The message was simple: the Blues are going top ride it out with the group they have.
Playing without Colton Parayko for the first time since the Blues’ No. 1 d-man went down Wednesday with a left knee injury, the Blues stayed the course and kept pace in the Western Conference wild card chase with a nervy 4-3 win over the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center.
Even though the Blues (31-27-6), who are 7-1-1 their past nine games, came into the day just two points behind the Calgary Flames for the second wild card, Armstrong didn’t want to part ways with assets for a quick fix. Instead, he chose to let the current group run with the rest of the schedule and not mess with what chemistry started to build and see how it all shakes out despite the percentages against the Blues.
They answered the bell on this night despite some tense moments at the end that saw the Ducks thinking they scored at the final horn but Mason McTavish’s poke of the puck in a crowded crease was after time had expired and the Blues took the two points.
Brayden Schenn, the subject of an array of trade rumors for weeks, scored twice, including the empty-netter that turned out to be the game-winner, Alexey Toropchenko had a goal and an assist, his first goal in 50 games and in his turn to Anaheim for the first time since the Ducks traded Cam Fowler to St. Louis on Dec. 14, the defenseman had two assists and was a plus-2 for a triumphant return.
The Blues are now one point behind the Vancouver Canucks for the final wild card spot and pulled into a tie with the Flames, who each have played two fewer games.
Let’s look at the Three Takeaways:
* Hard, heavy, precise forecheck — It’s no secret that the Blues have switched up a few of their tactics of how they wanted to play coming out of the 4 Nations Face-Off. They wanted to play faster, more relentless and check with efficiency.
Their checking game was spot-on in this one and directly resulted in each goal, but especially Schenn’s second goal.
All three on the line affected the goal, led by Dylan Holloway’s relentless pursuit of the puck forced Jackson LaCombe to make a play quicker than usual across the ice in his own zone, then Jordan Kyrou went and pressured the puck and won it, fed Holloway, who then fed Schenn, who made no mistake at 10:49 to make it 2-1:
The same can be said of Zack Bolduc’s goal at 5:21 of the third period that gave the Blues a 3-1 lead. Bolduc’s pressure in the D-zone to win a puck and start a breakout, then moving up ice and splitting the ‘D’ when Fowler threaded him a pass for a breakaway:
They even checked the puck off the boards in the defensive zone to help lead the breakout for Schenn’s empty-netter at 18:13 that proved pivotal:
* Adjusting to life without Parayko — The looming question moving forward for the Blues was how they’d manage without their top defenseman and top minutes muncher at nearly 24 minutes per game.
No one player would be able to absorb everything that Parayko does, so it would have to be by committee.
Nick Leddy moved up to play with Fowler and the two lefties meshed well. But coach Jim Montgomery had said that the pair of Philip Broberg-Justin Faulk would see increased minutes, particularly in the defensive zone, and each skater’s ice time would likely go up.
Faulk led the Blues in ice time at 23:11 and Broberg was at 22:36. Neither factored in the scoring but defended well. And Ryan Suter and Tyler Tucker each picked up the slack, playing 18:47 and 15:34, respectively, and played well until the Ducks pushed at the end to make things more interesting than they should have been.
* Fowler return to Orange County a triumphant one — We mentioned Fowler, the No. 12 pick in the 2010 NHL Draft who has played 991 of his 1,025 games with the Ducks. He faced the Ducks once already in St. Louis, but he talked about it then that this would be more emotional returning back to Orange County where it all began:
Fowler, handled it well and went out and had himself a game, playing 21:09 and threaded the needle to Bolduc for his goal in the third period. He also was part of Toropchenko’s goal with Leddy at 2:37 of the opening period to give the Blues a 1-0 lead, his first goal since Nov. 5 against the Tampa Bay Lightning:
Fowler now has 21 points (seven goals, 14 assists) in 34 games with the Blues and has been quite the pickup.
* See what coach Jim Montgomery and players had to say following the game:
