ST. LOUIS — For the St. Louis Blues, it never comes easy, even on nights where things headed in that direction.
The Blues averted a lost weekend when they knocked off the struggling New York Rangers 3-2 at Enterprise Center on Sunday, a day after falling 2-1 in overtime against the Dallas Stars, but it was anything but easy.
In fact, when the Rangers (15-14-1), who have lost four of five and 10 of 13, scored twice in 1:19 in the third period to slice a three-goal deficit down to one, the Blues (15-14-3) had their work cut out for them. But in the end, they got the job done.
“We played smart, made them defend,” said Blues center Robert Thomas, who extended his point streak to seven games with goal and an assist. “We wanted to play 5-on-5 tonight and I think we accomplished that. Yeah pretty much the whole game was 5-on-5. That’s a good thing and yeah for the most part of the game, we played really well.
“We can’t let them get back to 3-2. It’s something we can’t let happen, but at the end of the day, we found a way to close it out and not give them many chances after that.”
Pavel Buchevich scored to give him a point in nine straight games played, Jordan Kyrou scored in his fourth straight game and Joel Hofer won his fourth straight start with 26 saves.
Let’s check out the Three Takeaways:
* Checking habits were up to par — Blues coach Jim Montgomery addressed the ails of the Blues the past two games, both losses and addressed the “habits” as needing to be better, even in light of the heavy schedule and limited ice time for practices, instead having to teach through video sessions.
“Our habits need to be more consistent,” he said prior to the game. “…Players need to be able to grab that and then go out and execute the habits. Stopping and starting. As simple as that may seem, it’s not that simple when you’re playing a lot of games, three in four night or whatever it is with travel. Sometimes that escapes you.
“I think that’s why you’re seeing in the league in general, there’s a lot of sloppy games and a lot of goal-scoring going on because people are losing their defensive checking habits, and our defensive checking habits the last two games haven’t been good enough.”
The Blues were much better in those areas of the game Sunday, even when the Rangers made their push, they didn’t panic under pressure, although the coach had to call a time out to get the players to tighten things up.
“Significantly better. Even in the third. They scored two goals. We hadn’t given them that much,” Montgomery said. “I just thought we got loose with our intensity and our checking in the third.
“The message was to get tighter and increase our intensity. Nothing comes easy in this league. It’s a tough league. It’s the best league in the world for a reason. You take your foot off the gas pedal, you can get humbled really quick.”
* Top players stepped up — When Thomas, Buchnevich and Kyrou played on a line Saturday in Dallas, as Thomas said, “We didn’t have a good game in Dallas and it’s nice that we were able to respond tonight.”
The line had a 25 percent Corsi-for rating and 30 percent Fenwick-for, with three scoring chances for and 10 against.
Not the kind of night from the top-end players.
That trio did not play on a line together and although the three players were on two lines where the Corsi-for was still under 50 percent, scoring chances for Thomas’ line was 8-6 in favor of, and for Kyrou, Brayden Schenn and Alexey Toropchenko, it was 6-5.
They made their chances count and account for all three goals, including this beauty from Kyrou when he stripped Ryan Lindgren of a puck and scored glove side on Jonathan Quick:
“People get nervous because they know if they turn it over, it’s going to be in the back of the net,” Montgomery said of Kyrou’s speed. “A lot of times, what happens with defensemen when he’s on top of them or same thing, if it’s Thomas or Buchnevich or Schenn, they tend to force plays and they’re not as calm and usually turnovers happen.”
* Cam Fowler helping with puck transition — It’s a small sample size — two games to be exact — but the addition of Cam Fowler from the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday has made a great difference.
What the defenseman adds to the blue line more than anything is his ability to not only move pucks up the ice but when a high-end play isn’t there to be made, he makes the simple play and just clears the zone to alleviate pressure.
It seems that it’s rubbed off on Fowler’s new teammates as well.
The Blues didn’t spent nearly as much time in their zone as they did Saturday in Dallas and that’s because puck transportation was much cleaner Sunday.
Fowler was paired with Colton Parayko and played 23:50 and was a plus-2 with two blocked shots.
Even after playing 991 games with the Ducks, the transition to the Blues appears to be smooth.
“I think it’s easier if you’ve played a thousand games,” Montgomery said. “There’s a reason why he’s played a thousand games. It’s because of your brain, your game management skills and your ability to read ice.”
