both teams, which is not bad for the Blues but still played more into the hands of the home team.
New York quickly evened up the shot totals, but the issue was the Blues shots were all from the perimeter and the Rangers were generating quality scoring opportunities. Jordan Binnington got a few early minutes off, but he had to be on his game after that.
Then, the Blues did exactly what they could not. After saying the Blues needed to stay out of the box in the pregame, they took a somewhat early penalty and they were facing the sixth best power play at home in the league.
Less than a minute into Robert Bortuzzo‘s tripping penalty, the Rangers scored on a backdoor play. The Blueshirts had some crisp passing and found the man on the left side of the crease for an easy score.
The Blues kept chipping away and earned their own power play in the first two minutes of the second period. It took them a little longer to score than New York, but the Blues would tie the game with a special teams goal to make it 1-1.
The second period continued to generate decent chances for both teams, but each goaltender was up to the task. The physicality picked up as well, with the hit totals favoring the Blues 26-19 after just 40 minutes of play. Those are numbers that might finish a game against a division rival, not a team in the opposite conference.
The third period started out a little slow with both teams seemingly wary about making a mistake that might cost them a point. That mistake came a little over midway through the third period.
The Blues had the puck behind the Rangers net with Brayden Schenn in control. He made a seemingly innocent wraparound attempt, but caught Alexandar Georgiev with his legs spread a little too much and banked it off the far skate and in for a 2-1 win.
The teams traded drives up the ice back and forth, but would often come up with nothing to show for it. The Blues had a three-on-one and got no shot and then a two-on-one setting up the one-knee Schenn one timer, but the shot went wide.
The Rangers kept pressing and the Blues may have gotten away with some late penalties too. They pulled the goaltender after forcing some good saves, but the Blues clamped down on the defensive end.
St. Louis shocked the world by scoring an empty net goal as well. A 3-1 win started this road trip off right and the Blues’ win streak reached eight games.
Pros: Parayko
Colton Parayko continues his ascension to the top of the heap for the St. Louis Blues. His play does not mean this team can fully absorb losing Alex Pietrangelo in free agency, but it does give Doug Armstrong more freedom.
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Parayko got the Blues on the board with a power play goal in the second period. He has suddenly gotten a lot more confident on the offensive end and looked like a forward by finishing off the goal from the left circle.
What’s great about his current offensive game is he finally gets the shot thing. He is more than willing to unleash the bomb when needed, but as shown on this goal, he has the touch to go with a wrister too. When he was afraid to use the slap shot, he relied too much on the wrist shot. Now he has a great sense of which one to apply in each situation.
Parayko now has seven goals in his last 14 games and 14 points in the same span. However, despite his offensive output, he has not forgotten about the defense. He had almost a minute of ice time on the penalty kill.
Cons: Penalties
While this was a weird game overall, the Blues were still a little too loose. That led to some foolish penalties, such as the Bortuzzo trip that led to the Rangers only goal.
St. Louis had another penalty that probably could have been avoided by Justin Faulk in the second period. Fortunately, the penalty kill finally got their act together and kept the Rangers from tying the game up.
Prior to that, at the end of the first period, the Blues got a late penalty call. This one fell more on the referee as Jacob de La Rose shoved the guy as the puck had just gone by. The puck was literally still in the vicinity. How in the world that was considered a penalty is beyond me.
Nevertheless, while it is almost impossible to avoid penalties in today’s game, the Blues needed to be a little more disciplined. The Rangers have the sixth best power play at home and giving them more opportunities to score on that unit was playing Russian roulette.
Pros: Schenn
If Parayko has been hot, Schenn has been scorching. At this moment in time, he is a volcano where the heat is just emanating off his stick.
Schenn now has five goals in five games. Those were not spread out either. He literally has one goal each in the last five games played.
It was a bit of a lucky goal that could have been stopped, but you have to put yourself in position and Schenn did that.
On second viewing, that was likely a pass toward Ryan O’Reilly. Regardless, the puck went in and Schenn got the credit.
Schenn just keeps putting himself in the right spot, whether it’s to set something up or get the finish. As mentioned, he almost ended the game with a one-timer from the right wing for the third game in a row.
He’s also chipping in with helpers too. In addition to Schenn’s five goals, he has seven points in those five games.
It is interesting how well Schenn manages to play on the wing when he seems so set on trying to be a center. Time will tell if he is ever willing to make a full-time switch, but he’s getting the job done.
Overview
This game basically boiled down to Binnington and taking advantage of what chances the Blues actually created.
Binnington was stellar despite not actually facing many shots. The Rangers upped their total to 26 shots, but only had 19 through much of the third. However, a good 90% of those were high-quality chances.
Compare that to the Blues who had 22 shots, but really only had four or five chances that either scored or forced a really good save. The numbers on the stats might say 17 chances, but that’s not how it felt. The reality is that the Rangers kept the Blues to the outside for much of the game and the Blues missed the net on some of their other drives into the zone.
Nevertheless, it was a solid win on the road against a team that is still clawing for a playoff spot. The Blues were a little lapse defensively at times, but they got the saves they needed and capitalized on enough chances to overcome an offensive game that was spotty.
St. Louis now regains a three point lead over Colorado, though the idle Avalanche now have two games in hand. Still, the win keeps the pressure on the Avs to eventually win those games.
The Blues now get a couple days off in New York before facing the New Jersey Devils on Friday.