Puck possession was as dominant as it's been all season; shot clock didn't lie (38-13); penalty kill continues to impress, lead NHL since Olympic break; team is back in playoff chase; Holl scores against former team ... again; Thomas effort on Suter shorty a beauty
ST. LOUIS – If you watched the St. Louis Blues and Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night, there was one obvious observation that could be made: one team played with desperation and urgency; the other didn’t.
It was that kind of game for the Blues, who dominated the Leafs in every facet, except for maybe in goal because Dardenne Prairie’s Joseph Woll was bombarded with 38 shots to just 13 faced by Jordan Binnington, and that's no disrespect to Binnington but he simply didn't have to see as much vulcanized rubber on this night ... not nearly as much. And this game was only close in the third period because of Woll.
The Blues’ 5-1 win was their fourth straight, they swept the three-game homestand and are 10-1-2 in their past 13 games.
“It’s great,” defenseman Cam Fowler said. “Winning in this league is always fun. No matter how it ends up happening, it gives our group a lot of momentum. It’s fun coming to the rink when you’re having some success and guys have smiles on their faces. It’s a humbling league and that can change quickly. We’re trying to stick with the right things that have given us that success and trying to keep that momentum going.”
Dylan Holloway had a goal and an assist; Jordan Kyrou, Robert Thomas and Jake Neighbours each had two assists, and Justin Holl scored against his former team, Jimmy Snuggerud, Pius Suter and Philip Broberg also scored for the Blues (31-30-11), who moved over .500 for the first time since Oct. 21 when they were 3-2-1.
“Playing with confidence has been big,” Thomas said. “The guys have really stepped up and taken over on how we want to play. We’re just playing with a ton of confidence. Our ‘D’ are getting up in the plays, we’re transitioning so quick, we’re finding the middle. Our attack off the rush is really dangerous. There’s a lot of things going well right now, especially when you have so many young guys coming in. They’ve really stepped up, not only their play but just showing maturity and stepping up and talking in the room. I think it’s been really important lately.”
Don't look now, but with the loss by the Nashville Predators, 4-1, against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday, the Blues sit four points out of the second wild card in the Western Conference with a game in hand. But they have to jump five teams to gain that position.
Buckle up.
Let’s get into the game observations:
* Puck dominance – When I prefaced the first question to Jim Montgomery by saying that the Blues had the puck “quite a bit,” the Blues coach jumped in with, “All night long.”
And he wasn’t far off.
The 38-13 discrepancy in shots on goal was no misnomer. In fact, the shot attempts were 60-34, and again, had it not been for Woll, the Blues had this game blown out of the water much sooner than needing to pull away after things got dicey in the third period when Toronto cut it to 2-1.
“The way we played north, the way we played connected,” Montgomery said. “Our guys were connected in all three zones. Our puck decisions were really good. We hardly had any turnovers. We made them defend a lot."
It prompted Leafs coach and former Blues Stanley Cup-winning coach Craig Berube to surmise.
“We had one player that showed up tonight and that was our goalie,” Berube said. “That's what it really boils down to.
“It's very disappointing. I mean, I thought the last couple of games we were pretty good and we were building. Like I talk about staying together and playing competitive and we did not have that out there tonight.”
The Blues had the puck for large swaths, it was as if they were playing keep-away with it. It was that advantageous for the home side.
“That's because we didn't check. We had no pressure,” Berube said. “We let them come at us all night. They had the puck all night. Checking is a will and a want and an urgency. We let them do whatever they wanted with the puck tonight.”
Woll kept the Leafs in it for as long as he could, but after denying Colton Parayko between the hash marks, the Blues regained the zone pretty quick after that, and Snuggerud once again got things started with the opening goal at 5:21 that made it 1-0 when Cam Fowler slid past Max Domi and curled a pass to Snuggerud to redirect past Woll:
“I came in, ‘Holly’ made a great play and I looked up at the net and I didn’t see much of a screen so I wasn’t sure if it was a good opportunity to shoot,” Fowler said. “’Snuggy’ either beat his man out of the corner and found a spot there. I figured it was better on his stick than mine. I made the play and he did the rest.”
