VANCOUVER, British Columbia — This up-and-down, unpredictable and at times exasperating Blues season has returned to the “up” mode.
The Blues won their fourth in a row and extended their point streak to five games with a 5-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Monday at Rogers Arena. The win got them back above .500 at 16-15-1, largely a result of feasting on Pacific Division foes. They have won seven straight against Pacific squads and are 9-2-0 against that division this season.
Special teams were special on this night, and so was Jordan Kyrou. He scored his first career hat trick and now has 16 goals on the season. That’s three ahead of his pace from this point last season when he made the NHL All-Star Game.
Meanwhile, the Blues’ penalty kill unit killed off all four Vancouver power plays. On the Blues’ power play, they scored twice in three attempts.
The Blues started out the season with three wins, and then lost eight straight (a franchise record). They followed that with seven consecutive wins, followed by a 2-7-1 skid. And now this — just in time for the holidays — four straight wins. Hard to figure, for sure.
Kyrou continued his latest hot streak with the night’s first goal. It came from a familiar area — the right faceoff circle. And with a familiar shot — his quick wrister. Nick Leddy pounced on a rebound of his own shot and then dished it off to Kyrou, who scored his fourth goal in three games. He would get more.
So the Blues were up 1-0 with 9:35 left in the opening period but didn’t lead for long.
Following an Ivan Barbashev turnover, Vancouver’s Ilya Mikheyev broke in alone on Jordan Binnington and scored on a backhand with 7:36 left in the period.
Undaunted, the Blues scored the period’s final two goals to take a 3-1 lead and entered the third period on the power play. Just 38 seconds after Mikheyev’s goal, Nathan Walker took a Leddy pass from just outside the blueline, skated in and beat goalie Spencer Martin — playing his first career game against the Blues — far side/stick side.
It was the first goal of the season for Walker, playing in his 19th game.
Thomas then scored his fourth goal in his last seven games — and his eighth of the season — on the power play with just 1:10 to play in the second. Thomas has shown more of a willingness to shoot lately, and has developed an effective wrist shot.
Double the pleasure
Vancouver entered the game even worse on the power play than the Blues — 31st at 68.1%. And the Blues took advantage, scoring a second power play goal to start the third period. Near the end of the second period, the Canucks were penalized for too many men on the ice — 1:23 of the infraction carried over to the third period and with just 16 seconds left on the man advantage Kyrou scored his second goal of the night to make it 4-1 Blues.
It marked only the second time all season the Blues had scored as many as two goals on a power play, the other time coming on Dec. 1 against Carolina, a 6-4 Blues loss.
Kyrou wasn’t finished for the night, scoring at even strength with 10:41 left in the third on some exemplary passing from Thomas and Vladimir Tarasenko — who had three assists — for the hat trick and a 5-1 Blues lead.
Parayko to the sin bin
Defenseman Colton Parayko doesn’t take many penalties. He has never served more than 32 minutes in the box in any of his eight NHL seasons, and hasn’t been above 18 minutes in any one season since the 2016-17 campaign.
But he got two all-expenses-paid trips to the box in the opening 5:08 of play Monday. Just 20 seconds into the game, he went off for tripping Mekheyev and then made a return trip at 5:08 for cross-checking former teammate Dakota Joshua.
But the Blues’ suddenly-revived power play killed off both penalties, giving them 15 kills in their last 17 PKs.
In large part because of those two early opportunities for Vancouver’s seventh-ranked power play, the Canucks had a 7-1 edge in shots on goal nine minutes into the game. But the Blues, getting a power play opportunity of their own, outshot Vancouver 11-4 over the rest of a scoreless opening period and had several good chances.
Brown in town
After his Sunday call-up from a conditioning assignment with the Springfield Thunderbirds, Logan Brown had a flight canceled due to weather and wasn’t at the Blues’ Monday morning skate. But he finally made it to Vancouver and was in the press box for the game.
The Blues removed him from the injured reserve list and placed him on the active roster; it would not be surprising if he plays in one of the remaining two games on this trip, either Tuesday in Seattle or Friday in Las Vegas.
Brown played in two games with the Thunderbirds over the weekend but hasn’t played for the Blues since Nov. 8 in Philadelphia because of an upper-body injury.
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