It’s happening again. The St. Louis Blues — finally — are heating up. Unfortunately, it’s at the wrong time, and their fan base doesn’t know how to feel about it.
There’s those that are die-hard fans that want to see them win no matter their standing in the league, and then there are those that don’t want them to ruin a potential high draft status.
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The way the Blues are playing once the calendar turned to March indicates that dreams of perhaps drafting the likes of Gavin McKenna or Ivar Stenberg are becoming a pipe dream.
That’s because they put together another solid road outing. Yes, road outing, with Joel Hofer gaining his fifth shutout of the season, and newcomers Jonathan Drouin (goal) and Justin Holl (assist) each picking up a point in his Blues debut, a 4-0 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. on Sunday.
Jimmy Snuggerud picked up a goal and an assist, Jordan Kyrou and Pius Suter each scored, and Robert Thomas extended his point streak to six games (five goals, five assists) with an assist as the Blues (25-29-9) swept a road trip of four or more games for just the third time in their history:
It’s crazy to think where this team has been for much of the season, and after jettisoning off their captain (Brayden Schenn) to the New York Islanders and defenseman Justin Faulk to the Detroit Red Wings on Friday at the NHL Trade Deadline.
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But here they are, and have climbed ahead of the Chicago Blackhawks and Calgary Flames in the overall standings, with the Vancouver Canucks and New York Rangers also behind them, climbing to 28th overall in points with 59 and officially eight points behind the Seattle Kraken for — dare I say it — the second wild card in the Western Conference.
How about tonight’s game observations?:
* Blues were the better team, period — Even though the first period was 0-0, it was evident which team was better.
The Blues were skating harder, they were skating quicker, they were winning more puck battles, getting to areas of the ice necessary to have success, and the Ducks, who started the night in first place in the Pacific Division, relied heavily on former Blues goalie Ville Husso, who was sharp in the opening 20 minutes to keep the game scoreless.
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The Blues actually hit consecutive posts (Jake Neighbours on a redirection, then Kyrou on a follow-up chance from that redirection), Dylan Holloway was robbed on a one-time doorstep save by Husso, and Pavel Buchnevich also hit the bar on a power move to the net late in the period while shorthanded.
That’s about the only negative from a very sound first period for the Blues, who put themselves in danger with three penalties (although the interference call on Matthew Kessel was pretty weak at 13:08), but even the Blues’ PK unit was winning to loose pucks and getting clears, and it was winning face-offs and getting clears.
It set up for a strong push moving forward, which the Blues most certainly did.
* The dam broke in the second — We all know the Blues’ woes in the second period, one of the league’s worst at minus-28, and the Ducks came in with a plus-4.
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You had to think they missed the mark by not grabbing the lead in a very solid opening period.
That certainly wasn’t the case when the Blues took control outscoring the Ducks 3-0 and really put the game on ice.
It was a continuation of the first period and the Blues were not letting up in any shape or form, and Kyrou finally broke through on Husso to make it 1-0 at 4:22, getting out in transition and heading up the right side using his speed after getting a pass from Neighbours and whipping a wrister off the fat post and past Husso above the right pad and under the arm:
And then we get to Drouin, who also scored a beauty to make it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 10:07 rifling a one-timer from the right circle top shelf off a point feed from Philip Broberg, who followed up his career-high 32:51 ice time on Friday with another 27:17 in this game:
It did come with some resentment by the Ducks and rightfully so when Ross Johnston was called for high-sticking Tyler Tucker, but the replay showed Johnston, who would later fight Tucker (more on that), lifted Tucker’s own stick into his face, but remember last Sunday against the Minnesota Wild when Jack Finley was called for a high sticking penalty and it was friendly fire by the Wild? I guess what comes around goes around.
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The goal was Drouin’s first since Nov. 14, 2025 with the Islanders against the Utah Mammoth and first in 39 games, which sounds crazy to think he was that snake bit in New York, or the puck just simply wasn’t going in, or the opportunities just weren’t there.
And an emphatic period came to a conclusion when Snuggerud laced a one-timer of his own from the right circle at 12:11 to make it 3-0, and as you can see, the Ducks were just too nonchalant moving the puck and getting to areas needed, and Thomas wins it in the corner and finds Snuggerud, who let it go so quick, Husso had no time to react:
* Tucker gets the spotlight now –– With Schenn off to the Islanders, the Blues are down one of their more emotional, and physical leaders on the ice. So when Holl, who assisted on Pius Suter’s empty-net goal at 15:58 of the third period to make it 4-0 and put the game to bed, was boarded from behind by Johnston at 16:55 of the second period, Tucker will have to take more opportunities to be that guy to stick up for his teammates, and I’m sure that one will resonate well with a new teammate playing his first game, no matter the outcome:
* Hofer is in a zone — This wasn’t one of those games where coach Jim Montgomery came out in his postgame press conference to say the goalie had to steal them a game.
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The team in front of the netminder was outstanding, but there were a handful of stops, including one on Leo Carlsson in tight in the second period of Hofer’s 22 saves on the night that showed how locked in he’s been since the break and is now one behind Ilya Sorokin (six) for the league lead in shutouts.
Hofer’s numbers since the Olympic break look rather pristine at the moment:
* Drouin, Holl make solid contributions — They’re the new guys coming in for veterans who were a staple with the Blues, but Drouin and Holl each came in and were part of the team concept.
Drouin finished with 13:15 of ice time skating with Suter and Buchnevich with a pair of shots on goal and one hit, while Holl, who played with Tucker in his first NHL game this season after spending the bulk of it with Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League, was a plus-2 with an assist on Suter’s goal and played 15:44 (three shot attempts).
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