Blues Recap – Post Winter Classic Ups and Downs

Hello everyone, since our last recap, the Blues have played seven games, going a very solid 5-2. This stretch even included a blowout win over the Capitals. Any win by the Blues over the Capitals is a good one for me, but a blowout makes it even better.

The first game after the winter classic was Wednesday January 5 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. This was a disappointing game for the Blues, but the Penguins are a good team, though there is not much of an excuse to blow a 2-0 lead, which the Blues had on goals from Brayden Schenn and Jordan Kyrou in the second. Colton Parayko also scored in the second, but it was sandwiched by two Bryan Rust goals, as the Blues took a 3-2 lead into the third. It quickly went downhill from there as Pittsburgh added three in the third – one from Sidney Crosby, another from Evan Rodrigues, and another from Brock McGinn to win 5-3.

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The Blues and Washington Capitals faced off on Friday January 7. The Capitals got off to a quick start with Danial Spring scoring early in the game, but it was all St. Louis after that. Torey Krug netted his 6th of the year to tie the game at 1 going into the second. The Blues got three in the second from Pavel Buchnevich, Oskar Sundqvist, and Ivan Barbashev. The third saw another from Buchnevich, and backed by a solid performance by Ville Husso in goal, the Blues whitewashed the Capitals.

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The Blues and Dallas Stars faced off in St. Louis on the afternoon of Sunday, January 9. This game, from a Blues’ fan perspective, was amazing. Jason Robertson of Dallas scored in the second, and that was the only goal scored until the last minute of play. Dallas definitely played better than the Blues, but a dodgy missed call allowed the Blues to score two power play goals – one from Ryan O’Reilly and the other from Jordan Kyrou within 18 second of each other with less than a minute to play, to take the game 2-1.

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Thursday January 13 saw the Blues take on the Seattle Kraken. This game was not particularly eventful, as the only scoring until the third was a goal by Seattle’s Alex Wennberg. The Blues played a great third period, getting two goals – one from Robert Thomas and one from Pavel Buchnevich to take home a 2-1 victory.

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Next, on Saturday January 15, the Blues played a tight one with the Toronto Maple Leafs. This was an entertaining game that the Blues couldn’t quite close out – and it was not one of Jordan Binnington’s best. Ryan O’Reilly got the scoring started, but Toronto scored three in the first – from Michael Bunting, Mitch Marner, and John Tavares to take a commanding 3-1 lead into the second. The Blues fought back though, getting another from O’Reilly and one from Saad to tie it up. Timothy Liljegren for Toronto and Robert Thomas for the Blues added goals in the second, and the teams entered the third tied at four. Niko Mikkola scored to give the Blues their first lead of the night at 5-4, but Auston Matthews and Ilya Mikheyev scored two unanswered and the leafs took home a 6-5 win.

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Next, on Monday January 17, the Blues took on the Predators in a night to be remembered, as the Blues retired number 44 in honor of Chris Pronger. The game got off to a little bit of a rocky start with Nashville taking a quick 2-0 lead on goals from Ryan Johansen and Filip Forsberg, but the Blues answered, scoring two goals in less than two minutes from Ivan Barbashev and Ryan O’Reilly. Entering the second tied 2-2, the Blues went to work, scoring two more – one from Brayden Schenn and another by Barbashev. Yakov Trenin got one back for Nashville in the third, but Schenn added his second of the night to ice it.

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Finally, on Friday, January 21, the Blues ended this stretch with a convincing victory over the Kraken. Ville Husson continued his dominance recording a 5-0 shutout. The Blues came out hot, getting two goals in the first from Tyler Bozak and Brayden Schenn to take a 2-0 lead into the second. While there was no scoring in the second, the Blues tacked on three more in the third – first from fresh-off-protocol-list Pavel Buchnevich, then by Colton Parayko, then by Jordan Kyrou. An interesting note is that Parayko, scoring off a penalty shot, was just the 34th defenseman in NHL history to score a penalty shot goal and the first in team history.

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