Final Score: Blues 4, Florida Panthers 3 in overtime.
Hold on.
What?
It’s true. The bloodied Blues are winning with bandages and backups.
There’s a shortage of players — but no shortage of heart.
They’re doing the Tom Petty, and won’t back down.
Let’s Roll Four Lines …
(If there’s enough for four lines … )
FIRST LINE
As winning formulas go, the Blues might as well have inhaled strychnine or anthrax before and during Tuesday’s home game against the Florida Panthers.
Not literally, of course. But the Blue Cross, Blue Shield Blues didn’t exactly stagger into the competition with an effective prescription for success.
– They had seven players out of the lineup because of injuries or Covid issues: forwards Robert Thomas, Tyler Bozak, David Perron, James Neal, and Klim Kostin, defenseman Justin Faulk, and goaltender Jordan Binnington. They didn’t have a full roster for this one, dressing 19 players instead of the usual 20.
– Two newly injured Blues had to withdraw from the proceedings late in the third period, depriving the Blues of starting goaltender Ville Husso and defenseman Jake Walman. Down to 17 players.
– The Panthers entered the game with the NHL’s best points percentage, .771, stemming from their record of 17-4-3.
– The Blues had one strong period, the second. In the first and third periods combined, the Blues mustered only 28.7 percent of the overall shots directed at the net, managed just seven of the 41 overall scoring chances (17%), and gasped for 1 of the 16 high-danger shots (6.25%.)
– In the first period the Blues had an expected goals-for percentage of 6.25% … which means that Florida’s expected goals-for percentage expectancy was 93.75%. And yet: while thoroughly dominated, the Blues trailed only 1-0 after 20 minutes.
– And despite having a goals-for expectancy of 28% in the third period, the Blues played to a 1-1 draw over the final 20 minutes.
– The winning goaltender was Charlie Lindgren, who relieved the damaged Husso and stopped all three shots in his 6:25 minutes. It was Charlie’s first NHL win since Feb. 29, 2020 – Montreal’s 4-3 overtime victory over Carolina. Yes, Lindgren has two consecutive 4-3 overtime wins – only 647 days apart. And Charlie won that game for Montreal after being labeled as “something less than a brick wall” by an unappreciative Montreal blogger. At least the NHL allowed the Blues to put Lindgren on the roster for this one – unlike Friday’s game at Tampa, when the Blues had to sign a Starbucks barista to serve as an emergency goaltender.
Just add all of this to the zany pile.
Anyway … you aren’t supposed to win under these circumstances. Not the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens, or the 1984-85 Edmonton Oilers, or the 1982-83 New York Islanders, or any Pittsburgh Penguins’ powerhouse led by Mario Lemieux or Sid Crosby.
And certainly not the unlucky 2021-22 St. Louis Blues, who at this point resemble the 1777-78 encampment of George Washington’s continental army at Valley Forge. Or something like that.
But on alpha and omega night at Enterprise Center, the Blues won the damn game. Improbably so. Maybe even impossibly so. This was either the best win of the season to date, or the most unlikely win, or the most incomprehensible win, or the craziest win, or the grittiest win. But here they were, grimacing and grabbing two points – and hopefully no other Blue was injured as the boys raised their arms to celebrate this satisfying and mind-bending victory.
SECOND LINE
The character win left the Blues with a 13-8-4 mark on the season, good for a .600 points percentage that ranks 13th among the league’s 32 teams. Needless to say, things could be a lot worse.
And if this team can’t get healthy – as it also deals with the injury-related roster complications set up by the grossly incompetent NHL – things probably WILL get a lot worse.
Let me see if I get this straight: because of idiotic salary-cap machinations imposed by this clown-car league, the NHL won’t permit the Blues to add a player to have a full roster for Tuesday’s competition against the Panthers – but will, however, now allow the Blues to add a player to have a full roster for their next game, Thursday at home vs. Detroit.
WELL, HOLD EVERYTHING: as Blues GM Doug Armstrong explained to media on Wednesday, that’s not the case. Army said he initially was led too believe the team could add to the roster on a need-to basis to have a complete roster. Not true, said the geniuses at the NHL. You must continue to play shorthanded! And we will stand by that policy and continue to sell full-price tickets to games that include teams that don’t have enough players! We are the NHL!”
I don’t know if the NHL will permit the Blues to add a second goaltender if Husso is unavailable for the upcoming games. But what is Jason Bacashihua up to these days. All kidding aside, the Blues will likely have Bozak free from Covidd protocol and available by Saturday. Armstrong disclosed that the Blues have signed Jon Gillies, one of their minor-league goaltenders last season. During this busy stretch he may have to start a game. Though Binnington is eligible to return from the Covid list on Sunday, the Blues will probably hold off on that until next week. Forward
Nathan Walker will be plugged into the lineup as soon as the NHL grants its permission and extends its blessings. You know this league is serious and genuine about player safety when it forces a team blitzed by injury and illness to play several games without a full roster — which only means an excess of minutes and increased vulnerability to injury for the healthy players that have to fill in by doing extra. Example: Robert Thomas played multiple games with a hip injury, sticking it out despite the discomfort because he didn’t want the Blues to compete shorthanded. And now Thomas is out of service because the injury intensified.
