St. Louis Blues defenseman Justin Faulk (left) passes around Colorado Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews (7) in finding teammate Dylan Holloway for the third goal Sunday in a 3-1 Blues win at Enterprise Center. (Jeff Curry-Imagn Images) [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/728957fd-f9c6-4f5b-8b89-3f4029f9796e.jpeg] St. Louis Blues defenseman Justin Faulk (left) passes around Colorado Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews (7) in finding teammate Dylan Holloway for the third goal Sunday in a 3-1 Blues win at Enterprise Center. (Jeff Curry-Imagn Images) ST. LOUIS – Justin Faulk said it best on Sunday after the St. Louis Blues [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/] put in a masterclass performance in a 3-1 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Enterprise Center. “I thought we played pretty well last night, but didn’t get the result,” the defenseman said. “Tonight to come in, you can kind of go the other way and feel sorry, but tonight to come in, especially that second period and take over the game and get the win is really big for the group.” Faulk and Jordan Kyrou each had two assists, and Brayden Schenn, Colton Parayko and Dylan Holloway scored three second-period goals to fuel the Blues (26-26-6) to a come-from-behind win, and Jordan Binnington, fresh from his bout with Team Canada in winning the championship of the 4 Nations Face-Off, put in another robust performance with 28 saves. The Blues were less than half a minute from taking four of four points on the weekend after falling to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday, 4-3 in a shootout. [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/latest-news/three-takeaways-from-blues-4-3-shootout-loss-against-jets] But taking three of four points is not a bad way to kick off the final stretch. “I definitely like how our group responded today though,” Faulk said. “It was a tough one last night to get that late loss.” Let’s look at Sunday’s Three Takeaways: * Checking – How often does a winning coach talk about checking aspects of a game after a win? Quite often. And Blues coach Jim Montgomery all but gushed over his team’s ability to check in all three zones, whether it be by taking the body, doing it with their sticks or disrupting the flow of the Avalanche attack, which revolves around a lot of speed. “We were relentless, I thought, in our checking,” Montgomery said. “… I thought our sticks were really good defensively, I thought we were physical. We separated people from the puck and I thought our second man beat their second man to the puck, which allowed us to advance lines and gain zones.” Since the Blues returned to the ice from the 4 Nations Face-Off, their play had been so inconsistent that they made tweaks. “Just our checking,” Blues forward Jake Neighbours said. “Obviously we made a little tweak with our forecheck about being more aggressive and honestly just the work ethic. It’s been impressive. We’re battling for each other out there. There’s a lot of compete. You could tell in the room after the game guys are juiced, and that’s what it takes. Come back from break, you play Winnipeg-Colorado back-to-back, that’s a tough way to come back to it, and getting three out of four points is positive for this group.” * Defensemen pinching, having good gaps – The Blues coaching staff welcomes the D-men to pinch however and whenever. It can be risky when the wrong read is made, but it makes things go so much smoother when it’s done right. Each of the Blues’ goals were a result of the D-men making the right reads, aggressively pushing the puck forward into the offensive zone and being rewarded for the right play. The Blues break out the puck, and Parayko sees that Neighbours is making the first pass outlet in stride so he takes off and doesn’t stop, middle drive straight to the net. When Robert Thomas, who extended his point streak to six games (three goals, six assists), lays a puck off for Pavel Buchnevich, who has five points (one goal, four assists) in a three-game point streak, funnels a puck off the right wall to the net, Parayko beats Cale Makar there, out-battles goalie Mackenzie Blackwood for the loose change and pops upstairs the goal to make it 2-1 at 13:13 of the second period “The D-men I thought in all three zones, they were tight,” Montgomery said. “Our gaps were really good. We made it hard on them to have any time and space. In the D-zone, they closed plays out. And then the offensive zone, it didn’t matter who. The whole D-core, they did a great job of just holding the offensive zone and then I thought our forwards in the second and third period, it’s the best we’ve played as hard of offensive hockey in a while.” Justin Faulk led the charge from the D-group with arguably his best game of the season. The veteran finished with a plus-2 in 21:14 and also fueled a lot of the drive into the offensive zone with a great second effort on Holloway’s goal winning a race with Devon Toews with 10 seconds left in the second that ultimately was the back-breaker by sliding the puck to a driving Holloway going to the net: “Just playing the way we want to as a group and I’ve got to be a part of that,” Faulk said. “I’ve got to move my feet, play aggressive, move pucks fast and definitely be aggressive in the O-zone with keeping pucks alive and sit in your gaps, just being as connected as we can. It’s been trending in the right direction hopefully. “In general, we were playing well. We thought we had a really good period. Obviously that helps any time you get a late goal, there’s come momentum carryover. To be honest, it doesn’t usually last too long. Maybe a shift or two so you have to keep rolling it over and moving that way. But we were committed to it tonight. We kept it going in the third and didn’t give them much room. “I knew he would go back to the net. I couldn’t really keep my eyes on him the whole time because I got in a little of a battle there with Toews so I just had to hope at the end that he was still going. He did a good job. That’s where you want to go in that situation. That’s what we talk about, drive the back post and make it uncomfortable on their defensemen. He did exactly that.” Montgomery said, “I’ve liked Justin Faulk both games since we’ve been back. I thought he was really good yesterday and I thought he was even better tonight. What I’m liking about him is you’re seeing him win 50-50 battles. He’s going through arms. It doesn’t matter if it’s at our goal line, if it’s in the offensive zone, holding pucks. He’s a really strong man and he just wins a lot of pucks, and that’s what we’re seeing in these last two games. “A lot of it in the offensive zone does, and then with his ability to skate when he wins battles in the D-zone, he moves it up and he jumps. He beats back-checkers up ice that allows us to get 4-on-3s and you saw him on a couple plays. I remember the one in the third where ‘Tommer’ sauced it over to him and he gets that puck and he gets it and he hammers it and we have a screen at the net. ‘Jakey’ was there, I think.” * Playing hard on pucks in the O-zine, a net front presence – It took a bit, but as all the components of their game came together, the Blues were really hard to play against in the offensive zone managing pucks well, retrieving loose pucks and just being dogged and determined. They didn’t allow many, if any, easy turns and outlets out of the zone and were able to apply good, sustained pressure, just like Schenn’s opener at 10:45 of the second period that tied the game 1-1: “Offensively after the first period, I thought we were really hard offensively,” Montgomery said. “Not passing up shots, having people at the net front, driving the net. We tried a lot of low slot line plays, East-West plays and I thought our D-men were really good. “… I think we’re playing the right way and we can see it building. After the first period, we didn’t love part of our offensive hockey, but we thought it was coming, just like it was last night.” And when they needed a backbone, Jordan Binnington delivered a solid performance with 28 saves, including 13 in the third period. [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/latest-news/when-stakes-are-highest-jordan-binnington-delivered-once-again] "I'm American so I can only cheer for certain players, not results for them in a sense, but I appreciate that they played well because you know that it's going to bleed into their game here, come back with a lot of confidence," Faulk joked. "Same with Parayko. They’re both doing their thing and playing great, but to come back after that, you know that they’re going to feel good about their game. Hopefully we can take advantage of it as a group and follow along."
