The St. Louis Blues took to the road to face the Calgary Flames after a disastrous home opener against the Minnesota Wild. Although it was only two games into the season, there were some worrying trends that continued into the first period up in Alberta.
The Blues continued to find themselves shorthanded, taking three penalties in the first period and five in the first 30 minutes of the game. While the penalty kill was strong, the Blues offense was not, generating just four shots in the first 20 minutes.
The Blues did surrender the first goal of the game, but it was nothing but luck as the Flames scored on a play that would not even be recorded as a shot. A cross-ice puck was trying to go back door and went off the chest of Tyler Tucker and into his own net for a 1-0 Calgary lead.
Thankfully, the Blues woke up in the second period. They still took far too many penalties, but Joel Hofer kept the team in the game long enough for the offense to get going.
Jake Neighbours scored the first Blues goal of the season, scoring on a backhander after Robert Thomas threaded a pass through three defenders. While the Blues may not have deserved to be tied, the bottom line was that they took advantage of the opportunity given.
Thomas gave the Blues their first lead of the season with a power play tally. St. Louis got the goal just a minute into the power play to make it 2-1.
Unfortunately, the lead lasted 32 seconds. St. Louis lost track of the backside, allowing Matt Coronato to come in uncontested and wire one over the glove hand to make it 2-2.
The third period belonged to the Blues, though. They only allowed six total shots and kept Calgary from getting sustained pressure once the Flames pulled their goaltender.
Neighbours got his second of the season at 11:07, which would prove to be the game-winner. Pius Suter got his first in a Blues uniform to make it 4-2 at 13:33 of the last period to provide some insurance.
The Blues failed to score with an empty net yet again, which cost them some points last season. However, they got the job done and picked up their first win of the season.
Pro/Con: Joel Hofer
So the only reason I put this as a con is that the Blues relied on their goaltender way too much early in the game. Although the Blues would tie the game, it could easily have been 4-0 in favor of Calgary before St. Louis even had a chance to score.
That being said, Hofer stepped up to the challenge. He made three big pad saves on backdoor plays, which ended up being gigantic for keeping the team in the game.
He was the Blues best penalty killer too. Hofer kept the game 1-0, instead of having a multi-goal deficit, allowing St. Louis to win the game.
Con: Penalties
Although you could make a case that referees are calling it a little too tightly in the early part of the season, the Blues are putting themselves behind the eight ball with all the calls against them. The majority are tripping calls, too, which means they're not keeping up with the play.
Even if you kill off every single penalty against you, you aren't allowed to establish any flow to the game. For two games in a row, you can say half the problem with the offense is that they aren't even on the ice. It's hard to score goals when you're shorthanded all the time.
Pro: Jake Neighbours
Neighbours continues to show that he has the absolute best mentality you want from a professional. He starts the games on the third line, gets promoted to the top line, and gets power play time, and all he does is do his job and play hard every shift.
The goals are great and show he's a big-time player. He tied the game and then scored the eventual game-winner.
It's his mentality that is endearing him to St. Louis fans, though. He goes to the front of the net, gets his nose dirty, has an edge to his game, but also showcases the skill when given the chance.
Pro: Road jerseys
While I could give or take the new home jerseys of the Blues, the road jerseys are just on point. The white is really fresh, and I love the shoulder accents and how they pop.
I was a big fan of the old style of jersey, so I'm still getting used to the new tweaks. I really like these white uniforms, though. A perfect blend of the '60s style with a modern tweak.
Overview:
It's hard to say a game is must-win when it's only the second game of the season, but the Blues needed to win this game. 0-2 isn't horrible, but when you get blown out and shown up in the first game, if you lose another the next night out, it's going to be a rough start.
St. Louis could easily go 0-3 with their next game in Vancouver. Instead, you win your first road game, right the ship quickly, and get some momentum heading out to the coast.
By no means was it a perfect game. St. Louis continues to look sloppy, and you can tell they really only had one game in the preseason with their full NHL roster. There were way too many shifts where it looked like they were still feeling each other out. Two games in, while not great, that's acceptable, but you want there to be more cohesion pretty soon.
On the positive, you get fantastic goaltending, which bailed the team out early in the game and let them settle down. Offensively, it wasn't all the dangles and pretty plays, but plenty of solid effort.
It was a great pass by Thomas, and the alternate captain ended up with two points and a key goal. We already discussed Neighbours, and it was good to see Suter get on the stat sheet as well.
Going forward, the Blues need to find a way to stay out of the box. Each set of officials will be different, but the consistent thing is the Blues being shorthanded. Even if they're not scoring, you need five-on-five play to get a flow to the game and the year.
It was a solid win for St. Louis. Now we get a dreaded late-night start on Monday, and hopefully the Blues take some of this momentum into that game.