The St. Louis Blues came out of Ottawa confident in how they had played a tough game against the Senators and only allowed one goal. Getting a similar result against Montreal was going to be just as difficult.
For the second straight game, the Blues only had one shot in the first 10 minutes of the first period. Sure, you can say part of that was due to them taking another early penalty, but the lack of offense is getting old.
Nevertheless, for the second straight game, the Blues scored first. After a Zach Bolduc slash, St. Louis got a lucky bounce on a deflection in front. It went directly to Brayden Schenn on the deep right wing, and he shoved it into a partially empty net to make it 1-0.
Despite the early bounce, it didn't keep going that way for the Blues. Montreal tied the game less than four minutes after.
The Blues lost coverage through the middle of the zone when Lane Hutson drove in from the blueline. Boluc found him with a pass from the right, and the defender went forehand, backhand to put it in.
The Canadiens then took the lead in the final minute. Once again, they were on their heels due to a strong push into the zone. Montreal worked it around, and then Cole Caufield hit one off Jordan Binnington's shoulder, up into the air and in to make it 2-1 into intermission.
Being behind going into the second period was not a great thing since the Blues have one of the worst goal differentials in the league in the second period. St. Louis managed to start better than anyone would've believed.
Dylan Holloway scored on a backhander just 26 seconds in on a partial odd-man rush. Then, the Blues won a board battle and another in the corner to set up a snap shot by Pavel Buchnevich at 1:05 to make it 3-2 Blues.
Montreal had a mad scramble just before the four-minute mark, but the Blues had players flopping all over. Even Binnington got out of position, but still managed to get his right skate against the post to make a stop to preserve the lead.
Binnington made another save halfway through a Montreal power play. He went from right post to left and somehow got a glove on a backdoor play.
The third period opened well for the Blues. They had sustained pressure, and only some good defensive sticks by Montreal prevented a couple wraparound goals.
St. Louis finally broke through again at 10:24. Mathieu Joseph created the play when he burst through the neutral zone with speed. He drew two defenders to him and just let the puck slip into the zone for Dylan Holloway, who found Brayden Schenn on the back side to make it 4-2.
Continuing the trend for the second night in a row, Montreal had a player straight up punch Tyler Tucker with a glove on. Somehow, the refs called matching penalties, so the Canadiens pulled their goalie for a five-on-four.
Montreal did not score with the man advantage, but they would score with 3:45 left. The Canadiens won the faceoff, got it to the left circle, and a slap shot cut back across a screen and beat Binnington to the glove side to make it 4-3.
St. Louis got caught with players nearly 90 seconds into a shift in the final two minutes and another pulled the goalie. Thankfully, Binnington made a blocker save out of play, which allowed the Blues to get an important change.
Binnington made a glove save with about six seconds left, and he tossed the puck into the corner. He had to make one final save when the Canadiens got a miracle pass through from the right corner to the left side of the crease. St. Louis won 4-3.
Pro: Binnington
While his stats won't look as impressive as Joel Hofer's from Ottawa, it still has to be said that Binnington won the game for the Blues. He got more offensive help than Hofer, but the quality of the saves he had to make was no less impressive.
The Canadiens only had 29 shots, so of course, Binnington's save percentage still looks off, but there were a lot of dangerous chances. Especially late in the game, the Blues needed their goalie to win the game for them.
Con: End of first period
Look, goals go in. It's the nature of the game in this decade. No lead is safe.
The Blues got too passive though, which has been an Achilles heel. The defenseman gets the blame, but on the first goal, Matt Luft needs to be more proactive tracking Hutson coming up from the blue line. At worst, someone needs to be calling out that he's making that move.
The second goal is good puck movement from Montreal. Still, the Blues got caught flat-footed and had no way to recover.
Pro: Special teams
Thankfully, the Blues didn't have to kill off seven penalties this time. Still, their special teams had an impact on the game.
First, you get a big power play goal that puts you up 1-0 when the offense had struggled to that point. In a game that was decided by one goal, it's important to win the special teams battle.
For the second night in a row, the PK helped with that too. St. Louis was 2-2 when they had fewer men on the ice, and that's how you keep momentum on your side.
Pro: The Captain
If this saying were something tangible, the saying "you want your best players to be your best players" would look like goalie pads from the 1950s. That doesn't make it any less true.
Schenn came up big for his team in this game. He was active and led by example.
His offense didn't hurt either. He got the game going with the power play goal and then scored what proved to be the game-winner too.
I still get the feeling he's pressing just a bit, but as long as pucks are going in and he's contributing in other ways, we'll take it.
Overview:
Let's not get too excited about any of this. This is just the third time all season that the Blues have won two in a row.
What I do like is the fact that the Blues body language is lightyears better right now. In my family group text, I mentioned it, and my nephew did as well - even though their overall play still has mistakes, the Blues are finally skating.
You watch them and their feet are actually moving instead of just a couple strides and then reaching. That may seem like a small thing, but that's the foundation the house can be built on. So many times when the Blues were lackluster, it looked like they were gliding around. If they're actually moving with speed, determination and purpose, that's half the battle. Other things can be cleaned up, but only each player can determine how much effort they put into skating hard.
It seems odd to say that when a team gets four goals, but the offense is still worrying. Two games in a row, combined with however many they've had overall, where you have one shot deep into the first period, is troubling.
St. Louis only had four shots in the first and never had double-digit shots in any single period. They got the job done, but I don't know how sustainable that is.
In the end, they need wins. We can hem and haw and wring our hands over the technical stuff, but if they get two points, that's what matters, especially in a crazy season like this.
Think of how badly the Blues have played this year, and then imagine that they're now just two points out of a playoff spot. Everyone, except a handful of teams at the very top, are milling about with losses and wins in bunches.
All it takes is a little consistency on the positive side, and the Blues can get themselves on the positive side of that line. The players in that locker room can't worry about that yet though. They've got a couple wins under their belt and just need to have a good home performance against Boston this coming week.