Blues brush off dismal 4-0 loss to lowly Sharks on Saturday, pull within three points of Los Angeles for second wild card in Western Conference
ST. LOUIS -- The biggest question coming into Monday's game against the Edmonton Oilers for the St. Louis Blues is how do they respond after being embarrassed on home ice against the NHL's worst team on home ice just 48 hours ago.
The Blues' 4-0 loss against the San Jose Sharks at Enterprise Center on Saturday was marred by so much lethargic, poor play, particularly in the second period, that had the boo-birds out loud and clear for the Blues with their season seemingly on the line each and every game.
But this is so Blues, exactly who they are and who they've been all season: show up with valiant performances against the top-tiered teams, become invisible for the most part against opponents they should handle.
Such was the case again on Monday when Brayden Schenn scored twice, Brandon Saad netted the overtime game-winner, and Jordan Binnington did Jordan Binnington-like things with 35 saves in a 3-2 win against Connor McDavid and Co.
With the win, the Blues (40-31-4) are 8-2-1 in their past 11, guaranteed themselves a winning season and pulled within three points of the Los Angeles Kings for the second wild card in the Western Conference after the Kings dropped a 4-3 decision against the Winnipeg Jets on Monday. Los Angeles, which has eight games remaining, does have a game in hand.
"A good response by the team and the group. Everyone dug in tonight," Schenn said. "They're a good team with the high-end skill and we had to bring our 'A' game and best effort tonight. It's a good response for sure and now it's time to dig in and keep in pushing forward."
Let's jump into the takeaways from this game and the key points that led the Blues to victory:
* Oilers get the early jump -- It looked like a hangover by the Blues in the early going of this one. Edmonton had its skating legs, and the Oilers were hounding the Blues in their zone and eventually got the lead on a Mattias Ekholm one-timer from the blue line through traffic against the Blues' fourth line at 7:05 of the first period for a 1-0 Edmonton lead.
It was fourth line against fourth line and Edmonton's won it on a puck retrieval behind the Blues net and movement along the left wall to Ekholm, who used three bodies, including teammate Mattias Janmark as a screen to beat Binnington.
* String of reviews go Blues way -- The Blues were able to benefit from a string of reviews, including a goal waved off that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored at 6:11 of the second period that would have made it 2-0.
The Blues challenged got goaltender interference, and Oilers forward Zach Hyman did skirt Binnington's stick, but it was believed here the goal wouldn't get overturned, but upon review, it in fact was overturned back to 1-0.
"We just felt that [Hyman's] path through 'Binner's, I guess it was his blocker side, that opened 'Binner' up where he wasn't able to be able to recover and with his goal stick to be able to make that save," Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said. "That was our thought process there."
* Turning point in the game -- It happened for the Blues two games ago when Nathan Walker fought Joel Hanley of the Calgary Flames and they responded accordingly, it happened again on Monday when defenseman Tyler Tucker, playing his first game since March 5 (13 games) got into a fight with Oilers forward Evander Kane at 6:37 following a clean check along the o-zone boards.
Kane took exception, but the only thing he did was earn himself an extra minor for unsportsmanlike conduct and the Blues capitalized when Schenn blew a one-timer past Stuart Skinner from the right circle to tie the game 1-1 at 8:15.
"That's a great teammate," Schenn said. "His job hasn't been easy this year. He hasn't played a whole lot, but when he does, he does his job. He's feisty, he's fighting tough guys and that's what he needs to do. Solid effort by him."
The Oilers also challenged the play, for goaltender interference, with Alexey Toropchenko at the net front, and the forward did try to tip the shot past Skinner and may have caught a piece of the Oilers goaltender but the review did not take the goal down, deeming it to be legal, and Edmonton in essence was hit with a delay of game for the failed challenge.
* Key save -- The Blues had the power play again for the delay of game, then Leon Draisaitl was hit with the first of two tripping penalties at 9:04, giving the Blues a 5-on-3 for 1:11 that they failed to capitalize on, but Binnington came up with the first of several big saves, particularly that second period when he outwaited Draisaitl out of the box on a breakaway and kicked up the left pad on Draisaitl's backhand seconds after the penalty expired at 11:17.
"He's a high-end talent," Binnington said of Draisaitl. "Once he went to the backhand, it was kind of a waiting game. Luckily I think he ran out of an angle there and got my pad on it.
"That's the game, right? It's a little bit of a chess game inside the game. Obviously he's a good player, right?"
* Schenn on the mark -- The newly-formed like of Schenn, Kevin Hayes and Kasperi Kapanen had an affect on the game, particularly from an offensive standpoint, and the line produced the go-ahead goal at 1:44 by Schenn to give the Blues a 2-1 lead.
Hayes threw a backhand trying to get it out of the zone and it hopped past Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard springing Kapanen and Schenn on a 2-on-1, Kapanen saucing a pass to Schenn for a one-timer from the slot.
* Oilers push the intensity, tie the game -- With a 2-1 lead, the Oilers would make a push, but the Blues were doing a good job handling the game and executing accordingly with a one-goal lead, but you can only keep stars Connor McDavid and Draisaitl down for so long, and that dynamic duo struck to tie the game 2-2 after a puck was rimmed around into the Blues' zone, McDavid hustling to pick and strip Colton Parayko of the puck, going to his backhand and feeding Draisaitl for a one-timer down low off the right post at 14:35 of the third period.
The Oilers used McDavid and Draisaitl, each who extended his point streak to eight games, together down the stretch to try and finish the game in regulation but the Blues were able to extend to overtime, gaining a valuable point despite being outshot 34-28.
"After they scored the second goal there, we were on our heels a little bit," Bannister said. "We found a way to get through that period and get to overtime and get the extra point."
* Opportunistic Saad -- The Oilers won the draw, and with McDavid, Draisaitl and Bouchard to begin overtime, one had to think it would be tough for the Blues to see the puck again.
Not only did they see it, but uncharacteristically, they gave it right back moments later. Not a good recipe for success.
But when it appeared Jordan Kyrou was getting stripped from behind by Ryan McLeod from behind, the Oilers would be getting the puck back and a chance at an odd-man rush.
But as Schenn was coming off for a line change and Saad coming on, McLeod trying to play the puck pushed it on Saad's stride, and he helped Saad have a breakaway off the right edge, and Saad scored his 25th of the season and seventh game-winner sliding a puck through Skinner's pads.
"A really lucky bounce actually," Saad said. "I thought I was back-checking there, kind of hit their d-man's top of his stick and got a good break.
"That's hockey. You get the bounces, you've got to capitalize and that's part of it, so we'll take it."
It was quite the response after that poor performance on Saturday.
"I thought it was a good response," Bannister said. "Quite frankly, when we've played a poor game, we responded pretty well in that instance, so I'm not surprised by the response. I thought we worked to get that game. It wasn't going to be an easy game and I thought our guys, we worked our way through it. I was proud of them in that sense because it was a tough game early on."
