St. Louis Blues captain Brayden Schenn (10) reaches for a loose puck near teammate Dylan Holloway in a 5-2 win against the Washington Capitals on Thursday at Capital One Arena. (Geoff Burke-Imagn Images) [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/7c51b415-3a84-4828-ace6-ceab19bdeaef.jpeg] St. Louis Blues captain Brayden Schenn (10) reaches for a loose puck near teammate Dylan Holloway in a 5-2 win against the Washington Capitals on Thursday at Capital One Arena. (Geoff Burke-Imagn Images) Finally. It took three-fourths of the season for the St. Louis Blues to string together three straight wins. We can finally stop talking about not being able to do it. It was another thorough and decisive performance in captain Brayden Schenn's 1.000th NHL game [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/players/blues-captain-has-taken-his-own-unique-path-towards-1000-games-one-he-wouldnt-change-for-anything], and the Blues dominated from start to finish in a 5-2 win against the Eastern Conference-leading Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Thursday. Philip Broberg scored two first-period goals, Jake Neighbours had a goal and an assist and Pavel Buchnevich and Schenn each had two assists, while Robert Thomas extended his point streak to eight games (four goals, eight assists) with an assist. And Joel Hofer had a light night with 16 saves as the Blues (28-26-6) moved within three points of the Vancouver Canucks for the second wild card in the Western Conference. The Blues were less than a half a minute away from having a five-game winning streak when they blew a late lead last Saturday against the Winnipeg Jets that ultimately led to a 4-3 shootout loss [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/latest-news/three-takeaways-from-blues-4-3-shootout-loss-against-jets], but are 4-0-1 the past five games and 3-0-1 following the 4 Nations Face-Off. Let's look at the Three Takeaways to a third straight win: * Defensemen turning offensemen -- Last season, the Blues were getting little in the form of scoring from their defensemen. This year it's a different story and it continued on Thursday. Not only did Broberg score twice in the first period, first on a beautiful patient hold and seam pass by Mathieu Joseph that beat former Blues goalie Charlie Lindgren from the right circle that made it 1-0 at 11:14 of the first period: He then scored his third goal the past five games on a break-in off the left side on a pass by Neighbours at 17:45 of the first that regained the lead for the Blues at 2-1: But Colton Parayko also scored, at 17:58 of the second period that gave the Blues a 4-2 lead on two goals in 35 seconds after Dylan Holloway made it 3-2 at 17:23, or 28 seconds after Washington (38-13-8) tied the game 2-2: The Blues, who now have 34 goals among defensemen, only trail the Columbus Blue Jackets (39) and Colorado Avalanche (36) and are tied with the Seattle Kraken. And Parayko, who continues to add to his career-high, now has 14. Since the Discover NHL Winter Classic, the Blues have 44 points in 22 games from their defensemen, averaging two per game. They're led by Cam Fowler (13 points; six goals, seven assists) in 22 games; Parayko has 12 points (eight goals, four assists) in 21 games; Justin Faulk has 12 points (one goal, 11 assists) in 20 games and Broberg has seven points (three goals, four assists) in 22 games. * Dominating the circle -- The Capitals are a team that thrives on puck possession and it shows, being the NHL's top scoring team averaging 3.62 goals per game. But once again, the Blues dominated the circle and by doing that, forced Washington into chasing the puck instead of dominating possession. The Blues won 35 of 53 face-offs in the game, or a whopping 66 percent, led by Radek Faksa (eight of 11, 73 percent), Schenn (seven of 10, 70 percent), Thomas (13 of 21, 62 percent) and Oskar Sundqvist (six of 10, 60 percent). Nathan Walker also won a draw. And by keeping the puck out of the Capitals' skaters, Alex Ovechkin was kept grounded. Ovechkin, who is chasing Wayne Gretzky's all-time goal-scoring record (894 goals), remains 11 away from tying 'The Great One,' and 12 from setting the record. Ovechkin had four shots on goal on 10 attempts but was a minus-4 in the game. * Motivated for the captain -- Schenn joined older brother Luke Schenn (defenseman, Nashville Predators) as the only siblings to reach the 1,000-game mark in the same season in league history and eighth sets of brothers to do it. [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/game-day/2-27-25-blues-capitals-gameday-lineup] Schenn's father, Jeff, even delivered the starting lineup prior to puck drop: Schenn was a plus-3 in 15:39 of ice time and was appreciative of the support he received from his teammates for playing the right way. When Neighbours scored into the empty net at 18:05 of the third period, it put a stamp on a solid road win and give the Blues a perfect 3-0-0 record wearing the Winter Classic jerseys: Hear what coach Jim Montgomery had to say about the win and the Blues outscoring their opponents 18-8 since the break:
