St. Louis Blues center Radek Faksa (12) has his shot stopped by Los Angeles Kings goalie David Rittich (31) on Saturday. (Jeff Curry-Imagn Images) [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/6e24180c-5ab6-47a5-9355-2a5d7ab4a0f9.jpeg] St. Louis Blues center Radek Faksa (12) has his shot stopped by Los Angeles Kings goalie David Rittich (31) on Saturday. (Jeff Curry-Imagn Images) ST. LOUIS – Ok, it’s getting serious again for the St. Louis Blues [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/]. Serious enough that it could alter what management does in just six short days when the NHL Trade Deadline comes and passes on Friday. But a fourth straight win on Saturday, 4-1 against the Los Angeles Kings, at Enterprise Center, has the Blues (29-26-6) almost shaving their entire deficit off the second wild card in the Western Conference in one week. That deficit, eight points exactly a week ago, is now down to one after wins against the Colorado Avalanche (3-1) [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/latest-news/three-takeaways-from-blues-3-1-win-against-avalanche], Seattle Kraken (7-2) [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/latest-news/three-takeaways-from-blues-7-2-win-against-kraken]and Washington Capitals (5-2) [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/latest-news/three-takeaways-from-blues-5-2-win-against-capitals]. Who would have thought that this would even be possible? But when you’re taking care of your own business while those around you also fighting and jockeying for playoff position drop points, it changes the mindset of not only those making the decisions but also those that are directly involved, and that’s the players. “It feels pretty good. It’s definitely fun,” said Blues forward Dylan Holloway, who had a goal and an assist to extend his point streak to four games (three goals, two assists). “The boys are playing well. It’s fun that things are clicking right now and I think all four lines and all three pairs of ‘D’ and our goalies have been awesome. These wins have been a big team effort and we’re excited to keep this thing going.” Pavel Buchnevich, who extended his point streak to six games (two goals, seven assists) scored, as did Zack Bolduc and Colton Parayko, who keeps increasing his career-best goal total to 15 games, and Jordan Binnington is now 5-0-1 his past six starts with a 25-save effort. “It’s very enjoyable to watch our team play as committed as they are for each other,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. ‘It’s very selfless hockey going on right now, how excited the bench gets no matter who scores, the blocked shots at the end (by Nathan Walker and Alexey Toropchenko), the unselfish changes, changing at the right time, middle lane drives, boxing out at the net, sacrificing for each other. All those things make it fun to watch right now.” Let’s look at Saturday’s Three Takeaways: * Aggressive play continues to pay dividends – For what it’s worth, the Blues just continue to play an aggressive style of hockey and it’s working like a charm. The forwards are aggressively forechecking pucks back in the offensive zone, the defensemen are holding the zone and pinching with fervor, they’re skating in each zone, using their sticks to break up plays and when they get bogged down for extended shifts in the defensive zone, their fast, aggressive plays at the puck are breaking up opponents’ execution. During the Blues’ four-game winning streak, they’ve outscored their opponents 19-6. “I think it makes it hard on other teams for sure,” Parayko said. “We’re just getting pucks in. “As a D-man, it’s never fun obviously going back the whole game and it makes it tough for sure on D-men. I think we’ve done a great job of going north, playing north, getting pucks in and when we get them in, we have a good chance of getting them back. All in all, it’s been fun.” * Overcoming early deficit without thinking twice – Even as recent as 2-3 weeks ago, an early deficit would have been hard to overcome by this group. But when Kevin Fiala whipped a one-timer from the top of the right circle bar-down to give the Kings a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal 3:43 into the game, the Blues didn’t waver. “We got down 1-0, there’s no hanging our heads, there’s a lot of positive talk on the bench, so we come back and get a 2-1 lead,” Montgomery said. The Blues got their lunch pails back out and went to work, plain and simple. They would tie it on Parayko’s goal at 9:37 of the first when Kyrou had the shift of the game, creating one opportunity for the big defenseman and he just missed wide at the right post, then putting his head down and skating to the boards to win the puck back, getting it back from Holloway to create a second chance for Parayko, who didn’t miss this one from the bottom of the left circle beating David Rittich: And the effort plays were displayed no better than on Buchnevich’s goal at 18:07 of the first for a 2-1 lead, when three skaters pursued a loose puck near the crease as Rittich tried to cover it unsuccessfully, and in the end, Buchnevich would deposit the loose puck: It didn’t stop there when Bolduc was the beneficiary of a Mathieu Joseph blocked shot in the D-zone, and the puck caromed out into the neutral zone and Bolduc seemed to be the only player to locate it and zoomed in and whipped a toe-drag wrister past Rittich for a 3-1 lead at 9:27 of the second period: And when Buchnevich wouldn’t clap his slapper in at the buzzer, missing out by mere tenths of a second that would have made it 4-1 at the end of the period, Holloway would get the three-goal cushion needed when he took a Brayden Schenn puck into the zone, moved to the high slot and beat Rittich with a stoppable shot at 1:34 of the third period: “The momentum’s there,” Holloway said. “I think we proved to ourselves we can beat some good teams and that we’re a good team ourselves too. When we’re playing well and all four lines are going, I think we’re a handful. We just can’t get complacent here.” * Kyrou is a different hockey player – The question always with Kyrou has been: can he be a difference-maker in a 200-foot game? We know the offensive capabilities have always been there, but can this player elevate his game away from the puck? When he makes plays and has shifts like he did on the Parayko goal shows the affect he can have on not only a team but on a game. “He’s awesome and he’s so skilled,” Holloway said of Kyrou. “He skates so well. I’[m just glad I’m not out there defending him because he’s kind of a water bug out there cutting back. He’s a super-fun player to play with and I’m really lucky to be playing with him.” Added Montgomery, who seems to have a pulse on how he wants his top-line winger to play, “I thought Jordan was really on his game tonight. When he’s tracking pucks and stripping people of pucks, when he’s skating offensively, with the puck, without the puck, that’s when you know Jordan Kyrou’s on his game. You could see it right away. I thought the pass before the goal to 55 was more special than the one that he made for the goal. That’s selfless hockey. “… Because that’s when we know that’s when he’s on his game. And when Jordan has the puck, he’s going to make plays. The more he has the puck, the more he tracks it, the more he strips people of pucks, the better it is for the St. Louis Blues.” Kyrou not only led the Blues with seven shots on goal but he had six(!) hits, which was one behind leader Alexey Toropchenko; he also was issued a roughing minor getting mixed up with Kings defenseman Jacob Moverare.
