The one thing you can count on with the St. Louis Blues is that you can't count on figuring them out. Just when you think they're done for and need to focus on next year, they beat one of the best teams in the league.
Granted, that hasn't been the case too often in the 2025-26 season, but it happens enough for us to throw our hands in the air and ask what is going on here. They continued that trend with the Carolina Hurricanes in town.
St. Louis returned to the Lou riding a three-game losing streak. After getting blown out by Chicago and then having consecutive 4-2 losses to Utah and Vegas, even the most die-hard fan probably had their money on the Hurricanes.
That opinion wasn't swayed by the way the first 10 minutes of the game went. The Blues were all but penned into their own zone the whole time. St. Louis had two shots in the early part of the game, and then Carolina dominated much.
When St. Louis finally calmed down, they created a few transition plays and got their shot total up to seven for the first. Meanwhile, the defense steadied themselves and only allowed nine shots on goal.
However, the second period had been the Blues' worst all season, and there was no reason to figure any differently. Remember though. you can't count on anything.
So, the Blues decided to have their best second period of the season. Like the first, it didn't seem to start that well as St. Louis took an early penalty.
They ended up scoring a shorthanded goal, though. After some breakout passes, Nick Bjugstad wired the shot into the upper part of the goal for the 1-0 lead a little over three minutes in.
The Blues killed off the rest of the power play and kept their foot on the gas. It was only about as much gas as you're likely to see from St. Louis, but better than no gas.
Another six minutes or so went by, and then the Blues struck again. Carolina had been pushing the Blues onto their heels, but St. Louis got a turnover at their own blue line. A quick press up the ice and some tic-tac-toe passing was finished with a goal-line pass to Dalibor Dvorsky in front, and he finished it with a scoop shot and a 2-0 lead.
Then the be-all, end-all of never happens happened for the Blues. They got a power play goal.
That is hyperbole, of course, but it doesn't feel like it. Carolina was creating problems as they looked for a shorthanded goal of their own, but the Blues got another turnover. Jordan Kyrou blazed into the zone, hit a drop pass that actually worked, and Jimmy Snuggerud fired a laser beam past the glove to make it 3-0.
Although the Blues were outshot in the third period, it wasn't by a wide margin. Their offense didn't completely dry up, and they only tried to defend. It was a 13-10 stat.
The most important stat was the 0 that stayed on the scoreboard for Carolina. The Hurricanes couldn't generate too much danger, even with a power play midway through the period.
Interestingly, perhaps due to being worn out from this being their second game in two days, the Canes didn't even bother pulling their goaltender. The Blues held on for a 3-0 final.
Pro: Hofer
I truly hate social media. Instead of being able to just enjoy a fun, well played Blues win, the first thing I see is garbage about the "goalie controversy". Heaven forbid we just accept we have to great goailes that haven't had a great stats year, but I digress.
Hofer was the first star of the game in the arena and did deserve his flowers. Although it never felt like he was under siege for long stretches, he was calm and collected in the net and controlled things from the back.
Even if every shot was one and done, which it wasn't, anytime you're facing 33 shots, you're having a good night when you keep them all out. On top of that, Hofer's puck handling ability also controlled things and didn't allow the Hurricanes to burn the Blues out by defending all the time.
Con: Starts of periods
I was in attendance at this game and, coincidentally, it felt like the ice was tilted toward my end much of the game. We sat in the end where the Blues defend twice.
The first part of the game drained a decent amount of hope out of the audience. Although they didn't get a ton of pucks through, the Hurricanes were buzzing.
They hemmed the Blues into their zone and the quickness of the puck movement was scary at times. It was similar in the third period too.
It should be said this was more due to the push and quickness of Carolina, but it was still worrying that the game could slip away at any moment.
Pro: The youngsters
Dvorsky scored his seventh of the season. He's only played 37 games and he's just four goals off the team lead.
The same can be said for Snuggerud. He also had his seventh of the year.
They weren't junk goals when the other team had given up either. Although the Blues didn't need them in terms of how the final result went, the reality is that when you get insurance goals, you force the opponent to play a different way.
Dvorsky scored his by charging to the net. Snuggerud showed confidence by just releasing the shot instead of trying to be the unselfish playmaker that rookies often think the coaches want them to be.
Both are showing intelligence and grit that this team will need down the stretch and in years to come.
Overview:
If someone told me the Blues would get dominated by Chicago and then shut out Carolina in less than a week, I'd have said you were crazy on both accounts. Yet, here we are.
Break out whatever cliche you want, but the Blues are impossible to figure out right now. You truly cannot guess what team/performance you are going to get each night and one almost never bleeds into the other.
There have been lots of mistakes and negative trends, but they still find inventive ways to lose. Then, when you think they're cooked, they pull off a win to make you ask where that's been all season.
The first period was cautious without being the usual sit back and do nothing for 20 minutes. The Blues have had decent and good second periods, but this was the first time you actually felt they outplayed the opponent in the second period in an unmeasurable amount of time.
The team was solid top to bottom. The offense did its job, the defense did its job and the goaltending was spot on.
The Blues did get stuck in their own zone for too long at times, but they still didn't look overwhelmed as we've seen in the past. They were still keeping their skates moving and not just standing straight up.
Unfortunately, as great as this win was, it was one night. Tampa comes to town on Friday and who knows what happens in that one.
The naysayers will point out that Carolina had to travel to Detroit, play, travel to St. Louis and play again. Every team goes through that, but the Blues have had a hard time taking advantage of anyone. They took advantage in this game.
The Tampa game will be its own animal and the Blues will give us other things to worry about. For one night, they stepped up with Robert Thomas and Philip Broberg out of the lineup and looked much more like what we thought they should have all year.