The spirited Blues won again late Monday night, putting the Arizona Coyotes down with a stunning five-goal bombardment in the second period. When the smoke cleared, the desert town of Glendale was still intact but the Blues had a 7-4 victory. The Note is 2-0 in the early days of the new season.
As always, we’re gonna roll Four Lines.
FIRST LINE
Goal-Scoring Binge: Just past the halfway mark of the second period, the Blues were down 2-1 and needed to ignite. No worries. They discharged five goals in 5 minutes and 7 seconds — which means they scored a goal every 61.4 seconds. Wow.
Last season the Blues were Team Narcolepsy against Arizona, parched for goals and inexplicably nodding off for long stretches of play. The Coyotes won the season series 4-3-1.
The Blues scored as many as five goals in only one of the eight games vs. Arizona. It was exactly five goals, on Feb. 13. But here’s the deal: the fifth goal was scored by Mike Hoffman in overtime.
So the 2021 Blues never scored five goals against the Coyotes in the 60-minute regulation time. They needed 61 minutes and 49 seconds to score five on the Coyotes on Feb. 13.
To use a different measure of time:
Fun Fact:
⇶ On the night of Feb. 13 in Arizona, the Blues scored five goals in 3,709 seconds of hockey.
⇶ On Monday night at Arizona the Blues scored five goals in 307 seconds.
SECOND LINE
Almost Made History: The Blues scored 12 goals in their first two games to scoop up wins at Colorado and Arizona. That ties the squad for second place in STL franchise history for most goals in the first two games of the regular season.
1st: The 1989-90 Blues scored 13 goals in their first two games, banking eight against Chicago and five vs. Toronto. Yeah, I would think so! These were the Blues of Hull & Oates. Hull scored three of the 13. Next in line: Rick Meagher, Paul MacLean and Rod Brind’Amour each scored two goals. That’s an interesting mix of scorers.
T-2nd: The 1993-94 Blues scored 12 goals in the opening games vs. Florida and Ottawa. Brendan Shanahan scored five of the 12. Helluva player.
T-2nd: The short-season 1994-1995 Blues tallied 12 goals on San Jose and Vancouver in their first two games. Brett Hull scored one of the 12 goals — the same number as Tony Twist. Adam Creighton (three) and Denis Chasse (two) had the most goals through the first two games. Denis Chasse? Now there’s a name from the past. By the way, he scored only five goals over his final 45 games of the ‘94 season.
T-2nd: The current Blues team, of course. Through two games, four players have two goals apiece, providing eight of the team’s 12 biscuits in the two games. The two-goal guys are Jordan Kyrou, Justin Faulk, David Perron and Klim Kostin.
“We got some great offense for sure,” Kyrou said after the win. “I think we’re really deep. I think our defensemen are deep too. Our goaltending’s awesome. We can definitely get a lot of goals for sure.”
THIRD LINE
Kids Do The Darndest Things: Well, yes they do. And if the first two games are any indication, the Kids Are Alright.
— In Monday’s triumph, Kyrou, Kostin, Robert Thomas and Jake Neighbours combined for four goals and five assists for nine points. All are age 23 or younger.
— In the entertaining shoots-and-scores spree in the second period, Kyrou and Kostin scored four of the five goals. And Neighbours, Kyrou and Thomas had three of the eight assists that set up the five goals.
“It’s a great young core there,” Blues coach Craig Berube said after Monday’s game. “They look like they’re growing this year and have gotten better. It’s great for obviously our team and our organization. It’s going to help us win hockey games, which it did tonight.”
— Combining goals (seven) and assists (12), the Blues had 19 points in this game. And 11 of the 19 points came from players age 25 or younger: Kyrou (2 goals, 2 assists), Kostin (2-0), Thomas (0-2), Neighbours (0-1), Ivan Barbashev (1-0) and Jake Walman (0-1.)
These Kids Wanna Rock.
FOURTH LINE
Pavel Buchnevich, Head Banger: I don’t condone or defend Boochie’s vicious head butt that dazed Arizona’s Lawson Crouse. The out-of-bounds physical aggression resulted in a five-minute major and a match misconduct. He was tossed from the game after only 4 minutes and 23 seconds of individual ice time.
Buchnevich sure made an impression before getting bounced from the proceedings, scoring his first goal as a Blue. As for the nastiness, Buchnevich had a reason to respond — even if he went about it the wrong way.
There was Andrew Ladd’s awkward, ill-advised check of Buchnevich that left the Coyote on his knees. Moments later, Crouse crosschecked Buchnevich — not once, but twice.
Buchnevich reacted by making like Zinedine Zidane, the French soccer legend who rammed his head into the chest of Italian defender Marco Meterazzi in the 2006 World Cup.
Hey, at least it wasn’t as bad as the time Washington quarterback Gus Frerotte injured himself by slamming his head into the stadium wall to celebrate scoring a touchdown.
Buchnevich sent a message to the Coyotes and to future Blues opponents: the Blues are an updated team, remade to be more like the rugged tanks that ran over everything on the way to the Stanley Cup. The Blues were soft last season, but the edge is back. Kostin delivered a crunching hit in Monday’s game. As for Buchnevich, let me quote James Brown: “Papa don’t take no mess.”
Buchnevich was overzealous, and probably will be suspended for a game or two. But the Blues coveted his combination of goal-scoring prowess and pugnacity. If Buchnevich goes a little psycho at times, well, this is part of why he’s a Blue.
Coach?
“I’ve got to look at it,” Berube said. “I honestly haven’t looked at it yet. It is what it is. I’ve got to look at it. I don’t really have a comment on it right now.”
Sure.
Coach Berube can’t acknowledge this, of course. But deep down inside, you know that the old enforcer had to like what he saw Monday. Berube Hockey isn’t supposed to be civil or gentlemanly. The objective is to physically punish opponents and wear them down.
The Blues got away from that last season. A tough dude like Buchnevich — who has a cuckoo streak — will put the Berube back into Berube Hockey.
Buchnevich must be careful, though. He’s a really good player, and the Blues need him on the ice.
RANDOM BLUE NOTES
— Kyrou sure has some skill, doesn’t he? After two games, he leads the NHL with a rate of 11.61 points per 60 minutes at five-on-five. Kyrou and Robert Thomas are among the NHL leaders in first assists.
— The Blues have outscored foes 9-4 at five-on-five for a goal share of 69.2 percent. That said, the Blues had 45.7% of the scoring chances at five-on-five during the first two games. At least they’re cashing in, right?
— At five-on five, the Blues have outscored their opponents 5-0 when Kyrou is on the ice, and 3-0 when Buchnevich is out there. And at five-on-five the Blues have a 5-1 goals advantage when defenseman Justin Faulk is patrolling the ice.
— Ryan O’Reilly has won 69.8 percent of his faceoffs in the first two games.
— Defenseman Jake Walman is off to a good start. He’s mostly played with Robert Bortuzzo at five-on-five (19 minutes) but has spent a few minutes with Parayko and Faulk. But here’s the five-on-five bottom line for Walman through two games: Blues have outscored opponents 2-0, outshot them 12-3, and have a 5-2 edge on high-danger shots.
— Just a slick, gorgeous pass from the teen idol Neighbours to set up Klostin’s goal.
— Small sample and all of that stuff, but in seven NHL games Klim Kostin has three goals and an assist while averaging 10 minutes and 23 seconds of ice time per game. Productive, yes? (But also a minus-1)
— The Blues have blocked 28 shots in their first two games. Defenseman Colton Parayko has the most, with eight.
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.
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* All stats used here were sourced from Natural Stat Trick and Hockey Reference.
