The St. Louis Blues turned on the pilot and decided to heat up against the back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions, the Florida Panthers, winning 6-2. That set a team-high for goals this season, with only two occasions this season reaching the five-goal tally.
There have been a lot of questionable things surrounding the Blues, and their misfortunes this season, and the offence was one of them. It sure is nice to see that this team can pot some goals on a hot and streaky, top-tier team like the Panthers.
Let's go over some takeaways from this one.
Beat the champs
This was a great win. The Blues had no business being in contention to beat up on the reigning champs, even though the recent holders of the Stanley Cup are dealing with a multitude of injuries themselves.
For the Blues, this is likely the best win they have had all season, and there is a chance that it could be the best win they have had all season. It was a completely dominating 60-minute session of hockey, and thankfully, it was on the side of the good guys.
Hofer continues to pad his resume
Goaltender Joel Hofer is continuing to add to his resume, as his application to be this franchise's next starting goaltender gets prettier and prettier with each start. Jordan Binnington still holds the keys, for now, as he did look pretty good himself in the losing effort in overtime to the New York Rangers.
Hofer stopped the reigning champs 27 times out of their 29 shots on goal. Not too shabby. His xGoals was 2.637, meaning he had a Goals Saved Above Expected of 0.64.
Can they keep this up?
Everyone is wondering if this team can look like every night. Can the Blues pull themselves together and push out an effort like this on a nightly basis? With a banged-up roster and currently playing with a string of newcomers and AHL call-ups, it seems like they are playing their best hockey of the season without their best players.
Their next tough test is still in the great Sunshine State, visiting the Tampa Bay Lightning. If they can dig deep and grind out another win as they did against Florida, they can head back home and really put on a show following the Christmas break.