ST. LOUIS — Robert Thomas has been on a tear as of late.
The St. Louis Blues No. 1 center felt he needed to get in a groove when he returned from a fractured right ankle.
But Thomas is going strong now, and he added to his point streak to six games on Sunday with a goal and an assist in a 3-2 win against the New York Rangers on Sunday.
Thomas, who leads the Blues in assists (17) in 20 games, now has 13 points during his point streak.
Blues coach Jim Montgomery said, “I think relishing being a 200-foot center that is really responsible. He plays first power play, he’s first off on the PK. We’re up by a goal, down by a goal, he’s out there, so he’s playing in all of the major situations and I think he’s relishing being the player that’s relied upon in all those situations.”
Things didn’t look look for either the Blues or Rangers in the first period, but a hustle play by Thomas on a Pavel Buchnevich backhand pass to Jake Neighbours in the slot went astray, but Thomas hunted the loose puck down, held it and was able to find Neighbours down low through three Rangers skaters before Neighbours found Buchnevich in the low slot for a one-timer that beat Jonathan Quick at 18:51 of the first period for a 1-0 lead:
“I knew [Neighbours] was there, but that’s a hard play for him to make,” Thomas said. “He’s facing the other way and he’s got to spin, saucer pass … it’s a great play by him.”
On Thomas’ goal, the eventual game-winner, he was able to move a loose puck up along the right side, and when Philip Broberg sprinted up to make it a 2-on-1, it gave Thomas more options than to just shoot, which he eventually did because it looked like Broberg was perhaps getting the puck:
“Yeah, he beats the whole team up there,” Thomas said. “He’s flying up the ice and pretty much the D-man goes with him to the back post and I pretty much have the breakaway, so good play by him.”
A night after Thomas, Buchnevich and Jordan Kyrou didn’t have a great night stats-wise in a 2-1 overtime loss against the Dallas Stars, the Blues’ top guys accounted for all the scoring.
“We didn’t have a good game in Dallas, and it’s nice that we were able to respond tonight,” Thomas said.
