No, the St. Louis Blues are not scoring goals right now. Yes, it was just one play. But it was a play that cost St. Louis at least a point, maybe more.
Bobby Brink’s redirection with 3:01 remaining sent the Blues to their third straight loss with a 2-1 defeat against the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday.
Jordan Kyrou’s lost puck in the neutral zone proved to be a fatal as the turnover came back to the Blues goal, and Brink redirected a Joel Farabee saucer feed to the net past Jordan Binnington to send the Blues (5-6-0) to their third straight loss in which they’ve been outscored 15-4 to conclude a four-game road trip.
It was quite a turnaround from a game 48 hours earlier in which the Blues were completely embarrassed by the Ottawa Senators, 8-1, and could have earned a better fate when Nathan Walker, a healthy scratch the past three games, scored in the third period to give the Blues some life.
The Blues competed hard in this game, they skated, checked, got pucks in and went to worked, won pucks back and got bodies to the net.
But the bottom line, aside from the costly blunder from Kyrou — he was at least generating some offense and had two posts in the second period — the top guys on offense still aren’t producing and it’s got the Blues under .500 for the first time this season, and all three losses on this trip came against teams at .500 or worse.
Binnington, who relieved Joel Hofer on Tuesday, made 19 saves and was sharp in the game.
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The Blues had a nice start to the game but fell behind 1-0 when Garnet Hathaway put away a backdoor tap-in at 11:12 of the first period when the Blues forwards were stick-checking through the neutral zone and allowed Ryan Poehling to dance through and into the Blues zone, where Matthew Kessel, instead of stepping up and putting a body on Poehling, backed off to the side and Scott Perunovich, instead of holding his position on the backside, curled over trying to take away the stick-handler and left Hathaway alone for the backdoor play.
The Blues’ penalty kill was strong on this night going 3-for-3, but the power play, although the second generated some momentum, was 0-for-2 and didn’t offer much inn the way of offense with the Blues getting only two shots on goal.
The Flyers blocked 24 shots, as the Blues’ build-up for offense had some steam, but Flyers skaters were getting in shooting lanes, or shooters are a fraction late getting pucks off sticks.
However, Walker finally broke the dam on Samuel Ersson in the Philly net when he came off the bench and finished a Philip Broberg pass to the bottom of the left circle at 9:58 of the third period to tie the game 1-1, the Blues’ first 5-on-5 goal in 145:56. Broberg now has a career-high nine points (two goals, seven assists) in just his 11th game with the Blues.
It was a chess match the rest of the way until Kyrou tried going 100 miles an hour with the puck and instead of playing it in and allowing he and his linemates to go to work, he over-skated it and the Flyers were off the other way with Brink beating Ryan Suter to the net to redirect it past Binnington.
The Blues got a puck into the blue paint late and had bodies there but couldn’t get it past Ersson for the sixth-attacker goal.
Hear what coach Drew Bannister and players had to say postgame:
“[Right now] the mistakes are amplified and it’s not easy to get out of these little slumps, so we’ve got to work for it.”
Nathan Walker, Philip Broberg, and Drew Bannister speak to the media following Thursday’s game in Philly. #stlblues pic.twitter.com/80TLZR9rnK
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) November 1, 2024
