While fatigue is always a concern, sometimes having a game the very next day after a loss is a good thing. At least that's what the St. Louis Blues were hoping. They were also hoping to stave off a potential three-game losing streak.
The 2025-26 season continued to be a horribly weird one, even as it benefited the Blues at the start. All St. Louis did was dump the puck into the Vegas Golden Knights' zone, but the puck took a favorable bounce. The goaltender thought it was going to rim around to his left, but it came out the other side, and Robert Thomas knocked it into an empty net just 53 seconds in.
It felt like a just result as Mark Stone took a cheap shot on Philip Broberg and knocked him out of the game. However, the hockey lords had other ideas as Vegas picked up a beneficial bounce of its own.
Tyler Tucker tried to clear the zone after a faceoff win, but it hit an odd spot on the boards and bounced right in front. Mitch Marner was stopped by a Jordan Binnington left-toe save initially, but Marner was able to tuck his rebound between the skate and the post to tie things.
While Brayden Schenn got some justice of his own by fighting Stone prior to the tying goal, it still felt like the Knights had the better run in the period. The loss of Broberg also put the Blues at a disadvantage in terms of how physical their defenders could be.
The Blues opened the second period pretty well. They nearly took the lead on the first shot attempt of the period with Jordan Kyrou driving into the high crease and clanging one off the left post.
That missed opportunity cost the Blues. The next push into the offensive zone for Vegas ended as a goal as a centering pass went off the stick of Colton Parayko and between Binnington's legs for a 2-1 lead. It also continued a string of goals that will hurt Binnington's stats, but he had no chance on.
Vegas started pressing after that, putting on the pressure. They had the Blues' young line (Dvorsky, Stenberg, and Berggren) on the ice for well over a minute. Fortunately, Binnington bailed them out with a glove save that allowed them to get a change.
The refs handed Vegas a soft power play when Oskar Sundqvist did some face washing after the Knights were guilty of putting the puck into the net after a whistle. St. Louis managed to kill that off, but Vegas nearly scored right after as they deflected a shot off the post.
St. Louis had nearly no offense for the first 14 minutes of the period, but finally came to life. They generated three quick shots with around five minutes left, including a solid shot from Kyrou on the right hash and a rebound chance for Jake Neighbours.
The hill to climb became a mountain when the Knights took a 3-1 lead with under five to go. Marner fired a pass from the left point to the right circle, where Shea Theodore rifled a wrister over the left shoulder of Binnington.
Binnington kept the Blues alive early in the third period. Vegas sprang a breakaway for Eichel, and the Blues goalie barely managed to get either a pad or glove onto it to keep it out.
The Blues got a power play at 17:26, which theoretically could have been a game-changer. The Blues were 0 for their last 18, though.
Nevertheless, the Blues did manage to score. Eichel had a rush into the offensive zone, but turned it over. Thomas got the puck on a two-on-one the other way, fed it to Neighbours through the middle, and he buried the wrist shot to make it 3-2.
The Blues nearly tied it on the next shift. Justin Faulk sent a blistering wrister from the circle, but it hit the crossbar.
St. Louis actually pressed pretty well for the rest of the third period, although the shot totals don't tell that story. However, in typical fashion, they pulled the goalie, lost the faceoff, and Vegas scored from inside their own blue line.
The game finished 4-2 for the second night in a row. For the second night in a row, the Blues played decent, but just not good enough.
Pro: Binnington
As has been the case all year, the stats won't say so, but Binnington was good in this game. He gave his team a chance right up until the end.
Unfortunately, the Blues' defending and blocking 19 shots made things look a certain way. Binnington's save percentage was under .900 yet again, and he allowed three goals again.
Even so, the Knights could have easily had plenty more goals if it weren't for the Blues' goaltender. There was nothing to be done about any of the goals as he saved the initial shot on Marner, the second goal was tipped in by his own defender, and the third was just an elite shot.
Con: Overall offense
The funny thing is, I almost predicted the score earlier in the day. During a discussion about the game, we gave predictions, and I said the Blues would likely lose 3-2. My reasoning proved to be true since the Blues almost always stay close to the Knights, and their current offense is paltry.
While I give the Blues credit for turning up the heat as the game went along, the reality is that they're just not getting enough throughout the game. Four shots in the first period is ridiculous.
You get the goal based purely on a forecheck and a lucky bounce. If not for that, the team created absolutely nothing in the first period.
The second was better, but still just eight shots and not that many more chances. The offensive zone time was embarrassingly low.
Scoring is not as easy as some of these talented pros make it look, but two goals just won't cut it most nights, and that's about the ceiling for the Blues most nights.
Pro: Special teams
I'll admit this one is grasping at straws, but if we take this game in a vacuum, then the Blues won the special teams battle. We all have our "yeah, but", but the stats say they did.
The Blues went 1-1 with the power play. It didn't look great in the zone, and the goal came off a transition rush, but they got the goal. Nobody asks how, but how many.
Conversely, the Blues killed off the only Vegas power play. The Golden Knights had plenty of zone time and tired out the Blues, but St. Louis got it done.
Let's not pretend this is a turnaround, but when they'd lost the special teams battle in three games, it's good to at least see some positives.
Overview:
The last two games encapsulate the Blues' season pretty well. Even when they play decently, their chances of losing are still pretty high.
The offense is stagnant and inaccurate. The overall shot totals were low, but the Blues did create chances. Early in the game, they had plenty of looks but kept shooting wide as they're looking for pinpoint accuracy in a time when they can't hit the broad side of a barn.
The defense battled all night, but still allowed too many Vegas players to drive the net and cause chaos. It's not as simple as just clearing the net front like you could in the old days, but there needs to be more initial resistance and less reaction.
Offensively, I just don't know what they do. It's not as easy as just taking more shots because you do have an opponent that is keeping the puck away and taking away shooting lanes. They have to find some answers, though, because the schedule will not ease up and, as we've said multiple times, two goals are not enough.
St. Louis has had two or fewer goals in 14 of their last 20 games. One of the six times they scored more than two, they still lost since they allowed seven goals to Chicago.
Both against Utah and Vegas, the game was closer than 4-2 might suggest, but the bottom line is you lost and deserved to lose. We can say they played better, or we saw improvement here or there, but that's the kind of thing you could talk about in the first month or two of the season.
We're in January. Win ugly or win pretty, but you have to win. Losing with your head held high means nothing right now.