Smart league, this NHL.
The NHL is so remarkably stupid it reminds me of something I learned a few years ago when checking in with my peeples in Poland (Kiss me I’m Polish.) A cousin was talking about clothing, and said he enjoyed wearing American T-shirts. I said I’d send him some. He warned me that he wasn’t allowed to wear a Winnie the Pooh T-shirt. I asked him why. What’s up with that? He said the Polish government banned the Winnie the Pooh likenesses because Winnie the Pooh doesn’t wear pants.
Oh.
Put this in the “Things The NHL Would Do” file, please.
THIRD LINE
The dire-straits Blues needed a few guys to step up, starting with veterans who needed to reemerge and make an impact. Four players scored the four goals against the Panthers: Vladimir Taraenko, Brayden Schenn, Brandon Saad and Pavel Buchnevich.
Two guys in particular had to get something done. They were overdue. Until this one, Schenn had gone seven games without scoring. And Tarasenko had been blanked in 10 straight, a non-showing that was slowly bringing out the werewolf in coach Craig Berube. If Tarasenko didn’t get the message earlier, he probably paid attention Tuesday night when Berube sat him for most of the first period. Tarasenko responded with a second-period goal to tie the game 1-1. And then later in the second Tarasenko set up Schenn for the goal that drew the Blues even at 2-2.
With the Blues playing with only 10 forwards, Berube went into mix-and-match overdrive. At even strength he used five different line combinations – with the ice time for each combo ranging from 2 minutes and 37 seconds to 4 minutes and 12 seconds. The most effective line was Saad, Ryan O’Reilly and Kyrou – which controlled 78% of the shot attempts at even strength in their 4:12 of action.
And a special nod to the defensive pairing of Torey Krug and Marco Scandella. When they were on the ice together for 7 minutes and 19 seconds of even-strength ice time, the Blues had 100 percent of the shots on goal (6-0) and 92.3% of the shot attempts.
Saad’s goal, which gave the Blues a 3-2 lead, was his team-high 11th of the season. Buchnevich is second with 10 goals. So I guess we shouldn’t be surprised to see them score the Blues’ final two goals Tuesday.
Kyrou had two assists, as did Ivan Barbashev. And all four assists between the two were first assists.
And rookie Logan Brown chipped in again with an assist.
O’Reilly clocked 22+ minutes for the fourth consecutive game. He has a goal and three assists in his last five games, with a 57% win percentage on faceoffs. But after a difficult bout with Covid O’Reilly isn’t all the way back in form.
FOURTH LINE
Is Pavel Buchnevich the Blues’ best forward this season? A case can be made. He had a goal and an assist in the 4-3 win over Florida. He assisted on Tarasenko’s goal, and scored the OT winner.
At five on five play this season Buchnevich is perhaps the Blues’ most effective forward when measured in a team concept.
When Buchnevich is on the ice at five on five the Blues have 57 percent of the total shot attempts, 59% of the shots on goal, 59% of the scoring chances and 56% of the high-danger chances.
Most important of all: when Buchnevich is out there at five on five the Blues have outscored opponents 17-5 – that’s 72.5 percent of the goals! And that’s excellent. Even if we make adjustments the Blues still have an expected goals-for percentage of 57% when Buchnevich is deployed at five on five.
So far this season Buchnevich has posted his career bests in goals per 60 minutes (1.47) points per 60 minutes (2.94) and shots per 60 minutes (10.66.) He also has his lowest amount of giveaways (1.62 per 60) of his career.
QUOTEBOOK
+ Buchnevich: “It’s first time I actually play with a short lineup. A lot of new for me this season. Like, a beer league goalie come up in Tampa, short guys, I don’t know.”
+ Berube: “Oh, we were shorthanded, that’s for sure. You know, guys battled, I’m proud of them. They worked and came through.”
+ Saad: “It’s pretty tough luck right now but at the end of the day, it is what it is and there’s no excuses. We’re playing some good hockey teams and competing and battling, staying alive and had a good win tonight. I think the message is whoever’s healthy, whoever’s playing keep competing and we’re going to have success.”
+ Buchnevich: “What happens next, I don’t know. Exciting season.”
Thanks for reading …
–Bernie
Bernie invites you to listen to his opinionated sports-talk show on 590-AM The Fan, KFNS. It airs Monday through Thursday from 3-6 p.m. and Friday from 4-6 p.m. You can listen by streaming online or by downloading the “Bernie Show” podcast at 590thefan.com — the 590 app works great and is available in your preferred app store.
Follow Bernie on Twitter @miklasz
* All stats used here are sourced Natural Stat Trick or Hockey Reference unless otherwise noted.
