The St. Louis Blues had been saying all the best issues going into their matchup in opposition to their former coach, Craig Berube, and the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday.
No one was going to feel sorry for the Blues losing their top-line center, Robert Thomas to a fractured right ankle, for up to six weeks or longer, and there could be no pity get together for them.
It simply means going by some opposed conditions and everyone pulling on the identical rope, which everybody spoke of previous to departing on this present four-game street journey, together with Thursday at Scotiabank Area in opposition to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
All the group bought the message, and led by Jordan Binnington’s 40 saves, and newcomers Dylan Holloway (two targets), Philip Broberg and Alexandre Texier accounting for 4 of the 5 targets scored by new Blues, they collected their most spectacular win of the season, 5-1, in opposition to the Maple Leafs.
The Blues (5-3) had been going to want a few of their top-end skaters to choose up the slack Thomas left behind within the scoring division, and despite the fact that Jordan Kyrou, who was THS’s player to watch tonight, and Pavel Buchnevich didn’t rating, they every had two assists and had been elements within the offensive zone, and Jake Neighbours scored for the third time in 4 video games.
“He is a team-first participant proper now,” Blues coach Drew Banister stated of Kyrou. “He is taking part in workforce hockey. I used to be impressed together with his sport final sport. I simply assume he is taking part in workforce hockey. He needs to win hockey video games and he is doing no matter it takes proper now to win hockey video games.”
View the original article to see embedded media.
The Blues did it with workmanlike efficiency, chipping and successful puck battles, forechecking with precision and on the different finish, those Binnington noticed and stopped, he did, however the ones that didn’t get by, the Blues blocked 23 pictures, together with seven by Colton Parayko.
“No query our guys got here to play,” Bannister stated. “The trouble for 60 minutes, particulars in our sport, willingness to dam pictures.
“Whenever you come on the street in opposition to a workforce like this, you have to be prepared to do the issues to have success and we had 20 guys doing these issues appropriately.”
The one space the Blues had been grossly outplayed was within the dot, successful solely 19 of 60 face-offs for the sport (32 p.c), but it surely was anticipated to take a dip with Thomas, who was second within the NHL in face-off successful proportion (62.6 p.c) behind solely Edmonton Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl (66.4 p.c).
However the return of Oskar Sundqvist, who performed his first sport since tearing his proper ACL March 25 final season in opposition to the Vegas Golden Knights, performed big dividends. Alexey Toropchenko returned after lacking two video games and supplied nice forechecking and soar within the sport.
The Blues didn’t attempt to run-and-gun with a workforce that might have blown them off the ice had they tried. They only grabbed their lunchpails and easily went to work.
“It appears like he did not miss a beat, proper,” Blues captain Brayden Schenn stated of Sundqvist. “Excellent from the get-go, successful battles, arduous on the forecheck, arduous in his personal finish, powerful to play in opposition to. One factor, ‘Sunny’ is all the time a gamer and he confirmed up tonight and gave us an excellent increase.”
Kyrou made his mark rapidly when he used his velocity and cutback capacity to arrange Broberg’s second purpose and seventh level in eight video games, beating Dardenne Prairie’s Joseph Woll utilizing Buchnevich and Auston Matthews as a display screen at 4:07 of the primary interval for a 1-0 lead.
“I assumed he was unreal. He was buzzing,” Holloway stated of Kyrou. “That first purpose, I liked the cutbacks. His ft had been transferring all night time. You might inform he was fairly juiced up taking part in in his hometown.”
Holloway made it 2-0 scoring the Blues’ first power-play purpose since Oct. 11 in opposition to the Vegas Golden Knights, and it was the work alongside the boards by Sundqvist and Texier that freed up a puck for Brandon Saad, who discovered Holloway on their lonesome in entrance of Woll at 10:31 of the primary.
The Blues carried that lead into the second and needed to count on a push from the Leafs they usually bought one. Toronto made it 2-1 at 6:20 when Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored from the highest of the best circle, a shot that deflected off Blues defenseman P.O. Joseph. Binnington initially thought it was performed with a excessive stick however didn’t understand it was his personal man.
However the reply to that purpose was the play of the sport. Texier made it 3-1 simply 1:38 after Ekman-Larsson’s purpose on one other forechecking effort by Kyrou and Buchnevich to win a puck under the purpose line earlier than Kyrou discovered Texier for his first as a Blue, and it was a magnificence.
In the meantime Binnington was busy making 16 saves within the interval to provide the Blues a multi-goal lead heading into the third, they usually managed the sport effectively within the early going and for all intents and functions, put it to relaxation when Neighbours, who signed a two-year, $7.5 million extension just two days ago, made it 4-1 at 3:45 off one other shot-blocking effort and rush up the ice, beating Woll from the best circle.
And Holloway put the sport away for good when he iced it with an empty-netter at 16:42, after the Blues went an ideal 4-for-4 on the penalty kill.
Hear what Binnington, Holloway and Bannister after the sport:
The Leafs, who had been coming off a 6-2 loss in opposition to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday, had been hoping to have an excellent exhibiting for Berube, who was coaching his first game against the Blues since being fired Dec. 12, 2023. However it wasn’t in the cards.
