A true testament for the St. Louis Blues coming off the All-Star break in their first game in 10 days against the Buffalo Sabres is if they'd be able to shed the stinker they had in their previous game.
A 1-0 loss against the Columbus Blue Jackets was most certainly a stinker for the Blues and one interim coach Drew Bannister wanted to sit in the players' guts for days ahead.
But in wanting to park that game that ended a five-game winning streak, it was time to focus on the task at hand, and that's the first of the final 33 games of the regular season with the Blues right in the thick of the playoff race in the Western Conference.
It wasn't pretty at times, but they'll gladly take a 3-1 win against the Sabres at KeyBank Center on the shoulders of two Jake Neighbours goals and 33 saves from Neighbours' roommate Joel Hofer.
As teams start to scoreboard watch a little more now, the Blues, no matter what happens around the league on Saturday night, will enter Sunday's noon matinee against the Montreal Canadiens holding down one of two wild card spots (along with the Los Angeles Kings) and plenty of pursuers behind them.
Let's get into the three-period takeaways from the Blues' sixth win in their past seven games.
* First Period -- Let's face it, the Blues haven't had the best of starts to games often enough recently, and Bannister said that was one of the topics of discussion coming out of the break that they wanted a better start, especially against a team below them in the standings, which has been a problem.
They certainly got one, and nearly took a lead when Nathan Walker's attempt at the side of the net roughly four minutes in but his curl and tuck hit the back of Ukko-Pekka Kuukkonen's left skate, skirted all the way across the goal line and cleared by Sabres defenseman Owen Power.
It came after a close call at the other end that saw Hofer spring into action when the Sabres crashed the net for one of the few times in the game and former Blue Tage Thompson almost cashing in.
Recent call-up Calle Rosen was hit with the first penalty of the game when the defenseman was whistled for tripping at 6:12, but the Blues were able to get the first of three kills rather unscathed.
The Blues' fourth line, which was trending upwards in this game, and started it off well, drew the first power play of their own when Ryan Johnson was called for slashing at 11:47.
The Blues made the Sabres pay when Neighbours put St. Louis ahead 1-0 at 12:53.
It was a bit of a fortuitous play, one in which Robert Thomas found Pavel Buchnevich in the bumper slot, but the puck caromed off Buchnevich right to Neighbours at the net, and he swept the backhand into the top of the net.
Not long after, the Blues had to kill off another penalty when Oskar Sundqvist lifted a backhand clear into the stands for delay of game at 13:36, but Buffalo didn't have any dangerous looks on that man advantage either.
The Blues got out of the period up a goal and up on the shot clock 11-9 with a late push with some offense.
* Second Period -- When the Sabres had good, sustained offensive zone time, it was usually when they won wall battles and retrieved pucks off shot selections.
The period opened up for them in that fashion and Kyle Okposo benefitted from a fortuitous bounce of his own to tie the game 1-1 just 51 seconds in.
The Blues had lost a couple wall battles that kept plays alive in their zone, Thompson was able to curl around Torey Krug down the righthand side and center a puck that hit Okposo, and in an effort to clear it out of danger, Matthew Kessel swept the backhand off Sundqvist's skate and into the net past Hofer.
It could have been a momentum swing, but it wasn't.
Jordan Kyrou quickly restored the Blues' one-goal lead to 2-1 when he was all alone in the slot and scored off Colton Parayko's rim from the right point around the boards that took a funny carom, off the side of the net to Kyrou in front, and he beat Luukkonen glove side at 4:32.
The Blues aren't a penalty-happy team, but they had to go to the kill for a third time less than halfway through the game when Brayden Schenn was nabbed for slashing at 7:41.
This is where Hofer was called into action when he was able to sprawl and make a left arm save of a JJ Peterka wrister from the right circle to preserve the one-goal lead.
The Blues went to their second power play of the game when Zemgus Girgensons was called for hooking Kevin Hayes at 13:29, but there was not much happening for the Blues on this particular power play.
In fact, Kyrou's goal was one of only four shots the Blues had in the period. They were outshot 15-4 but led going into the third.
* Third Period -- It would be a period of near-misses and one particular spectacular save from Luukkonen when he robbed Brandon Saad's backdoor redirection 3:13 into the period.
Then the post-fest began for the Blues, who had numerous chances to extend the lead but couldn't when Kyrou pinged the inside of the left post at 9:48 walking down the slot after a nice puck retrieval from Pavel Buchnevich.
With Kessel and Peterka serving matching minors for roughing at 11:56, Hayes took his turn to ring the pipe when his one-timer from the right circle clanked the post at 15:42.
The key moment in the game came with 3:45 to play when Parayko was called for a double-minor high-sticking Jordan Greenway in the slot trying to clear a puck. But officials went to the monitor to review and after that review, wiped the infraction off the board altogether.
Greenway was obviously cut on the right side of his nose, but they determined in an effort to play the puck, Parayko's stick was below the waist and that Greenway was crouched low.
Blues defenseman Colton Parayko (right) hits Sabres forward Jordan Greenway in the face with his stick late in the third period on Saturday. Parayko was initially called for a double minor for high-sticking but a review of the call wiped the penalty out due to Parayko's stick being below his waist.Imagine the Blues having to kill the remaining 3:45 trying to protect a one-goal lead? And at any point, the Sabres could have made it a 6-on-4 in search of the tying goal.
But they didn't have to worry about it, and Neighbours iced this one when he followed up and scored off Schenn's shot from the left circle at 18:03 to make it 3-1.
Neighbours made a chip backhand off the boards and sprinted straight towards the net knowing Schenn was shooting off the pads for a rebound, which occurred.
