The St. Louis Blues were perfect on their Canadian road trip, dismantling both the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks to pick up their first two wins of the season. One of the driving factors of those wins was a mid-game adjustment between two forwards.
Head coach Jim Montgomery decided to move Jake Neighbours to the first line and Jimmy Snuggerud down to the third line. The crazy part about it is that both players immediately picked up their game since the move.
You could say that Monty's move was genius, but could it have an everlasting effect on the rest of the season?
Early season moves being a permanent solution?
The Blues spirit was shattered on opening night, losing to Minnesota 5-0 on home ice to start the year. That was not an ideal way to start the year, and many already considered this to be a long year for the Blue Note.
Then, in Calgary, the Blues went down early in the first period, which sparked even further dread and despair. Thus, causing Montgomery to make the Snuggerud and Neighbours switch.
Since then, Neighbours exploded with two goals against Calgary, and that was inside of the six of the team's total seven high-scoring chances. Then Snuggerud had an assist to start the year, on the Robert Thomas power play goal.
Snuggerud's big moment came against Vancouver, in the 5-2 onslaught. He was a rockstar on both the power play and on 5-on-5 play. He opened the night with a solid goal from his new third-linemates, Mathieu Joseph and Pius Suter. Then, with the man-advantage later in the game, he still showed that top-six talent by etching his first multi-goal game of his career.
The rest of the season could have been changed significantly because of this change. Both players have directly benefited from the switch. Snuggerud has perfectly fit into the third line, arguably making it the best line of the offensive group. Neighbours has risen to the occasion of being a dependable first-line left-winger. Even more importantly, it seems that Pavel Buchnevich has adapted well by moving over to the right side to make room for Neighbours.