The St. Louis Blues were living on the edge to begin their season.
It’s not the customary way to win on a consistent basis, but it worked in wins against the Seattle Kraken (3-2) and San Jose Sharks (5-4 in overtime) to begin the season.
This was a different animal, though. This was the Vegas Golden Knights, a measuring stick kind of a team, but the Blues were in a familiar position despite for the first time this season, scoring first.
They once again trailed by multiple goals, 3-1 in this game, and tried to make NHL history by becoming the first team to open with three straight wins after trailing by multiple goals but fell, 4-3 on Friday at T-Mobile Arena.
Let’s get into the observations of a game in which despite playing the second of a back to back, the Blues were in the fight until the end:
* FIRST PERIOD — After playing into OT Thursday, the thinking was Vegas would try to run the Blues out of the building at the start of the game trying to exert a weary Blues team that had to exert plenty of energy making that comeback on Thursday from down 4-1 in the third period.
But it was the Blues with the solid start. They managed the puck well, didn’t spend a ton of time in their zone.
It all culminated with the Blues scoring first for the first time this season when Pavel Buchnevich, who led them with two goals and an assist, made it 1-0 at 6:47.
Buchnevich showed nice patience and allowed Vegas defenseman Noah Hanifin to overcommit and allow Buchnevich to cut to his backhand and lift a beauty glove side on Adin Hill.
The Blues haven’t played with a lead much this season. And they didn’t play with one much here after Jack Eichel tied it 1-1 at 8:07.
So what happened here is the Blues had possession and rim the puck around the wall from left to right, but as the Blues headed in on the forecheck, Brayden Schenn and Jake Neighbours each went to Brayden McNabb and were slow getting there, now prone to a chip out and an odd-man break.
Colton Parayko didn’t have the gap closed at the blue line and was hesitant whether to move in or retreat, and once he made the decision to retreat, Vegas can attack with speed.
Now Parayko is out of position because Nick Leddy moves to his right to pick up old friend Ivan Barbashev, who slides a pass into Eichel’s stride with Parayko a step or so behind, and an elite player like that calmly drags the puck to his backhand and slides it past Jordan Binnington.
Mistake No. 2 leads to Barbashev’s goal at 18:13 to ultimately give Vegas the lead for good at 2-1.
Again, the Blues have puck control, and Schenn moves it along the wall behind the goal to Jake Neighbours, who doesn’t protect it and has it knocked away. Again, it feeds what Vegas loves most: transition.
They can move it freely up the ice while Ryan Suter and P.O. Joseph, making his Blues debut, are backing in. With the forwards a step behind, Brayden Schenn was trying hard to get back, Joseph was caught between a rock and a hard place: go hard at Mark Stone along the goal line, or take the pass away from the slot where Barbashev was lurking? Joseph got caught in between, Stone makes a nice little nifty play to Barbashev and he beat old friend Binnington to make it 2-1.
* SECOND PERIOD — Zack Bolduc had the first glorious chance to tie the game back up within the first two minutes of the period when he was sent in on Adin Hill following a precise sauce feed from Jordan Kyrou. But Bolduc’s backhand through the five-hole was denied by Hill.
That’s when Vegas stretched its lead to 3-1 off another Blues mistake. This one again came from Nick Leddy, who also had a bit of a tough game in San Jose.
After a shot from the right point hit Colton Parayko, instead of going off the glass and out with it, Leddy tried forcing a pass to an unaware Radek Faksa, the puck hit him in the back of the skates, stayed in the zone, and Theodore was stepping into a clapper at 2:55.
These are mistakes being made by their top-end skaters, and they Blues aren’t getting away with any, if may, of them.
But they wouldn’t go away despite a heavy Vegas presence around Jordan Binnington.
Buchnevich’s second of the game was another beauty, scoring off a cross seam pass from Kyrou at 7:29 to make it a 3-2 game.
Vegas was much more aggressive in the middle 20 than they were in the first period, but Binnington made 12 of his 24 saves in the second period to keep the Blues relevant.
* THIRD PERIOD — The Blues were one shot away from making the game level and despite managing the period pretty well, they just were never able to get many high danger or quality looks at Hill.
There was plenty of time to still tie it, but the last and final fatal mistake proved to be costly.
When Nicolas Roy tipped Theodore’s left point shot past Binnington at 12:53, it made it 4-2 and for all intents and purposes, put this one out of reach.
After Suter and Robert Thomas tried prying a puck out of the corner, it came free to another old friend — Alex Pietrangelo — at the right point. The Vegas defenseman immediately moved it to Theodore at the left point, and Theodore immediately recognized Roy and Victor Olafsson were at the net in front of Binnington alone. By the time Suter could retreat, the Vegas forwards were in Binnington’s kitchen uncontested, and Joseph was way out of position on the play.
They weren’t dead yet though when Buchnevich sent Thomas in on a breakaway and he scored a beautyat 15:04 to make it a 4-3 game.
They continue to show strong resiliency, but on this night against a formidable opponent, it was too big a mountain to climb despite having a second chance on the power play when Hanifin was whistled for delay of game at 15:48.
The good out of the trip is the Blues won’t quit on games, no matter the result. They’re going to have to clean up some of the blunders being made, especially by veteran players, if they want to be taken seriously, as evidenced by coach Drew Bannister and player comments below:
Related: St. Louis Blues Player Of The Game vs. Vegas Golden Knights: Pavel Buchnevich
