ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Blues were faced with this situation last week when they faced the Calgary Flames two games in a row. They won each of those two games, 2-1 and 4-1, but each of those were on home ice. Vegas was hungrier for pucks; Blues looked a step slow; Thomas-Buchnevich have to get going Against the Vegas Golden Knights, it was a home-and-home set, with the Blues winning in Las Vegas on Monday, 5-4 in a shootout, after almost frittering away a late two-goal lead. [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/latest-news/three-takeaways-from-blues-5-4-shootout-win-against-golden-knights] It was no such luck this go around when Vegas swarmed and smothered the Blues, exacting revenge in the rematch, winning 4-2 at Enterprise Center on Thursday. The Golden Knights (30-14-4) led just 19 seconds into the game when Mark Stone stone a Cam Fowler outlet feed from close range and scored on Joel Hofer to make it 1-0 and never looked back. Jordan Kyrou early, and Robert Thomas scored with an extra attacker late, and Joel Hofer made 30 saves. “It just wasn’t good enough,” Thomas said. “They were a better team start to finish. That’s why we lost the game.” Let’s jump into the Three Takeaways: * Vegas won the puck battles – Until the Blues figure out to bring the effort level and determination to win puck battles, dig in and be more efficient on those 50-50 pucks, it’s going to be this sort of up-and-down, up-and-down season. The tip-tiered teams in the league are ramping their games up, and for Vegas, which had lost four straight (0-3-1), the Golden Knights would wake up at some point. “In totality of the game, they won a lot of puck battles versus us,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “I think we were something like 23 percent in the second period and that’s the period where I thought the game got away from us. I know the first period wasn’t great either, but we had some bad turnovers in the first. But in the second period and the third period, it was 50-50 puck battles. Their puck support and determination on pucks, stronger on pucks was very evident.” * Blues looked a step slow – When pucks were there, the Golden Knights were skating faster and quicker to it. And in essence, it enabled them to find open spaces on the ice and have a much more decided shot volume. It was 24-8 after two periods, and the Blues finished with 17 shots on goal, or two fewer than the 19 misses they had. “I thought they were vastly improved from our previous game,” Montgomery said of the Golden Knights. “That’s a championship team. Most of the guys on that roster have won a Stanley Cup, and they came out and they showed why. And it’s a good opportunity from us to learn from them, realize there’s another level or two levels for us to grow to.” * Blues have to get Thomas/Buchnevich going – Montgomery put Buchnevich back with Thomas early in the game because, “ I thought ‘Buchy’ was on top of his game early.” Buchnevich started the game with Oskar Sundqvist and Alexey Toropchenko, the same line he finished the game against Utah Hockey Club last Saturday and played with on Monday in Vegas, but the Blues need two scoring lines going, but that pairing just isn’t getting the job done and not complementing the Brayden Schenn line with Kyrou and Dylan Holloway: “I put them back together just because we need that line kind of develop the chemistry that the Schenn line has so we can be really dynamic offensively,” Montgomery said. “It just hasn’t materialized.” What’s not going right? “A bunch of things,” Thomas said. “When you kind of get out of it and aren't playing well, the other areas of your game tend to be different. We're searching for offense, and it's just not coming right now. So got to find a way to bear down and make the game a little bit simpler and we'll get out of it. We always have. Whenever you're struggling, you always find a way to get out of it. So there's positives on the other side of it.” Montgomery said just that, they are searching for offense, and it’s bleeding into other parts of their game. “I just think that when you’re gifted offensive players like they are, and they are good 200-foot players as well,” he said. “When the offense isn’t coming, your habits and the consistency with the way your habits are, your work habits, they deteriorate because you’re searching for offense. I’ve seen it over and over. It doesn’t matter what player it is in the league. When they go through a slump, they kind of lose their work ethic and it’s just something we’ve got to get back to.” Thomas has a goal and two assists the past six games, and Buchnevich, who assisted on the Thomas 6-on-5 goal Thursday, has two assist the past six games: “It's a mental game,” Thomas said. “You look at the positives and it's exciting. You know, in the suffering comes passion. There's a lot of passion and we're going to find a way to get out of it.” Would Montgomery be willing to break the Holloway-Schenn-Kyrou line up to get others going? No chance. “It’s hard to break up a line that’s scoring every game,” he said. “I think the rest of our lineup has to raise their level to the level that line’s playing at.” Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjA5MjcwNjk1MDQ0MDY0NDYy/subscribe2024-front-banner.jpg]
