The interesting thing about the St. Louis Blues is that even when they play well, they tend to show their faults. They often play up to their competition, as they did against the Vegas Golden Knights.
However, playing well against the big boys highlights how poorly the Blues have done against teams at their level or lower. You have to win those games too.
Nevertheless, the Blues got off to a good start in Vegas, after having one of their worst games in Utah. St. Louis got the game's first five shots and kept VGK pretty quiet overall.
The Blues opened the scoring at 8:25 of the first period with the captain scoring. They got a nice little weave going through the zone and Brayden Schenn utilized a bit of a screen by Alex Pietrangelo to snap one home for a 1-0 lead.
The Golden Knights couldn't be held off the board completely though. They had a solid push in the last seven minutes of the period.
Although Jordan Binnington made two big saves on the penalty kill, the Blues had been too aggressive on the zone entry, leaving three players on the left, allowing an open slap shot from the middle of the zone. Tomas Hertl scraped the puck off Binner's pad and deposited it into an empty net with the Blues scrambling to get into position.
St. Louis earned a power play with 2:45 left in the period. Although they had some decent chances, they couldn't score and it seemed like it was heading into intermission tied. Instead, Nathan Walker scored at even strength with just 17 seconds left. The Aussie was set up on the left of the crease and hammered home a rebound to make it 2-1.
The Blues were patient, but steady to open up the second period. They were rewarded for their style of play by getting a 3-1 lead.
After some decent work along the right side of the zone, the puck popped over to to Jake Neighbours on the left circle. He ripped one into the upper-90 of the blocker side to give St. Louis a two-goal lead.
Unfortunately, the margin lasted less than a minute. A slapshot from the point was blocked in front, but it went right to Brett Howden who spun and fired it past the left skate of Binnington to make it 3-2.
Vegas kept coming, earning a power play late in the second. Binnington slid across to make a big save on the backdoor play to keep St. Louis in the lead. He also made a good blocker save on Hertl before that, though the forward got a little too cute trying the between-the-legs move.
St. Louis was absorbing a little too much pressure in the final three minutes. Binnington had to make some saves and the defense made some blocks before the Blues drew a penalty in the final minute of the second.
The Blues deflated the Knights by scoring on that power play, negating all of Vegas' pressure. St. Louis went circle to point and Cam Fowler used the screen to go across the grain and beat the goalie to the glove side before he even saw the shot. It remained 4-2 into the intermission, though Vegas rang one off the crossbar with a second remaining.
St. Louis needed to be very careful in the third. Vegas entered the game with 16 come-from-behind wins.
The majority of the third period had an odd feel. The shots were mostly even, but the bulk of the period felt like it was in the Blues zone. They were just absorbing too much.
Eventually, it caught up to them. With the goaltender pulled, Jack Eichel scored with a one-timer from the left circle with over three minutes left, and then Pavel Dorofeyev did the same with a blast from the right circle in the final minute, forcing overtime at 4-4.
Vegas should have ended it one minute in. Eichel had an empty net tap in on the backdoor play after a Blues turnover, but he sent it back across the net and wide.
Vegas also had a breakaway in overtime but missed on that too. The game went to a shootout, which rarely favors the Blues, but this game would be different.
Jake Neighbours got the first attempt, came down the left wing, and scored. Vegas' first attempt ended up going over the goal.
Schenn then almost copied Neighbours, coming through the left circle and snapping one home from the left hash mark. Unfortunately, Eichel faked Binnington out of his jock and tucked it inside the post to keep Vegas alive.
Dylan Holloway missed, forcing a do-or-die save situation. Big-time Binnington came up huge, getting a diving poke and then still making a pad save too since the puck was still alive as it was traveling forward.
The Blues stole the second point and got back on the winning ledger.