The St. Louis Blues were coming off their first home win of the season, but even that game was not a fantastic performance. We got more of the same against the Los Angeles Kings.
The first period of the Blues against the Kings was just off. St. Louis didn't get a shot on goal for about six or seven minutes and didn't even have any offensive zone time for the first four minutes and change.
Meanwhile, the Kings didn't have a ton of looks, but the Blues were giving up quality looks. Los Angeles finished the first 20 minutes with two high-danger chances and six quality chances out of a total of 10 shots on goal.
Nevertheless, the Blues got solid goaltending from Jordan Binnington. A pair of quality glove saves kept the game scoreless and the home team with an opportunity.
The same story played out in the second period. The Blues didn't have hardly any offense and relied heavily on their goaltender.
St. Louis only managed three shots on goal in the second period. Even though, like the first, they created some good looks, they weren't getting shots through to the net. Everything was getting blocked, or the Blues would just miss the net.
This seemed like it would cost them since the Kings scored 1:47 into the middle frame. A turnover by Justin Faulk at the blue line led to a breakaway, and Alex Laferriere put in the backhand to make it 1-0.
It stayed that way into the third, but the special teams finally helped out the boys in blue. After winning a puck battle below the goal line, the Blues worked it around and Robert Thomas threaded the needle on a pass to Faulk, who wristed it in from the slot to tie the game.
The Kings came really close late. A deflected pass on their power play went off a Blues stick and almost in, and then a shot went off Thomas, just skidded through the Blues crease in the final two minutes. The game went to overtime for the first time for the Blues this season.
St. Louis got Pavel Buchnevich with a partial break really early in the OT period, but some late pressure forced his backhander wide. Buchnevich ended up taking a hooking penalty when that line couldn't get off the ice.
That would be the break the Kings needed. They clicked on all their passes and set up a one-timer for Adrian Kempe from the right circle for a 2-1 win.
Con: Home cooking
I don't know what the reason is, but the Blues have not been good at home thus far in 2025-26. They are now 1-2-1 at home.
Personally, I blame the new jerseys. While I don't have concrete numbers, it always felt like St. Louis didn't play very well in those baby blue jerseys once they became the third jersey. So, it's not surprising that the struggles continue with those as the primary jersey.
In all seriousness, the lack of offense at home is quite worrying. Yes, the Blues have seven goals in four home games, but they've been shut out once and have only scored one goal in this game.
Pro: Good physicality
While the offense wasn't clicking in terms of finding ways to break the Kings down, the team was at least trying to get the bench and the crowd into it. They were definitely physical within the rhythm of the game.
Braden Schenn and Nathan Walker both blew up Drew Doughty with big hits. There were several skirmishes.
Tyler Tucker provided a spark by getting into a fight as well. St. Louis outhit the Kings 20-13, but the game felt even more physical than that at times.
Con: Passing
The Blues finally started clicking a little bit as the game went along, but the passing was pretty bad early in the game. Statistically, the zone exits were fine, but St. Louis just was not taking good care of the puck, in my opinion.
It's hard to pinpoint what was wrong since the Blues only had 12 giveaways, which was fewer than the Kings. They just didn't seem to be on the same page, though.
St. Louis didn't even enter the offensive zone in the first period for almost five minutes. The Kings are a good defensive team, but some of that was the Blues' attempts to get into the zone and not connecting.
Pro: Binnington
The broadcast crew put it perfectly in the third period. They could not recall a game where a goalie only had 21 shots against (at the time) and felt like they had to make so many big saves.
Binnington bailed the Blues out time and time again. Frankly, although the 18 skaters didn't have a poor game, if we're honest, Binner is the only real reason the team got a point.
He finished the game with 26 saves on 28 shots. If you want to be extremely picky, maybe you say he should have fully extended his glove to the post on the game-winner, but that's judging it on slow-motion replays. The reality is that the shot comes so quickly that every goalie is going to keep their glove in a strong position rather than reaching.
Con: Inconsistency
Jim Montgomery was not happy with the team's overall consistency and effort in this game. The Blues had flashes of the way they need to play to win these games, but didn't do enough to break the Kings down and make them play St. Louis' way.
If you only look at the stats, it's fine. 18 shots is meh, but winnable if you create. The defense was passable, and you got really good goaltending.
However, when you can't even generate any actual offense to start the game and then struggle throughout the first 40 minutes, it's tough to win. It came in flurries. The Blues actually had more chances in the first period than the Kings, but they didn't hit the net, and it was too much one-and-done.
Overview:
Although I joke about the jerseys, the overall style and consistency of play on home ice have been worrying. Outside of the Dallas win, the Blues have been mediocre to bad on home ice. Compare that to really solid wins out in Canada, and you wonder what's going on to make the home performances so mid.
It's very early in the season, and the entire league has a condensed schedule, but you can't try to save energy for later. If you need to rotate guys in and out for fatigue, that's one thing, but there seem to be too many guys standing around and hoping a play materializes instead of keeping the legs moving and creating.
The one good thing is that even though the Blues weren't that great, if you don't have the one miscue at your own blue line, maybe this one ends differently. They got the goaltending, but one goal overall and eight shots in the first two periods won't cut it.
There just needs to be more. The defense needs to do just a little more. The offense definitely needs to do more, or at least earlier.
It's great to get a point, and if Buch can get just a slightly better angle, maybe he stuffs in that OT shot. But it always stinks to let that extra point slip away, especially when Binnington played well enough to steal it for you.