ST. LOUIS — Two teams going nowhere this season. Both under .500 and in sixth place in their respective divisions. Oh, the drama.
Actually no. For the Blues, 0-3-0 and outscored 15-4 since the Ryan O’Reilly trade, Thursday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks was an attempt to regain their equilibrium.
“We’re trying to win hockey games. Bottom line,” coach Craig Berube said earlier in the week. “Yeah, we got a different lineup and we got players from the minors up here and things like that. But we still need to play a team game and keep working on our game. Gotta be highly competitive and you gotta work.
“If you keep doing those things, good things will happen.”
Alas, that’s not what happened at Enterprise Center. The trade deadline funk continues, as evidenced by a 3-2 overtime loss to the Canucks.
Squandering a 2-0 lead, the Blues lost on an OT goal by Elias Pettersson with just 15 seconds left in overtime.
With Pavel Buchnevich and Brandon Saad returning to the lineup following injury absences, the Blues had a little more punch in their lineup playing against one of the worst defenses in the league.
But they could generate only two goals and by two players not known for their NHL scoring — Alexey Toropchenko and Tyler Tucker — who scored the goals for St. Louis.
There’s still a week until the March 3 trade deadline, but the Blues are trying to move on from the trades of O’Reilly, Vladimir Tarasenko, Niko Mikkola and Noel Acciari.
“Our focus has now shifted not to who was here, but who is here now,” said Brayden Schenn. “That’s all we can really focus on and control.”
Even though they were being outshot by almost a 2-to-1 margin, the Blues seemed to have things under control in the third period with a 2-0 lead, thanks to superb work in goal by Jordan Binnington.
But that all changed on a Blues power play of all things with Vancouver breaking out on a 2-on-1 break, featuring J.T. Miller and Pettersson. Pettersson dished to Miller who buried his shot for his 20th goal. That ended Binnington’s bid for his 13th career shutout and made it just a 2-1 St. Louis lead with 10:52 remaining in the third period.
Overall, the Blues power play was painful to watch, going 0-for-3 and in the midst of a 0-for-15 slump over the past four games.
Even more painful for the Blues was seeing Andrei Kuzmenko tie the game with 28.6 left in regulation.
Shorty for Torpo
Toropchenko’s seventh NHL goal was also his first shorthanded score. The 23-year-old from Moscow took a pass from Buchnevich in the neutral zone and raced in on a breakaway. As Toropchenko started to shoot, Vancouver’s Anthony Beauvillier almost got to the puck from behind.
But Toropchenko maintained control and whistled the puck by Canucks goalie Arturs Silovs – a 21-year-old making just his third NHL start. It was the Blues’ fifth shorthanded goal of the season, and their first since Saad struck at Toronto on Jan. 3.
So at the 15:29 mark of the first period the Blues were up 1-0. Robert Bortuzzo was then sent to the penalty box for holding, and was only in the penalty box because of a successful Blues challenge.
Stay with us on this. During the delayed penalty (for the Bortuzzo infraction), J.T. Miller scored for the Canucks. But the Blues challenged for goaltender interference, and after a lengthy review, it was ruled that Vancouver’s Conor Garland impaired Binnington’s ability to play the puck.
So the goal was wiped out. But Bortuzzo still had to go to the box for the original holding infraction.
The review lasted about five minutes – a lifetime for these types of things. For Berube, it made him 3-2 on challenges this season.
Tucker’s first
In junior hockey, defenseman Tucker had a knack for putting the biscuit in the basket. He scored 14 goals in 2018-19 and 17 goals in 2019-20. There was a training camp in St. Louis a couple of years ago when he was used both at forward and defense. But in parts of three seasons in the AHL, he had never scored more than three goals in a season.
And in 17 games in the NHL this season, the rookie from remote Longlac, Ontario, had one assist. That changed in Game No. 18 Thursday against Vancouver.
At the 6:45 mark of the second, Tucker’s low shot from the left point got by Silovs to give St. Louis a 2-0 lead. But wait. Vancouver, coached by Berube’s good friend Rich Tocchet, challenged the play for a high stick by Ivan Barbashev.
Barbashev had knocked down the puck, then sent it to Bortuzzo, who fed Tucker for the score. It was close, but the puck was barely below Barbashev’s shoulder – and thus a good goal.
Schenn vs. Schenn?
Thursday figured to be the 15th NHL regular-season meeting between brothers Brayden and Luke Schenn. But no. Brayden was the only member of the family on the ice Thursday at Enterprise, suiting up of course for the Blues.
The latest craze in the NHL is holding out players for “trade-related reasons” prior to the trade deadline, which is March 3 this year. Luke plays for Vancouver, but is on the trading block for the Canucks, and was held out of Thursday’s game.
Brayden isn’t a fan of holding players out before the trade deadline, especially for long periods of time. Arizona’s Jakob Chychrun, for example, has missed six games – and counting – because he’s being held out for trade-related reasons, or as some teams are calling it, roster management.
Brayden Schenn thinks there should be a rule that players can’t be held out of the lineup for trade-related reasons until four days before the trade deadline.
