ST. LOUIS — For the first time since that blockbuster trade of July 1, 2018, there was no No. 90 jersey on the ice for the Blues on Thursday.
After 253 consecutive regular-season and postseason games in the lineup, captain Ryan O’Reilly missed his first game as a Blue. Suffice it to say, O’Reilly was missed.
The Blues’ franchise-record winning streak to start a season came to end, they fell to 5-1-0 with a 4-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche at Enterprise Center.
The Avalanche, heavily favored to win the Central Division this season, are now 3-4-0 in what has been a sluggish start to the season. The Blues play the Avalanche only three times this season, so they have only one more meeting left with their rivals – and not until April 26 in Denver, the Blues’ last road game of the regular season.
While the Blues were without O’Reilly and Brandon Saad, both on the COVID list, the Avalanche were minus forward Mikko Rantanen and defenseman Sam Girard with injuries.
Brayden Schenn stood up for Justin Faulk in the season opener, fighting Colorado’s Nazem Kadri just 40 seconds in.
On Thursday, Faulk stood up for himself, fighting Kadri just 47 seconds in. It was Kadri, remember, who ended Faulk’s 2020-21 season with a cheap shot to the head in Game 2 of the first-round playoff series with the Avalanche.
Faulk pinned Kadri along the boards in the St. Louis end of the ice, with Kadri falling to the ice. Faulk dropped his gloves, and then waited for Kadri to get up before he started pummeling him. Kadri rallied to a degree, but Faulk was the clear winner for those scoring the fight.
Both players got five minutes for fighting, but Faulk also got a two-minute minor for instigating which put Colorado on the power play. In addition, Faulk got a 10-minute misconduct. So it was 17 minutes in the box total for Faulk, who didn’t return to the ice until a stoppage of play with just 1 minute, 48 seconds of play.
Play was stopped then because of a Colorado goal on a bouncing deflection by J.T. Compher, who also scored on Blues goalie Jordan Binnington in the opener. That tied the game at 1-all.
The Blues took the lead on Colton Parayko’s first goal of the season. On a sequence that started with Robert Thomas hitting the post, Thomas hustled over to retrieve the puck and continue a possession that ended with Parayko’s goal.
With Ivan Barbashev providing a net front screen, Parayko’s shot trickled through Avs goalie Darcy Kuemper to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead at the 9:21 mark. Parayko became only the second Blues’ defenseman to score this season, with Faulk scoring a goal in each of the first two games of the year.
Colorado also had a goal disallowed on an offside challenge. Just after the Blues had killed off the Faulk minor, Sampo Ranta put the puck in the net for the Avs. But Bowen Byram was clearly offside and so the goal didn’t count.
Even though Colorado entered the game near the bottom of the NHL in power play efficiency (9.1 percent), coach Craig Berube cautioned the Blues to stay out of the box. The Avalanche usually have one of the league’s most potent power plays and it figured to be only a matter of time before they heated it up.
Well, the Blues didn’t get the memo about avoiding penalties. Starting with Faulk’s instigation minor, they were whistled for six minors to Colorado’s two through two periods. Sooner or later that would catch up with them and it did on Colorado’s fifth power play.
It was Compher again with a blast from the slot to make it 2-1 Colorado with 8:27 left in the second. The Blues had killed off 16 consecutive penalties, a streak dating back to the second game of the season, prior to Compher’s second goal of the night.
It became 3-1 Colorado just three minutes later, when following a Jake Neighbours giveaway in the neutral zone, Kadri skated in on Binnington down right wing and beat him near side. This was surely a shot Binnington would like to have back, because he appeared to have the angle played well but somehow left the near side open for a high shot.
Then came chaos with 29.2 seconds left, when Jake Walman and Logan O’Connor got into it in front of the St. Louis net. Cale Makar scored just as the scuffle was taking place, but the net was off its mooring by then so it was no goal.
As Walman went after O’Connor along the boards, Binnington jumped in as did several other Blues. The scrum intensified and when all was said and done, Binnington and Kadri had misconducts, while Barbashev and Compher got two minutes for roughing.
Binnington thus became the first Blues goalie since Rick Wamsley in 1987 (against Vancouver) to be on the receiving end of a 10-minute misconduct. Robert Bortuzzo served the 10 minutes, so coupled with the Faulk infractions early, the Blues played nearly half the game with just five defensemen.
Aided in part by a 5 minute, 18 advantage in power play time, Colorado had a whopping 30-12 edge in shots on goal through two periods.
Schenn got the Blues back in the hockey game with a doorstep goal off a dazzling no-look pass from Jordan Kyrou just 4:13 into the final period. But just 38 seconds later Colorado had its two-goal lead back when Cale Makar scored from the high slot to make it a 4-2 game on a sequence in which the Blues had trouble clearing the zone.
Vladimir Tarasenko’s fourth goal of the season made it a 4-3 game with 3:59 left to play. And with 1:49 to play, the Blues pulled Binnington in favor of an extra attacker for the first time this season.
