The St. Louis Blues had a nice bounce-back effort with a win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, but the problem was that Carolina was tired after playing back-to-back. Now, the Tampa Bay Lightning came to town on full rest.
The first 10-12 minutes of the first period didn't instill a lot of confidence that the end result would favor the Blues. The bulk of the play was in the Blues' end, and the Blues could barely get the puck.
Nevertheless, St. Louis managed to get the first goal of the game. Jake Neighbours got himself lost in the mix by reversing his own position from behind the net. When he came back to the near side, Jordan Kyrou found him, and Neighbours hit the empty net while falling down.
St. Louis managed to get a second goal 30 seconds later. After a chip and chase, as well as a won board battle, Pavel Buchnevich found Nick Bjugstad on the left hash, and he wired a wrister in for a 2-0 lead at 17:33.
The Blues were doing a lot of defending in the second period, but were holding steady. That changed when St. Louis put the Lightning on the power play twice.
Alexey Toropchenko was called for tripping, and the Blues were 12 seconds from killing that off when Nathan Walker took a tripping penalty. Nikita Kucherov went circle to circle with the pass and then shot and scored five-on-three to make it 2-1.
A minute and two seconds later, the game was tied. Kucherov got the assist on the tying goal, going right circle to the man in the slot, and the game was even 2-2.
In the third period, it felt like the Blues were just hanging on for overtime to at least get a point. Even though they had five shots in the second and five in the third, it just seemed as though they were clinging to the game by their fingernails.
St. Louis did have a few rushes up the ice, but sometimes missed the net, and others were denied by the Tampa goaltender. In the end, the Blues did get to overtime.
In the extra period, the Blues took advantage of some early faceoff wins and actually dominated the chances and possession. Tampa did have a couple of drives into the zone, but Joel Hofer was able to make the stops necessary to preserve a chance at the extra point.
Once the game went to a shootout, it felt like it was an instant loss. The Blues had not won a shootout game since the Nixon administration. Ok, that's not true, but it feels that way.
Hofer made the save on the first shot since the Blues elected to shoot last. Neighbours came in and had a great chance, but forced the save.
Jake Guentzel couldn't score on his chance either. Then, Jordan Kyrou scored on the backhander.
Last, but definitely not least, Hofer stayed big, held his position, and made the stop to seal a rare shootout win with an official final of 3-2 over Tampa.
Pro: Hofer
Credit to the Blues' defense. They didn't allow a ton of constant flurries of activity with rebound after rebound attempt.
Nevertheless, Hofer had to make 34 saves on 36 shots. There were plenty of grade-A opportunities as well, so it wasn't like he was facing shots that all just stuck right in his belly.
In the second period, Hofer made a really big save where he stuck out his right pad while sliding to his left to keep the Lightning off the board at the time. While they did tie the game eventually, keeping them scoreless in that moment was big.
Con: Power play
The Blues' initial power play wasn't horrendous, but still continues to be inept and somewhat predictable. They did manage to get two shots on goal, but nothing to show for it.
The second power play was pretty bad. They did manage some good possession during the first part in the offensive zone. It wasn't quite so predictable, but the passing continues to elude this team.
They only managed one shot there, and it wasn't even much of a scoring threat. Once Tampa cleared the zone, they looked the more likely team to score as they kept stealing possession.
For a one-game basis, this wasn't that terrible, but it's more the accumulation of poor power play performances.
Overview:
This was a very interesting game. So many things didn't necessarily add up the way you'd think.
St. Louis got badly outplayed in the first half of the first period, but it remained scoreless. Then, suddenly, the Blues get the first goal and also capitalize on a rare Tampa mistake to double their lead.
That's rare enough as it is. We've seen the Blues lose so many board battles and pay for it with goals against, so to see it work in their favor was somewhat astonishing.
The Blues also got two goals on just seven shots. Then, the second period went the other way.
Even with just five shots on goal and allowing 15, it didn't quite feel like they were being swarmed in the same way as the first period. Frankly, if Nathan Walker doesn't take that second tripping call, I'm not sure Tampa ties the game. Maybe they do get that first goal either way, but their only goals came on those power plays.
While I downplayed Hofer a tiny bit, the reality is that goaltending was a big reason the Blues won. Hofer made the stops he had to and a couple he wasn't supposed to. That's what you ask from your goalies, and St. Louis got it.
The offense did enough, the defense played pretty well all things considered, the goaltending did its job, and hell froze over with a Blues shootout win. This is the first Blues win in any action past the third period in the 2025-26 season. It's come a little late, but you'll take the points no matter how they come.