ST. LOUIS – For one night, the St. Louis Blues overlooked their record.
Losers of three in a row and eight of nine (1-7-1), the Blues found a silver lining in what has been a lost season when they came off the Olympic break with a thorough win, 5-1 against the Seattle Kraken at Enterprise Center on Thursday.
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Dylan Holloway scored his second NHL hat trick and had a career high four points with an assist, and combined with Pius Suter (one goal, two assists) and Jonatan Berggren (two assists), that line combined for nine points in the game.
Jordan Kyrou scored and Justin Faulk added two assists for the Blues, who improved to 21-27-9 on the season. Joel Hofer made 23 saves.
Here are Thursday’s observations:
* Holloway looked refreshed – Forget the hat trick … well, wait, let’s not, but aside from adding the offense in what was his most productive NHL game, Holloway looked as refreshed and healthy as he has since the end of last season, when the injury bug derailed what was a banner year that carried over to the 2025-26 season.
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He was skating with fluidity, he was hounding pucks, laying hits and ready to pounce when given the opportunity.
He finished the game a plus-4 with five shots on goal in 16:04 of ice time after missing 23 of the past 24 games – including the last eight – with a right high ankle sprain.
“It was great just to be back,” Holloway said. “I just wanted to enjoy it. Honestly, if I didn’t have an impact now, I’m just grateful to be able to play. But it’s obviously nice to have an impact on the scoresheet.”
Holloway’s goal at 7:58 of the first period got the ball rolling for the Blues in a 1-0 lead, a play that started with a Tyler Tucker rim into the O-zone, an overskated puck by Brandon Montour, the puck was put back down low to Berggren, who quickly found Holloway in the left circle for the quick shot past Philipp Grubauer:
“I liked his game a lot,” Holloway said of Berggren, who was his linemate for the first time. “He’s a super-smart player, always trying to make plays. From watching these past 20 games, I was kind of able to get a good grasp on his game. I knew he would always be looking to make the right play. He’s got a lot of patience out there too. I was trying to find open spots.
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“That first pass he made to me in the first period was a great pass. It’s a special play there.”
Holloway made it 3-1, 23 seconds after Kyrou gave the Blues the lead, when he first hunted down and forechecked a puck behind the net and got it to the point for Logan Mailloux to get the shot to the goal. Suter curled it back to the front in the crease where Berggren was, getting a redirection that was stopped but Holloway was on the spot to pounce on the rebound.
And when he backhanded in the empty-netter to make it 5-1 at 16:59 of the third period, it completed a terrific game:
“His speed, his tenacity, his ability to add depth scoring and main scoring,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “When he’s playing like he did tonight and we saw it a lot right before he got injured (on Dec. 14 in practice), he’s a difference maker.”
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Berggren added, “I’ve never played with [Holloway], but you can see in practice how skillful he is and fast. Really fiun to play with him.”
* The Holloway-Suter-Berggren line led the way – Holloway earned his cookies, but Suter and Berggren were also on the prowl.
They finished with four goals, five assists and a plus-10.
“Those two are really skillful players,” Berggren said of his linemates. “I think we think the game pretty similar.”
Montgomery had the best description of the trio in this game
“I thought they hounded pucks really well, I thought they used their speed and they created a lot of turnovers on the forecheck,” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said of the Holloway-Suter-Berggren line, “and then in the offensive zone, they were connected in triangles and they won races and they had a great net front presence. You look at the Suter goal was the best example of it.”
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And the Suter goal that made it 4-1 at 1:56 of the third was two guys driving the net after Faulk’s initial shot, Holloway makes a hit, gets up and get the rebound and finds Suter in the interior of the slot and right circle:
“We were moving our feet well and holding into pucks and kind of reset if needed,” Suter said of the line. “And just kind of be around the net. The bounces kind of worked out.”
* Quick strike in the second period helps Blues gain control – Seattle found its legs midway through the first period when the Blues led 1-0 and had an 8-0 edge in shots. But when Jake Neighbours was whistled for tripping at 9:59 of the period, the Kraken were able to gain an edge that started with a power play that had territorial edge for the entire two minutes and ultimately led to a goal.
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The Blues reset after the period and Kyrou’s goal was a thing of beauty at 1:12 when he started the play breaking up things in the D-zone, moving into transition and starting a tic-tac-toe play with first, Colton Parayko, then Pavel Buchnevich:
* Winning another challenge – Things could have gotten dicey when Ryker Evans thought he had cut the Blues’ lead to 3-2 on a shot from the point that had eyes and ricocheted off the ice and past Hofer at 10:19 of the second, but the Blues immediately challenged and won an offside challenge when Frederick Gaudreau failed to keep a puck alive and in the zone prior to it.
“I didn’t see it in real time, no,” Montgomery said. “(Video coach) Elliott Mondou and (assistant video coach) Ryan Stacey … as they scored, it was already radioed into us that this was offside. Thank God they has the view. I was wondering what was taking so long. (The referees) came over and I’m like, ‘You’ve got to have the view from the other angle.’ I’m like, ‘It’s pretty distinctive.’”
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* Finley’s debut – The numbers won’t look gaudy, but for Jack Finley, who made his Blues debut after being claimed off waivers from the Tampa Bay Lightning on Feb. 7, it was effective enough.
The 6-foot-6, 227-pound center gained his first Blues point on Holloway’s empty-netter, was a plus-1 and won five of 13 face-offs in 13:17 of ice time, but he was used in a penalty kill role, which was 3-for-3, playing on the fourth line with Alexey Toropchenko and Nathan Walker.
“I thought his defensive stick was really good,” Montgomery said. “He won two huge face-offs down the stretch. One on the PK and one on the pulled goalie situation. I thought he was in really good support position. That line created momentum for us, so overall, a really good start and I think it’s only going to get better as he gets comfortable with the way we play and more importantly, comfortable being in the lineup.”
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