The St. Louis Blues traveled from Calgary to Vancouver to take on the Canucks on Canada's Thanksgiving. I was thankful since it made it a 6:30 local start, instead of 9:30.
I was also thankful because the Blues showed up early and established themselves instead of letting the game come to them. St. Louis outshot the Canucks in the first and also got double-digit shots, which is something we don't always see in St. Louis and around the league. The Blues got 12 on target, but more importantly, hit the back of the net.
Jimmy Snuggerud got his first of the season at 8:48. He originally tried to set up Pius Suter from the right wing for a deflection, but eventually trotted around and scored his own goal with a snap shot from the left circle. The Blues took the lead into the intermission.
St. Louis doubled the lead just over two minutes into the second. The captain, Brayden Schenn, scored from the slot when Jordan Kyrou ran out of room after a partial break on the long stretch pass. Schenn's shot hit the post and went in to make it 2-0.
The offense opened up all around after that. Vancouver cut the lead in half when Kiefer Sherwood scored on a backhander at 5:33. The Blues got some bad bounces, but also were guilty of just swatting at the puck several times and not being able to clear things.
St. Louis restored the two-goal lead with a goal on the power play. Snuggerud got his second of the game after Pavel Buchnevich toe-dragged the puck through the crease, and it went directly to Snuggerud. Whether Buch intended that as a pass or it snuck away from him ended up being irrelevant.
Unfortunately, the next time the Blues ended up on the power play, it was a much worse situation. They couldn't get anything set up, and then a rushed pass from Buchnevich to Cam Fowler at the blue line left the zone and led to a Sherwood breakaway, which he finished by tucking it past the left skate of Jordan Binnington.
Thankfully, the Blues had a short memory. The fourth line got them on the board with an odd-man rush for Alex Texier. He slid it from left to right, Nathan Walker snapped the puck home to make it 4-2, which would be the score going into the second intermission. That goal would eventually be credited to Nick Bjugstad, who crashed the net and likely had the puck go off his toe.
The Canucks opened up the third with some steam. They generated some quick passes and in-tight looks about four minutes in, but the Blues kept it out thanks to a mask save by Binnington.
The Blues earned a penalty almost six minutes in, but didn't manage to score despite some good puck movement. Almost immediately after that ended, Dylan Holloway went into the box, but the Blues penalty kill was up to the task.
The Blues didn't do all that much offensively the rest of the game. The Canucks got a good amount of pucks through, but they didn't really threaten as much as the stats would have you believe.
St. Louis then accomplished a rare feat - scoring an empty net goal. Jake Neighbours scored from just outside his own blue line to make it 5-2 and would keep that for the final score, improving to 2-1 on the season.
Pro: Snuggerud
For the Blues, it was important to get their highly touted rookie off to a good start. For the fans, it was good to get this kind of performance just to shut up the growing buzz around Zach Bolduc getting off to a hot start. I won't go into that since this isn't an article justifying the trade.
The important thing is having a young player who actually wears the Blues jersey hit his stride a bit. What's good is to see Snuggerud working for his opportunities.
He was down low, close to the goal in the tough areas to get the power play goal. Similarly, he didn't just make the pass and then glide around on his first goal. He drove to the net, found the puck on the circle, and fired it home.
It's those little things and hockey IQ that will add up over the course of the year.
Cons: Defending on the first Vancouver goal
Although the entire team had a solid defensive game over the course of 60 minutes, it left a lot to be desired on the first Vancouver goal. You could just tell it was coming.
One thing that the Blues have struggled with in all three games is defensive coverage if the other team comes in with speed and possession. When St. Louis is on their heels, they really get stuck and start doing the wrong things.
This time around, as mentioned, there was a lot of waving at the puck, hoping to swat it away. Vancouver just stayed with the play the entire time and got their reward with the goal. The Blues entire line just kept trying to swat at the puck and couldn't get their feet back under them to skate into better position.
Pro/Con: Power play
For the first power play, the Blues looked fantastic. The puck control, the decisiveness, and the ultimate finish were just on point. Getting a goal from your top rookie was icing on the cake, but the ability to move it with purpose and track the puck to disrupt potential clears was even better.
Then, the second power play came around. Everything that the first was, the second was not.
It was disjointed, sloppy, and filled with anxiety. I don't blame Buch, but the way the entire play got set up, he had nothing to do other than try a bad pass to Fowler, which never had a chance of working, and then you allow the shorty. It was a bad look all around.
Pro: Playing aggressive, but smart
Plenty of times, it's the little things that go unnoticed. Guys just chip it in and go for a change instead of trying to go for a goal, losing the puck and being too tired to get back. Those things don't show in the stat sheet, but they add up over a game.
This game was full of those small moments. St. Louis went out and grabbed the game without overextending themselves.
They came to play in the first and second, and then just managed the game in the third. They had 12 shots in the first, 17 in the second, and then defended well in the third without letting Vancouver just swarm them.
The game easily could have become a track meet. However, instead of a 6-5 score, the Blues calmed down, reestablished themselves after their mistakes, and still made it comfortable in the end.
Overview:
The Blues were the better team in this game from puck drop to final whistle. That doesn't necessarily mean the Blues have a better roster, but they played better in this contest.
Binnington wasn't spectacular, but he made a few big saves when the team needed him. Personally, I'd like him to have handled the breakaway slightly differently, but when a player has speed, the goalie has to make a decision.
What I liked about Snuggerud, beyond the goals, was that he seems to be slightly more comfortable with the third line than the top line. The Blues should still shuffle a tiny bit, as matchups dictate, but if Snuggerud is better with the third line and Neighbours has already shown he can be a top-line guy, then stick with it.
Again, thank goodness for the Canadian holiday. It's much nicer to celebrate a win and not know you're only getting four hours of sleep afterward.
We should all be thankful the Blues came to work and got it done on this brief Canadian road trip. The team could easily have been 0-3 before playing Chicago, but 2-1 is much more palatable.