The St. Louis Blues have not been an offensive juggernaut this season, and that has been the main reason why this season should be viewed as a failure. But when the back-to-back defending Stanley Cup champions walked into the Enterprise Center on Thursday night, something flipped the script.
After the first 20 minutes of the game, and after the final horn sounded, the Blues did one thing that has held them back all season. Most importantly, it worked out so well in their favor that they won the game with a dramatic and poetic win in the late stages of the third period.
Let's talk about it.
3 goals in first period
Yes, you read that right, the Blues scored three goals in the first 20 minutes of this hockey game. Now, let's settle down and figure this one out. First, Florida did not play Sergei Bobrovsky and went with back-up goaltender Daniil Tarasov. Tarasov has had a stellar season, with a 2.53 Goals Against Average, but he is no Bobrovsky.
Second, the "IR" guys all came back from injury in this game and had a hand in scoring goals. Jordan Kyrou and Jake Neighbours, specifically, got on the board in that magical first period. Oskar Sundqvist got a goal in the second period, completing the hat-trick for these three players combined.
This offensive explosion was enough to give the Blues a 3-2 lead at the end of the first period. It has been a rare occurrence for this team to have a tie-game or even a lead heading into the locker room at the first intermission, and it made all the difference.
Five goals in total, with Snuggy's exclamation point goal
This team scored five goals in total in this game. The last time they scored five goals or more was back on December 20, coincidentally against the Panthers with a six-goal showing. With five goals in this game on Thursday night, that makes it a total of four games this season that have reached that mark for the Blues.
Four times, in the 54th game of the 2025-26 season. That number is bad by itself, but if you take a gander over at the number of times the Blues have allowed five goals or more, it is 16 times.
Jimmy Snuggerud put the exclamation point on this game with a get-on-your-feet one-timer from Pavel Buchnevich in the final 7.6 seconds of regulation, giving the Blues the victory. It caused an unconfirmed mini earthquake at the Enterprise Center and might have finally given this Blues team a bit of life with a fraction of the season left to play.