Predators win special teams game with two power-play goals, shorthanded goal; Saros makes 44 saves on rare occasion Binnington had off night in crucial loss for Blues
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- For those that would pick up the stat sheet or watch goal highlights and think the St. Louis Blues were taken to the woodshed by the Nashville Predators on Thursday, think again.
Yes, the result is all that matters, but the Blues' 6-3 loss a Bridgestone Arena was anything but a bad loss.
Sure, it is in Game No. 76, when the Blues (39-32-4) needed two points in the worst way. It would have pulled them within four points of the Predators (44-28-4) for the second wild card in the Western Conference and kept them within five points of the Los Angeles Kings, who defeated the San Jose Sharks Thursday.
Instead, they are now eight back of Nashville and seven back of L.A. with six games to play.
Not good.
"It's two points we thought we needed," Blues defenseman Justin Faulk said.
Indeed they were.
But the Blues gave it their best shot in a game where if not for the play of Juuse Saros in Nashville goal (he made 44 saves) and the specialty teams (Blues were 1 for 6 on the power play and allowed two power-play goals on three chances), this game would have likely gone in a different direction.
"Yeah I thought we were the better team for most of the night," said Blues center Robert Thomas, who had an assist. "It's a frustrating result obviously. I think we did a lot of really good things and just couldn't find a way to bury on our chances."
The Blues were really good 5-on-5, and for a change, outshooting the Predators 37-22 at even strength.
"Yeah I thought overall, definitely 5-on-5, we played a pretty good game," Faulk said. "Good first period and that's what we knew we needed. Good to bounce back right away. Special teams didn't go our way. I was pleased with our effort, gave ourselves a chance. It's tough right now. ... We were playing desperate obviously there in the third pulling the goalie and the 4-on-4 situation doing everything we can to try and get back in it."
Blues interim coach Drew Bannister agreed.
"I thought we played well 5-on-5 for the first 40 minutes," Bannister said. "In the third there, it got a little bit scrambly with the goalie being pulled in some of the situations we were trying to score on. I thought the guys competed hard and did a lot of good things in the first 40 minutes. Offensively, we created a lot of opportunities. Their goalie had to make a lot of big saves for them. We need to do a better job of getting pucks to the net, especially on the power play. I don't think there were any guys that didn't come to compete tonight. I thought our guys came and they put a good effort in, but at the end of the day it wasn't good enough."
Let's dive into the takeaways and key points from a crucial loss:
* Blues make mistake on first shift -- Just when the Blues wanted to establish something in the early going, they get caught on a Colton Parayko pinch, a puck getting past Brandon Saad and a 2-on-1 turned into a Roman Josi goal.
It's a goal Jordan Binnington, who for a change for outplayed by his counterpart, would want back. Even though it was a 2-on-1, Binnington played the shooter correctly but got beat on the short side just 31 seconds into the game and it was 1-0.
Normally under those circumstances, especially earlier in the season, the Blues would crumble. But they actually picked up their play and increased their shot volume, putting Saros under duress.
* Saad stays hot, Blues forecheck sets tempo -- Saad would get the Blues level at 1-1 when Thomas intercepted friend Ryan O'Reilly in the Nashville zone, fed Thomas in the slot and he beat Saros high on the short side.
The Blues were forcing Nashville into all sorts of puck errors, and their forecheck was making life in the Predators zone. But Saros was making all the key saves.
"Yeah, he's one of the best goalies in the league," Faulk said of Saros. "He's been that way for a while. It's a tough goalie to crack. It's tough. Some nights, you've got to try and lock it down and know in order to win a game, you might have to be a low-scoring game because you know you're going against a good goalie and a team that tries to play pretty tight defensively, not open it up too much. He played well tonight. We had 45, almost 5o shots or something. We threw a lot at him, that's for sure."
The Blues came out of the period with a season-high 20 shots on goal in the first period.
* Another slow start to begin a period -- Just like the first, the Blues were hoping to avoid a poor start. They needed to take advantage of a strong first, but Saad was called for slashing, and Filip Forsberg made it 2-1 with a power-play goal from the left circle that Thomas got a stick on and changed the trajectory of the shot through Binnington's pads at 1:13.
* Power play comes up empty -- The Blues missed out on two power play chances in the first, then got three more in the second but came up empty-handed despite 10 power-play shots.
"I just don't think we got our shots through. I think that's the main thing," Thomas said, noting Nashville's 19 blocks. "They blocked them. We got one at the end there, but I think we had a couple good looks and just couldn't hit the net and couldn't bury. Again, it's frustrating."
Bannister added, "We had a lot of good looks 5-on-5. There were opportunities there. Some redirections, an inch one way or another and it's probably in the back of the net. I think we had 47-49 shots ... the only thing I would say is on our power play, we have to find a way to get more pucks to the net. Credit to them, they blocked a lot of shots. But we have to do a better job of finding a way to get pucks to the net in those situations."
* Killer third goal -- Alexey Toropchenko's roughing call was a weak one at best, but the Blues needed that kill late in the second to keep it a one-shot game.
They failed when Anthony Beauvillier made it 3-1 with 29.6 seconds left in the period when scrambly bodies produced a puck for Nashville, and Gustav Nyquist slow-chipped a puck to Beauvillier at the back post for a slam dunk.
"Yeah, but we came back," Thomas noted. "I thought we came out hard. We had a couple good looks early. Jake scores and we get it back to a one-goal game at one point. I was happy with our response. It's not enough."
The Blues had 35 shots through two periods, including 34 shot attempts in the first alone The opportunities were there.
* Bad turnover -- The Blues were managing the puck well despite being down, but Torey Krug turned a puck over, Michael McCarron picked it off and beat Binnington from distance, another shot the goalie would like back, at 4:09 of the third for a 4-1 lead.
Now the Blues are really chasing.
* Pulling the goalie -- Some thought Patrick Roy was in the building, but Bannister pulled Binnington with roughly 12 minutes left during a 4-on-4 situation to make it 5-on-4.
"Yeah I mean we're down 4-1, we have to find a way to score goals," Bannister said. "From there, we're just looking to give ourselves opportunities to create offense and try and close the gap."
They would do that when Jake Neighbours scored his team-leading 27th at 6:21 to make it a 4-2 game when he was sprung by Faulk into the left circle and wristed a shot by Saros on the short side.
* Kyrou makes it interesting -- The Blues finally capitalized when Kyrou one-timed a shot from the left circle with 2:15 remaining to make it 4-3. It came off Nashville's sixth minor and Binnington pulled making it a 6-on-4.
* Empty-netters seal fate -- Unfortunately, the Blues could get no closer when Forsberg scored his personal-best 43rd at 18:16, and Mark Jankowski made it 6-3 at 19:23 with a shorthanded empty-netter.
"I thought we matched (Nashville's intensity and physicality)," Bannister said. 'I thought physically, especially on the forecheck in the offensive zone, we were able to do some good things and create offense from it. They score on the first shift. Again, it's a forecheck. We take a lazy route. Our D gets down on a puck. We are there, but we aren't there and it's a 2-on-1. The first shot our goalie sees is off a 2-on-1. So, you take that shift away in the first (period) and we played a pretty good period. So certainly we had a good first period, a first period that we could live with going into the second. From there, we're down 3-1 but we don't feel like we're out of the game. It felt like we played some pretty good hockey at that point. We had an opportunity to change the flow of the game if we were able to score early in the third, but they get that fourth one and now we have to change our game plan a little bit and be more aggressive."
