Start of five-game road trip for Blues could be something that sparks turn of events; Buchnevich's struggles, Montgomery's point of view
Perhaps this is what the St. Louis Blues need, some time away from home.
Starting one of the longest road trips of the season on Tuesday when the Blues (6-9-4) take on the equally struggling Toronto Maple Leafs (8-9-2) at 6 p.m. (FDSNMW, ESPN 101.1-FM), the Blues are spending 10 days away from St. Louis leading into the Thanksgiving holiday.
It hasn’t worked out too well at home, so perhaps some time away spending it together as a team can turn around the team’s bad fortunes.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity, not only to jell but we haven’t had more than a two-game road trip yet,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “This is a real road trip in the NHL where we go to some, not only legendary teams, but places you want to play: Toronto, Philly, New York, New York, New Jersey. So it’s exciting because we get to spend some time together, we can have meals together and we’re going to roll up our sleeves and go to work together.”
The Blues just finished up a 1-1-2 homestand and have just 16 points on the season out of 38.
So what needs to change?
“Yeah, I don't think it's a lot,” said Blues forward Jake Neighbours, who will get back into the lineup at some point on this road trip after missing 11 games (12 including Tuesday) with a right leg injury. “I think kind of being able to see it from a birds-eye view and step away from the team a little bit ... when you're in the room and you’re playing these games and you're going through the emotions of losing and winning and the highs and lows that we've been going through, it's easy to kind of ride the emotional roller-coaster that the league tries to put you through in a season.
“I think for me being away from it, I haven't had to ride the roller-coaster, I've got to see things a little more clearly. I don't think we're as far away as it may feel for guys that have been battling through this stretch. There's obviously areas that we need to clean up, but I think every team would say that at this point in the year. For some reason, we just can’t click things. If you even look back to last year, there's probably stretches of games where we didn't play very well in that (12)-game win streak, but our goalies stood on their heads, or our offense had seven goals. I think we're just missing little things to click each night that maybe some games go the other way. I don't think it's that far away from going back to a standard of where we had it last year, and I think a lot of other guys feel that, too. Hopefully when I get back in the lineup, I can kind of bring a new sense of energy and new juice and kind of get us rolling. But I think the road trip will be good for us to get away for a little bit here, be together, and get some good mojo going around this team.”
Montgomery said after a 4-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday that perhaps the way they play has to change. Monday’s full practice offered up some servings of that.
“We just talked about using our feet defensively, checking more, taking away time and space with your feet,” Montgomery said. “It’s your No. 1 asset when you’re checking.
“Point of emphasis has been we need to communicate more. If there’s any doubt in their minds, we’ve got to eliminate any doubt. I hate having any gray area and lately it’s been looking like there’s a lot of gray area to our game.”
The Blues certainly need to push for games, and push for points in the standings, but as far as the coach pushing and when not to, that’s a balance that Montgomery monitors for himself.
“Yeah, you have to,” he said. “To be honest, you have to balance it all the time as a coach. When do you push, when do you pull back? I think when things are going hard like they are right now, you push in a quiet tone. You can be harder with your tone and more demanding in your tone when your team’s on a roll because they’re feeling good about themselves. They don’t care what you’re saying and how you’re saying it. But when the confidence is low, you have to be aware of it as a coach.”
So the teams that are allowing the most goals on average per game square off tonight in search of a win. Desperation should be high on both sides.
“We should be as desperate or more,” Montgomery said. “They’ve got a better record than us.”
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For those that believe that the 5v5 defense is the root cause of the Blues' issues, it's really not that bad:
Ranking in the Top 10 should actually put the Blues in a much better positioning in the standings.
What really needs a seriously large uptick is
When you're more than doubled worse than the team that's directly above you, that's a serious alarm bell.
And that reflects on the goal differential above expected:
And neither of the Blues' goalies are making enough saves above expected:
Neighbours mentioned it above that last year, the goalies were bailing the players out often. That's not happening this year, but the balance needs to start evening out if the Blues want to dig out of the doldrums.
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Neighbours won’t play Tuesday, but when he does come back, the Blues will get a top nine, if not top six, forward back that does so many of the little things necessary, as well as scoring back into their lineup.
“The depth of a player like him that adds to your top six forwards, you can’t put enough on it,” Montgomery said. “We saw the impact (Robert) Thomas had the first game back against Edmonton. He is just going to make us deeper and better.”
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The Blues are moving Pavel Buchnevich back to the third line Tuesday. The forward, in the first year of a six-year, $48 million extension he signed July 2, 2024, has just three even-strength points (all assists) on the season and none since Oct. 18; he has just seven points (two goals, five assists) on the season and is a minus-8.
“I think in-game, you can be very firm with him and there’s going to be some bite-back, but that’s the way he’s wired,” Montgomery said. “He’s really fire-y in games. In practice, he competes hard in the drills he likes, but there’s more of a subdued tone and you can talk to him more and reason with him more and he’ll give you more feedback that helps the team as well, like in practice or in the locker room and he loves to laugh. You talk about funny stuff, he’s got a tremendous sense of humor.”
Montgomery believes the 30-year-old wants to work through his struggles.
“Absolutely. He wants the Blues to win,” Montgomery said. “He wants to be an impact player for us. There’s no doubt where his heart and head is. Right now, it’s a tough time. It’s a tough time for the team, it’s a tough time for him.”
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The Blues face former Stanley Cup-winning coach Craig Berube for the third time since ‘Chief’ was fired and joined the Maple Leafs a season ago. The Blues won both matchups against the Leafs last season.
Montgomery was an assistant on Berube’s staff in St. Louis from 2020-22 and really admires his time spent with ‘Chief.’
“It just really puts a smile on my face because I really enjoyed my time with Chief,” Montgomery said. “Not only did I learn a bunch from him, learned how to handle players from him, I learned how calm he was when times got real tense and just the way he treated people. Everyone loved being around Chief because he was the same person, whether you were the President of the United States or whether you drove the zamboni. He treated everybody the same. That’s a genuine person. That’s the word that comes to mind the most, a genuine, fun-loving dude.”
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When the puck drops on Tuesday, it will be the 1,000th career game for Blues defenseman Justin Faulk.
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Blues Projected Lineup:
Dylan Holloway-Robert Thomas-Jimmy Snuggerud
Brayden Schenn-Dalibor Dvorsky-Jordan Kyrou
Pavel Buchnevich-Pius Suter-Mathieu Joseph
Alexey Toropchenko-Oskar Sundqvist-Nathan Walker
Philip Broberg-Colton Parayko
Cam Fowler-Justin Faulk
Tyler Tucker-Matthew Kessel
Jordan Binnington will start in goal; Joel Hofer will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Nick Bjugstad, Alexandre Texier and Hunter Skinner. Jake Neighbours (leg) is close but will not play Tuesday.
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Maple Leafs Projected Lineup:
Nick Robertson-John Tavares-William Nylander
Matthew Knies-Max Domi-Easton Cowan
Mattias Maccelli-Jacob Quillan-Bobby McMann
Dakota Joshua-Steven Lorentz-Calle Jarnkrok
Morgan Rielly-Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Simon Benoit-Jake McCabe
Dakota Mermis-Troy Stecher
Joseph Woll will start in goal; Dennis Hildeby will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Sammy Blais and Philippe Myers. Scott Laughton (upper body), Chris Tanev (upper body), Auston Matthews (lower body), Anthony Stolarz (upper body), Brandon Carlo (lower body) and Nicolas Roy (upper body) are all out.
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