Imagine where the Blues would be had their special teams -- particularly the power play --had been cooking like this early in the season?
Things have been going smoothly in those departments as of late, and they got a little bit of everything on a fun Sunday afternoon in blasting the Montreal Canadiens, 7-2 at Bell Centre in the prelude to Super Bowl LVIII.
The Blues won their fifth straight on the road, seventh in eight overall and moved seven games over .500 for the first time all season (28-21-2).
Plenty of skaters padded their stats on this afternoon, including defenseman Torey Krug, who set not only a career-high with five points (all assists) but also established a Blues record for defensemen in assists and points in a game; Robert Thomas added to his team lead with four more points (one goal, three assists); Jake Neighbours added a Gordie Howe Hat Trick to his resume; Jordan Binnington, despite the lopsided score, was rock solid in a 30-save performance, and Jordan Kyrou added two goals to reach 100 in the NHL.
Let's jump into those three keys to another solid victory:
1. Winning special teams -- It doesn't get any better for the Blues when they win the special teams battle 3-0.
It's the first time this season they've score three times in the power play, and since interim coach Drew Bannister has taken over 22 games ago (15-7-1), the Blues rank sixth in the league hitting at a 27.5 percent clip.
Their penalty kill, which is 15th since Bannister took over and still has some work to do, was exceptional again, limiting the Canadiens just two shots in going 0-for-3, including killing off a five-minute major to Sammy Blais in the first period.
Montreal had each of its two shots on that major, so the Canadiens got no shots on each of their two remaining power plays.
For the weekend, the Blues went 5-for-9with the man advantage and 6-for-6 on the kill. That'll net you two points on most nights.
2. Strong start in back-to-back games -- Bannister had been harping on starting strong in games.
It was a decent start on Saturday in a 3-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres, but Sunday was just exceptional.
The Blues were on the front foot early and got a lead 25 seconds in on Alexey Toropchenko's goal and had two just past the five-minute marker.
Despite allowing a goal to Nick Suzuki five seconds after the Blais major expired, and more of that is explained in the three-period takeaways, the Blues continued to push and got a big goal from Kyrou that set the wheels in motion for their power-play success.
3. Gaining another road result -- Since losing 5-2 against the Washington Capitals on Jan. 18, the Blues have outscored the opposition 22-12 away from Enterprise Center, and Sunday's road result was their best yet, winning the special teams, as mentioned above, winning the 5-on-5 game (4-2), playing in the opposing team's end for two-thirds of the game at the very least, with the exception to the second period, and getting good goaltending to supplement the team game.
The Blues found a way to race out to a lead on Sunday leaving little doubt, even when the game got to 2-1, and improved their road record to 13-12-1 when at one point, they were 5-10-1.
