Three Takeaways From Blues' 4-1 Win Against Predators

Jake Neighbours (63) had a goal, assist and fight for a Gordie Howe hat trick in a 4-1 win by the St. Louis Blues over Juuse Saros and the Nashville Predators on Tuesday. (Steve Roberts-Imagn Images)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The beat goes on for the St. Louis Blues, and it’s hard to imagine this team finding the different types of ways to win. A team usually finds ways to lose, but not this squad.

Blues coach Jim Montgomery said the Blues “didn’t feel like our players had their regular juice,” so when you don’t have the jump needed, they find different ways to win.

The Blues continue to defy the odds playing without their defenseman in Colton Parayko, putting in another defensive masterclass in a 4-1 win over the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday.

Joel Hofer continues to play well since he was pulled against the Dallas Stars on March 2 with 22 saves, and the Blues defensive corps once again limited an offense filled with potent players to little to nothing.

“That was a real gutsy effort,” Montgomery said. “It didn’t feel like our players had their regular juice. You just could tell by how short the shifts were, but they dug in and made hard plays in hard areas. Our penalty kill was excellent, our goaltender was excellent, our D-corps was fantastic. They just kept killing plays and making poised plays to get us out of our end repeatedly.”

Jordan Kyrou scored twice to give him eight points (five goals, three assists) in a three-game point streak; Justin Faulk had a goal and an assist to continue to produce with a goal and five assists in a four-game point streak; Jake Neighbours had a goal, assist and a fight protecting Pavel Buchnevich (more on that below) to earn himself a Gordie Howe hat trick; Neighbours has a three-game goal streak and point streak (with four assists) and Dylan Holloway had three helpers to give him seven points (two goals, five assists) in a four-game point streak.

The offense and production is coming in different shapes, forms and sizes, and the Blues (34-28-7) are now 10-2-2 in their past 14 games.

“Our team is playing really well right now,” Holloway said. “I think it’s everybody, like all four lines. Our D-men are breaking pucks out nicely and obviously we’re getting some stellar goaltending too. It’s been awesome playing this way and it’s been fun too.

“All the games are different. We’ve had to overcome some adversity here and there. Our team’s responded very well. I think our game’s trending upwards right now. We’re playing really well and we know what’s at stake too. Everybody’s playing for each other and it’s fun hockey right now.”

Here are Tuesday’s Three Takeaways:

* Defensemen killed a ton of plays – We know how much Parayko kills plays when he’s on the ice playing upwards of 24 minutes a night.

But with him out, it’s a collective effort. It’s Faulk, it’s Nick Leddy, it’s Cam Fowler, it’s Philip Broberg, it’s Ryan Suter, it’s Tyler Tucker, it’s Matthew Kessel (when in the lineup).

This group held a future hall of famer [Steven Stamkos] to no shot attempts in the game, limited the opportunities of Jonathan Marchessault, Ryan O’Reilly and Philip Forsberg to seven shots on goal. These are Nashville’s top end players and they were reduced to little to nothing on Tuesday.

“It was really impressive,” Montgomery said. “I thought our D-corps carried us that way. Their gaps were excellent and then when they had any kind of sustained pressure, we killed plays and we used our support in the middle of the ice, which allowed us to get speed on entries at their blue line.”

* Scoring in different ways – The Blues found multiple ways to score – again.

It’s not one player either, it’s many of them, but the top end guys are finding the scoresheet.

“I think our top two lines are scoring a lot now, so they’re leading us that way like you need to to have success like we’re having, and our other two lines are relishing their roles and playing good hockey and chipping in offensively as well,” Montgomery said.

Including Faulk, who got the ball rolling with a power-play goal at 6:04 of the first period, a one-timer to make it 1-0.

“Since the 4 Nations, his game is right where when I was here as an assistant coach, I was used to watching him play every night,” Montgomery said. “He’s confident, he’s really strong on pucks at both ends of the ice and he’s just keeping plays alive in the offensive zone. Defensively, he’s winning 1-on-1, 1-on-2 battles and moving pucks north for us.”

Neighbours made it 2-0 at 18:16 when the Blues executed a perfect breakout and zone entry, then Robert Thomas slipped a puck to Faulk, who found Neighbours cutting down the ice, he gut it to the backhand past Juuse Saros and tucked it into an empty cage.

Kyrou’s first was a slippery shot, at 18:50 of the second period that made it 3-0 on another clean zone entry, and instead of throwing the puck away, he kept it, moved to the top of the left circle and just wristed one on net that slipped by Saros on the short side.

And despite allowing a last-second goal to Brady Skjei with 0.6 seconds left in the second to make it a 3-1 game, the Blues executed another perfect play when Holloway jumped a face-off, stole a puck and worked a 2-on-1 with Kyrou getting his 29th at 13:45 to put the game out of reach at 4-1.

“Their right ‘D’ was kind of playing a little low,” Holloway said. “They were either trying to do a 1-2 play or a play to the corner. The puck kind of popped out perfectly. Schenner pushed it nice kind of right in front. It was kind of out of the gate 2-on-1. It’s always a treat to get those.”

* Buchnevich’s health scare – Well, the Blues haven’t had a ton of injuries this season, but when Colton Parayko went down, they’ve been able to hold down the fort – so far – since he went down on March 5.

When Buchnevich took that high hit from Michael McCarron behind the Blues goal, the Blues forward needed help from trainer Ray Barile and Robert Thomas off the ice.

We’re likely talking concussion symptoms of some sort, since Montgomery said Buchnevich was in the protocol for the rest of the second period after the infraction occurred at 6:12 of the second period.

It could have been a big blow since that top line with Neighbours, who immediately jumped in to fight McCarron, and Thomas with Buchnevich had been scorching.

But he returned to play the third period with no issues.

The Blues avoided a head injury with Kyrou on Sunday against the Anaheim Ducks when he was hit by Jacob Trouba. This one, they got lucky as well.

“He was real good,” Montgomery said. ‘Obviously passed the protocol test and in the third period, it was good to have him because him and Schenn and Neighbours missed a little bit of time, but they were really fresh because of that. We needed fresh legs in the third.”

As for sticking up for him, Neighbours said, “Yeah absolutely. Really close to Buchy. Just really tough to watch that hit. It’s instincts and that’s the culture we have here. You stand up for one another.”

And as for that Gordie Howe hatty, Neighbours joked that his actual one was nowhere near Brayden Schenn's near-miss on Sunday when he stuck up for Kyrou.

" No, my fight wasn’t anything like his fights usually are, so I’m not going to brag about that one. That’s just a fight on the scoresheet, but it wasn’t much of one in real life.

* Bonus takeaway on Hofer’s play – Hofer was pulled against the Stars after allowing three goals on nine shots on a 6-3 loss.

He’s followed it up with three starts going 2-0-1 allowing just four goals in those three starts.

“It’s great,” Hofer said. “I’ve got to give all the credit to the guys. We’re playing great hockey. It’s a lot of fun, we’ve got a lot of swag and we’ve got to keep this going, we’re building something here. It’s a lot of fun.”

It’s safe to say he’s had a short memory.

“Yeah, I think so,” Hofer said. “Obviously sucks in the moment, but you learn a lot from it. It’s just one game. It doesn’t define who you are. It’s good to bounce back and get a couple of wins.”

Jordan Binnington will start against the Canucks, but it’s obvious that Montgomery won’t hesitate to start his 6-foot-5 tendy.

“It just shows you the confidence and swagger he has, but also that the team has,” Montgomery said. “Just the self-belief that he has in himself. We’re lucky we have two goalies that really believe in themselves and they give our team confidence every time they’re in the crease.”

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