Three Takeaways From Blues' 4-1 Win Against Blackhawks

ST. LOUIS – You kind of had a sense this was in store for the St. Louis Blues on Saturday.

After an emotional 4-3 overtime win against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday to move into the second wild card into the Western Conference, recovering and playing another game less than 48 hours later, against the Chicago Blackhawks no less, was going to be a tough motivational game to get up for. Even though these points mean just as much as any.

The Blues had been playing so much clean hockey since the 4 Nations Face-Off, but it was predictable that they would have a bit of a clunker, and it was in danger there for a bit, as the young Blackhawks, playing for jobs for next year, were pushing them to the brink.

But the energy guys of Alexey Toropchenko and Nathan Walker led the charge each with a goal and assist, Robert Thomas and Zack Bolduc each scored, combined with another stellar outing by Joel Hofer (26 saves), and the Blues won their season-high fifth straight, 4-1 against the Blackhawks at Enterprise Center on Saturday.

“There’s probably a couple factors. The emotion of Thursday night. It was a roller-coaster game and obviously it meant a lot, and I just think you’re going to have … when you watch the league, there’s some nights, for whatever reason, a team has no legs,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. ‘The great thing for us was, I don’t think we were even close to our ‘A’ game and yet we managed the game. We weren’t perfect, but we grinded it out. We were incredibly selfless and we ended up pulling out a win. Chicago was playing well. They were checking well.”

The Blues (36-28-7), who lead the wild card by two points on the Calgary Flames, who have two games in hand, and the Vancouver Canucks by three points and Utah Hockey Club by four, who host the Nashville Predators on Sunday, played without forward Pavel Buchnevich, ruled out due to what the team called illness, was not in sync and it showed but found a way in the end to persevere.

“They played hard, they defended hard, they forechecked hard, they came at us,” Blues captain Brayden Schenn said of the Blackhawks. “I don’t think we were at our best today, but give them credit, they checked well.”

The Blues swept the three-game season series, the second time in their history doing so (4-0-0 in 2019-20).

Let’s get into Saturday’s Three Takeaways:

* Fourth line willed Blues – Montgomery preaches habits and details. Toropchenko, Walker and Radek Faksa are usually at the front of the line when it comes to them.

For large swaths of the game, the Blues were sloppy with the puck, there wasn’t the typical forecheck, but when those practice habits were on par, enter the fourth line.

“They lead us with our habits,” Montgomery said. ‘We’ve been preaching habits for a long time now. We’re seeing that.

“We weren’t very clean the first two periods, but that line was. Every time they got on the ice, we either got a face-off in their end or they changed in the offensive end. It’s nice to see them get rewarded, and they really made some high-end plays.”

It took a Thomas midair tip goal to get the scoring started at 15:13 of the second period, but Toropchenko made it 2-0 at 17:20 when all three forwards touched the puck after a quick up by Cam Fowler.

“We were just on top of them and grinding, grinding, grinding. They made that play, Fowler got the puck, he passed it to ‘Walks,’ ‘Walks’ chip it to Faksa and Faksa found me with a great pass.

“Main focus on our line is have good habits every game. It doesn’t matter when. Even on the practice day, make yourself better and just push through and play hard.

“I think we just all play the same way, all play like hard hockey, just grind, be physical, be good on the forecheck and first of all, be great in the ‘D’ zone and wear the other team down and make some good stuff for our teammates.”

It happened again on Walker’s goal at 1:12 of the third period that made it 3-1 after Chicago scored shorthanded with 54 seconds left in the second period.

It was a momentum-swinging goal that made it 2-1, but the fourth line drew it back for the home side by making a good, smart play off the edge and to the net with Toropchenko finding Walker.

“The game on Thursday and it’s sometimes hard to come back and back that up,” Walker said. “The first period really wasn’t up to our standards. I think if we can kind of do the little things and chip in here and there, I think we can go a long way with it.”

“Yeah, it led us,” Montgomery said. “They scored two key goals that separated us. That was good.”

Bolduc, who got rewarded by being promoted to the top line in Buchnevich's absense, got in on the fun to close out the scoring at 7:43 of the third on a net front rebound to make it 4-1.

* Hofer kept Blues in it – When the play looks sketchy in front of the goalie, sometimes the goalie’s play needs to be strong.

Hofer made a number of bail-out saves in this game when it was 0-0.

The Blues weren’t doing him any favors with turnovers and getting checked off pucks, but Hofer, who is 4-0-1 his past five starts, was clean with most of his handles, he was seeing pucks through traffic and most importantly, didn’t allow Chicago to gain momentum and confidence by scoring first, which the Blackhawks had a number of opportunities to do so.

* The ‘Hometown Hero’ goes out in style in last game in St. Louis – In an interview with former Blues color commentator and current Blackhawks color analyst Darren Pang pregame, Oakville native Pat Maroon announced this season, his 14th season, will be his last in the NHL.

Maroon, who played 10:41 and got into his 96th career fight in the third period with Blues defenseman Tyler Tucker, received accolades from Blues fans thanks to the team’s Bluenote Productions staff with a video tribute and the game’s First Star and ensuing interview on FDSNMW with Jamie Rivers.

Needless to say, Maroon, who was a key component on the Blues’ first-ever Stanley Cup championship squad in 2018-19, scoring one of the most important goals in franchise history in the second round of Game 7 in double overtime, winning the game 2-1 and sending the Blues into the Western Conference Final against the San Jose Sharks, was emotional during and after the game.

“I was shocked what the Blues did for me tonight,” Maroon said. “They didn’t have to do that. Obviously, I’ve been talking about it with my wife and my family. I’ve done everything I could in this league. I have no regrets. Just having a conversation with ‘Panger,’ it kind of blew up. First, I wanted to thank the St. Louis Blues organization for really making this night really special for me and my family.

“Thank God they told me before the period started, so I was ready for (the tribute). The Blues didn’t have to do anything tonight. I was just playing a hockey game. Obviously, people got wind of it right away after I talked to ‘Panger’, and they really made it a special night for me. I can’t thank the Blues organization for doing that for me and my family tonight. Everyone was here tonight, so that made it really special.”