St. Louis Blues Pros/Cons From 2023-24 Game 40 Vs NY Rangers

The St. Louis Blues have shown that they can play their very best and still manage to lose in 2023-24. However, winning while playing poorly is something a bit more rare.

Nevertheless, that's essentially what we got against the New York Rangers. The Blues won based on goaltending and, despite all prior to evidence to the contrary, a decent power play.

Things didn't get off to the best of starts. The Blues kind of got caught standing around as the Rangers managed to get two rebounds off three shots and eventually cashed in to make it 1-0 before the game was even two minutes old.

Fortunately, the Blues got right back into it. With the game just a little over four minutes in, Jordan Kyrou would tie the game.

Kyrou got put on his butt, but made a good pass to Robert Thomas. Thomas hit the brakes in the offensive zone and found the trailing Kyrou who lasered a shot into the net.

Kyrou would double his goal total for the game, giving the Blues the lead on the power play. The top line connected again, this time with Pavel Buchnevich threading the needle for a Kyrou deflection and a 2-1 score.

Despite the lead, the Rangers came down and almost tied it immediately. Jordan Binnington made a huge save to preserve the score, but came under fire for much of the rest of the first.

Crazily enough, the Blues went up by two with another power play goal in the second period. This time around, the second unit found paydirt after Brayden Schenn got his own rebound, fed it to Brandon Saad who put it in from the right circle and a 3-1 lead.

The Blues again relied heavily on Binnington after that. It was almost as if the Blues were only able to come up with short bursts and then had to just defend.

In just that fashion, the Blues got their fourth. The Rangers were buzzing on the offensive end, but a bad pass through the zone found nobody and sprung a Kyrou breakaway. He made no doubt about it for a 4-1 score.

The defense and Binnington couldn't hold out forever. The referees were always going to even out their calls, so the Rangers' top ranked power play eventually struck to make it 4-2 with about nine minutes left.

The Blues made fans nervous until the very end. However, despite all the chances he's missed lately and in this game, Buchnevich eventually found the empty net with just 17 seconds left. The Blues would win 5-2.

Pro: Binnington

This was the kind of game that reminded supporters of how good he can be. It also shoved it in the faces of those that doubt him.

Jordan Binnington is a goalie that can, and will, steal you games. Even though the offense played well enough, the Blues had no business winning this game.

The Blues allowed 13 or more shots in every single period. The offense never got more than eight.

Binnington was under fire for the majority of the game. St. Louis kept decent control of the puck in terms of turnovers, but that didn't mean they had it as much as th Rangers.

By the end of the game, the Blues goalie faced 42 shots and made 40 saves. The Rangers had plenty of other looks that missed and St. Louis was credited with 23 blocks. That means New York had roughly 70-plus attempts at net.

Binnington made several grade-A saves and had the stats to back it up.

Con: Relying on goaltending

It's fantastic when your goalie is your best player and you win. However, it's not very comforting to require him to play that well to win.

Even the radio announcers commented how the Blues seemed to gain no momentum from Kyrou's goal to make it 2-1. They allowed a prime scoring chance on the very next shift and then had to defend for the majority of the first period after that goal.

A win is a win, especially against one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. However, it's not a sustainable style to defend so much when you're not an overly great defensive team.

Pro: Kyrou

Jordan Kyrou has earned the knocks the fans give him. He still needs to get stronger and be harder to bump off the puck.

In this game, he showed why the Blues were willing to give him the contract he has. He can score goals and can score them in important moments.

St. Louis needed some big plays and Kyrou provided them. He scored to give the team the lead. Kyrou drove the net for a tip-in on the power play and then he would cash in on the breakaway for his hatty.

The Blues got a little bit of everything from 25 on this night.

Overview:

Even Drew Bannister commented in his postgame press conference that the Blues were not good. They got the job done because the power play finally came through and two stars, Binnington and Kyrou, stepped up in a huge way.

It's about time the power play aided this team instead of hindered it. Scoring two goals in a 5-2 win only showcases how much different the Blues record could be if they had a mediocre power play instead of the worst in the league.

They still looked bad for some of their power play attacks, but they showed they can threaten when they do what they need. They need to move the puck, actually get shots and not be so predictable with their positioning.

In this game they did that and scored. Due to that and their goalie, they won even though they made a ton of mistakes.

As mentioned, this isn't sustainable, but if you can get away with it every now and then, you will definitely take the two points and run.