When Holloway made it 4-1 at 9:10 of the third period, it was another easy zone entry after the Blues stick-checked the puck back and moved into transition, and Kyrou finished off the play by feeding Holloway into the slot and the finish:
“Well, it's one of those things where the confidence grows and you see the success you're having,” Montgomery said. “We're repeating it -- it's like rinse, repeat and go to work the next day. We see it on film. Guys are believing in how well they're playing together and being connected. We're changing at the right times. Everything that we weren't doing correctly we're doing correctly right now.”
* Holl gets his revenge … again – Holl doesn’t score often, but when he does, he likes to stick it to his former club.
It was his first goal this season in his sixth game and just his second goal since April 17, 2025, also against the Leafs as a member of the Detroit Red Wings:
Holl played for Toronto from 2017-23 before signing with the Red Wings as a free agent July 1, 2023.
Holl played 16:21 and was a plus-1 for the third straight game; he’s a plus-5 in just six games with the Blues after spending the season in Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League.
But it happened in an area that has been problematic for the Blues all season long: net front traffic.
“It's a hard thing to do,” Montgomery said. ‘It's an area of our game that still needs to improve 5-on-5, but we had two tonight. Neighbours did it on Holl's deflection. I think their goalies aren't seeing pucks, so we're scoring more. We're starting to become a hungrier, dirtier offensive team.”
* Suter’s goal was a shift of all shifts from Thomas – Suter’s goal stunted any potential comeback thought from the Leafs when he scored the team’s sixth shorthanded goal of the season at 6:46 of the third that made it 3-1.
Suter started it off by deflecting the first pass, and then it was all Thomas, who won an airborne loose puck away from John Tavares, took off down the left hand side before cutting back towards the middle. He tried throwing a pass to Suter but it got deflected away, but not taking anything for granted, Thomas outhustled two Leafs (Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Matthew Knies) to win the puck back in the corner before flipping it to Suter above the hash marks for the one-timer:
“Playing with confidence has been big,” Thomas said. “The guys have really stepped up and taken over on how we want to play. We’re just playing with a ton of confidence. Our ‘D’ are getting up in the plays, we’re transitioning so quick, we’re finding the middle. Our attack off the rush is really dangerous. There’s a lot of things going well right now, especially when you have so many young guys coming in. They’ve really stepped up, not only their play but just showing maturity and stepping up and talking in the room. I think it’s been really important lately.”
* Penalty kill continues to shine – The Leafs were 0-for-3 on the power play tonight, and quite frankly, the Blues were better playing 4-on-5 against Toronto, especially when the Leafs had a four-minute power-play courtesy of Jack Finley’s double minor for high-sticking at 12:41 of the first period.
Not only did the Leafs not get a shot on goal in those four minutes, although they did hit a cross bar at the end of it, but they barely could gain the zone.
St. Louis’ penalty kill, which was 29th in the league at 73.2 percent before the Olympic break, is first since starting on Feb. 26, going 37-for-42, good for an 88.1 percent clip.
They’re still 28th in the league overall but have lifted the season percentage to 76.4 percent and it’s part of the commitment to defending that’s led to the resurgence.
“I think if you look at kind of the DNA of our team, I think that’s something we always try and put an emphasis on is taking care of our own zone and transitioning from offense in that way,” Fowler said. “If you look at this last little stretch, the amount of goals that we’re giving up, it’s been good in that regard. One, two goals a night. Our goaltenders are playing great for us and giving us opportunities to win games. We know that’s the blueprint for us to have success and that hasn’t changed. It’s just we’re starting to find a little more consistency with it now.”
Defense leads to offense, and it’s showing none better than the balance in scoring.
“The commitment to defense, it helps our goalies too,” Snuggerud said. “I think we have one of the best goalie corps in the NHL and when we commit defensively, they’re there for us and they’re making saves as you guys can see from stellar performances from them back there. Give them a lot of credit. Defense creates offense. We’re just trying to create defense to create offense.”
It’s the fifth straight game the Blues have allowed one or fewer goals, the second time in the past decade according to league stats (March 19-29, 2016). They could tie a franchise record on Monday against the San Jose Sharks (Oct. 31-Nov. 15, 1970).
The power play still needs some work, but Broberg at least for them on the board there late in the game at 18:24 of the third to make it a 5-1 game, the Blues’ third goal on the man advantage in the past 28 opportunities:
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