Montgomery wants to see Blues play with "more of a competitive spirit" on home ice
ST. LOUIS – Two home games into the new season, it’s obvious that St. Louis Blues coach Jim Montgomery wants to see the players start to reward the loyal fans.
Each home game has come against a Central Division foe, and each ended poorly for the Blues (2-2-0), including an 8-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday as they look to rebound on Saturday against the 3-1-0 Dallas Stars (6 p.m.; FDSNMW, ESPN 101.1-FM).
“I’m hoping to see more of a competitive spirit by our team,” Montgomery said. “Our fans deserve better than what we’ve shown at home so far and we’ve got to show a lot more fight to be able to have more success at home and to have more success in the standings.”
Including a season-opening 5-0 loss to the Minnesota Wild, the Blues have been outscored 13-3 on home ice, something that was a staple for them when they made their run to the playoffs last season, winning 12 straight in the regular season and all three in their first-round series against the Winnipeg Jets.
So far, it’s been a house of horrors.
“There’s no question about it. You’ve got to play better at home, you’ve got to make your rink a hard place to play in and place you’ll find a lot of success in,” Blues forward Jake Neighbours said. “So far we obviously haven’t had that, but it’s still early in the season and we’ve still got 39 home games left to make it up to them and it starts tonight. It’s been addressed in the locker room and we understand what we need to do better. But they do deserve a better performance out of us.”
And how can they do that?
“I think it’s just getting hard and being hard to play against,” Neighbours said. “That’s something that the fans here love and appreciate is when you’re putting forth a good effort and being physical and a checking team. I think we’ve kind of gotten away from that our first two home games here, maybe trying to do too much off the rush or make it too fancy. We’ve just got to get gritty, get harder and be harder to play against and I think if we do that defensively, offensive numbers are already pretty good. If we tighten up defensively, our offensive numbers will improve and obviously our other side will too.”
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The Stars, coming off their first loss of the season, 5-3 against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday, will pose a threat and should grab the Blues’ attention after the discouraging way they lost on Wednesday.
“The depth of their forward lines, they can come at you in waves offensively,” Montgomery said of the Stars. “It’ll be a great test for our checking skills and their transition, they really stretch the ice really well and you have to be over top of them. If you are over top of them, you’re going to have success. You’re going to get opportunities because they are stretched out, which makes it hard to defend when you’re stretched out.”
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We outlined on Friday the changes the Blues will be making to their forward groups, Matthew Kessel coming in for the first time this season replacing Logan Mailloux, but they are also looking to infuse some more directness into their power play, which is currently 20th in the league at 18.2 percent.
“We’re trying to get more directness at the net, more funneling, attack mindset where we’re putting pressure on the penalty kill going towards the net as much as possible,” Montgomery said. ‘You’ve got to set up, you’ve got to move it around, but once you have them broken down, you have to attack those seams or attack the lanes.”
As for the line combinations, Neighbours will be playing with Robert Thomas and Dylan Holloway, a pairing that started off last season together.
“I think just the three elements that we can bring obviously,” Neighbours, who leads the Blues with four goals, said. “’Tommer’ sees everything and good down low. I’m at the net playing hungry, playing hard down there and ‘Holly’ can fire it. It’s got the elements to be a line that should click, but I think the other thing is we’re all good buddies and we understand how each other like to play. If we can have an understanding of that, stay connected, play together and obviously work. We’ve got to work. ‘Holly’s a worker, I’m a worker, ‘Tommer’s smart and in the right areas. Should be a good line.”
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Forwards Oskar Sundqvist (lower body injury) and Alexey Toropchenko (lower- and upper-body soreness) each skated on Saturday.
Sundqvist will miss his fifth straight game to open the season, and Toropchenko will miss his fourth game.
“They’re mending, on their way back,” Montgomery said. “They’re taking the steps towards being players again, but they’re not players tonight.”
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Blues Projected Lineup:
Dylan Holloway-Robert Thomas-Jake Neighbours
Pavel Buchnevich-Pius Suter-Jimmy Snuggerud
Mathieu Joseph-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou
Alexandre Texier-Nick Bjugstad-Nathan Walker
Cam Fowler-Colton Parayko
Philip Broberg-Justin Faulk
Tyler Tucker-Matthew Kessel
Jordan Binnington will start in goal; Joel Hofer will be the backup.
The healthy scratch is Logan Mailloux. Oskar Sundqvist (lower body) and Alexey Toropchenko (lower, upper body) remain day to day.
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Stars Projected Lineup:
Sam Steel-Roope Hintz-Mikko Rantanen
Colin Blackwell-Matt Duchene-Tyler Seguin
Jason Robertson-Wyatt Johnston-Mavrik Bourque
Adam Erne-Radek Faksa-Nate Bastian
Esa Lindell-Miro Heiskanen
Thomas Harley-Nils Lundkvist
Lian Bischel-Alex Petrovic
Jake Oettinger will start in goal; Casey DeSmith will be the backup.
Healthy scratches could include Ilya Lyubushkin and Justin Hryckowian. Jamie Benn (lung) and Oskar Back (undisclosed) are out. Matt Duchene (upper body) and Nils Lundkvist (lower body) are questionable.