Kick a dog while it’s down, right?
The earmarks were all there.
The St. Louis Blues played their best game of the season on Thursday in a 5-1 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Montreal Canadiens came in losers of four in a row, having been outscored 20-9, including 17-6 in three straight home losses, including a 7-2 shellacking at the hands of the New York Rangers in their last game.
We said this would be a buyer’s beware game for the Blues. How would they respond to Thursday’s impressive win? Can’t take this opponent lightly in the least.
There were moments, but not enough of them. Poor starts to each period proved costly, special teams were not good and the Canadiens were hungrier in more spurts. It all resulted in a 5-2 loss at Belle Centre.
For the third time this season, the Blues overcame a multi-goal deficit, this time getting goals from Colton Parayko and Jake Neighbours to erase a 2-0 deficit but never got the lead in this contest.
The Blues (5-4-0) needed to have the energy and push right from the get-go to keep a fragile team shaken of confidence, but instead, the Canadiens (3-4-1) showed the kind of pulse a coach [Marty St. Louis] was looking for. They showed they meant business right away, and the Blues needed to recognize this but simply did not.
Montreal was getting pucks into the Blues’ zone and it was not coming out with any regularity quickly enough. But even in saying that in the first period, the Blues had the chance to take charge with a power play opportunity, and it was one that had the writing on the wall that this was not going to be a good special teams kind of night.
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Neighbours had a great look on the doorstep but was denied by Sam Montembeault. That failed power play also led to a 1-0 deficit when the Blues got caught in a 2-on-1 that resulted in Jake Evans beating Jordan Binnington at 8:34.
The Blues, who did not do a solid job of getting pucks out of the d-zone but when they did, Montreal was typically giving them odd-man rushes that they just simply did not cash in on.
Jordan Kyrou was stopped on one that could have tied the game.
But that first period lacked any sort of intensity, and physicality for that matter, from the Blues, who were outhit in the period 12-4 and 23-17 for the game.
Another start to a period, this time the second, was strong for the Canadiens and the Blues got hemmed in lost a face-off and Kirby Dach cashed in on a rebound chance when the Canadiens sent three skaters to the net and a puck popped to the left of Binnington, who was scrambling to see it, and Dach sent it into an open net at 1:12 for a 2-0 Montreal lead.
But the Blues bounced back when Parayko scored 21 seconds later to make it 2-1, a goal that appeared like it would fuel another one of those multi-goal comebacks.
Zack Bolduc, playing in his home province and the Bell Centre for the first time, left a puck for Ryan Suter, who sent a shot to the net from the left wall, and Parayko knocked in the loose change at 1:33.
The momentum stayed with the Blues when Neighbours scored his fourth in five games to tie it 2-2 at 4:02 after Suter started a breakout to Brayden Schenn, who cut to the net and the puck rolled off his stick. Brandon Saad was there and slipped a pass to Neighbours at the net front, and he made no mistake.
But the special teams really were a downfall. Radek Faksa was whistled for interference at 10:07, and for the second straight kill, the Blues did not allow a shot on goal. But 1:51 later, Perunovich took a high-sticking minor on Dach at 13:58, and six seconds later, Alex Newhook made it 3-2 at 14:04 after a face-off win, pass down low and then across to the blue paint for the finish.
Even so, again, the power play had a chance to tie the game early in the third with Michael Pezzetta off for holding at 2:28. Although the Blues did have four shots, it just never quite looked like one of those crisp man advantages and another opportunity wasted.
Canadiens sharpshooter Cole Caufield put the game on ice basically when he made it 4-2 at 5:19 after a Blues rush up ice, but Oskar Sundqvist turned the puck over and Montreal went back the other way and Caufield beat Binnington, who made 21 saves after making 40 in the win over Toronto, from distance.
The Blues were chasing the game from then on and had some looks, but Montembeault, who was pulled Tuesday after allowing four goals on 10 shots, was up to the task.
After another failed Blues power play, Joel Armia’s empty-netter at 16:49 sealed Montreal’s first win in five.
The Blues are 1-1-0 on their current four-game trip and will next play Tuesday against the Ottawa Senators before closing the trip out Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers.
