Want to watch the perfect road game, or as near a perfect road game as an NHL team can play, look no further than the St. Louis Blues and their 7-2 beatdown over the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre In Kanata, Ontario on Tuesday, ending Ottawa's three-game winning streak.
Forget that they scored a season-high seven goals for the game; it was the way they did it.
So lets get into how they did it and what proved to be pivotal.
* Penalty kill continues to flourish –OK, I had this as the top reason why the Blues (3-2-1) won in the fashion in which they did despite allowing that Fabian Zetterburg meaningless power-play goal with 1:27 to play in what was a 7-1 blowout.
I know that unit on the ice (Pius Suter, Jonatan Berggren, Colton Parayko and Justin Barron) won't like it, but that's alright. The Sens, who were 5-1-0 on the season, crafted that one well.
But that unit was so good again early on in killing three penalties to get to 17-for-18 to start the season (they're 17-for-19 now) and it's the aggressive nature in which those skaters are doing it.
Assistant coach Greg Cronin has -- particularly the forwards -- on the ice, whether it's Suter, Robert Thomas, Pavel Buchnevich, Berggren, Jake Neighbours or whoever it may be with sticks in lanes taking away the open areas of the ice when teams are in the zone, but the Blues are taking away time and space so much, they're doing to teams what teams have done to their power play: get on top of the puck handlers and forcing quick decisions, and it's working.
Oh, and on this night, Suter set the tone after what I felt like was a bad call on Cam Fowler with a shorthanded goal at 14:28 of the first period to make it 1-0:
At the time, it gave the penalty kill a 2-1 advantage on goals over the Blues' power play.
* Huge response after an Ottawa goal –This to me was the goal of the game for the Blues because the Senators, who won 4-1 at the New Jersey Devils on Monday, started to find some footing.
Claude Giroux scored at 17:52 of the second to cut the Blues' lead to 2-1 and make this an interesting third period of what they thought would be at least a one-shot deficit. And it was a goal that I thought Blues defenseman Brandon Carlo played well; it was just some bad luck that after taking the red-hot Tim Stutzle with him behind the net, the puck hit the side of the goal and Stutzle was alert in getting to his feet and finding a seam to Giroux coming down the interior of the right circle and beating Joel Hofer with a really good shot.
But Mason McTavish and the second line had a response 33 seconds later to restore the lead to 3-1 at 18:25 that broke out into a 3-on-2 where all three on that line (with Connor McMichael and Berggren) all touched the puck, and how about Berggren being able to control this McTavish pass with his skate and being able to get it to his stick and finding McTavish in the crease for the contested finish:
* Dylan Peterson fit in, in his first NHL game –Welcome to the big show, and it was a successful game for the third-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft.
Peterson, who was recalled from Springfield of the American Hockey League on Sunday, played just 8:57, which doesn't sound like a lot, but he had four of the team's 18 hits, played physical throughout, started the process of Suter's second goal of the game on the forecheck by separating the puck in the right hand corner that made it 4-1 at 7:54 of the third period:
And to top it off, he had his first NHL fight and it was a doozy with fellow Senators rookie Jorian Donovan at 14:52 of the third with his parents and three sisters among a plethora of family and friends in attendance:
There was good chemistry on that line with Suter and Ross Johnston, who picked up his first point with the Blues on Suter's third-period goal.
* Doesn't Colton Parayko look good? --It's been a terrific start to the season for 'Colt55,' and when you're seeing him skate with the puck like that, with such confidence, you know things are going good.
Parayko got the assist on Suter's shorthanded goal with the aggressiveness of checking the puck off two Senators skaters, then starting the breakout and saucing a puck to Suter to finish, then he started the breakout that led to the 3-on-2 for McTavish's goal late in the second period.
Parayko, who played 19:33 in the game, has skated well playing with Justin Barron the past couple games, then locked it down with Philip Broberg in the third period.
He's a big reason why the Blues' defensive numbers through six games look so good right now. Some of the metrics don't read it, but the eye test does, and No. 55 is passing them in the early going so far.
* McTavish looks like the real deal (so far), so does McMichael; that line with Berggren looks really good –McTavish and McMichael were off-season acquisitions to help balance out the top six and alleviate some of the pressure out on the Dylan Holloway-Robert Thomas-Jimmy Snuggerud top line.
The line combined for six points (two goals, four assists) in the game and since Jim Montgomery moved Berggren up there, that line has been on fire.
Sure it's early, but McTavish, who has four goals and three assists in six games, is on pace for 98 points (56 goals, 42 assists) in an 84-game season, and McMichael, who had two assists in the game and has two goals and four assists in six games, is on pace for 84 points (28 goals, 56 assists) over the course of an 84-game season.
As a Blues fan, you'll take this return – or anything close to it – when these respective trades were made this past summer.
McTavish finished this dart of a one-timer on the power play at 15:33 of the third period for a 6-1 lead as part of three goals in a span of 1:44:
* Pius Suter is so valuable in all facets –This guy may be the most trusted, reliable player the Blues have, and that's no exaggeration.
The coaching staff is so comfortable putting the 30-year-old on the ice in all facets, whether it's on the PK, in 5-on-5 situations late in games protecting leads, and this season, he's centering the fourth line, and the guy probably deserves to be higher up in the lineup.
Suter had two goals and an assist, was a plus-3 and won eight of his 11 face-offs in 15:21 of ice time and did such a good job of helping set the tone with two tough guys as his linemates in the game.
To be honest with you, I thought that Suter, who is in the final year of his two-year, $8.25 million contract, could be prime trade bait at some point this season, and he still could, but if the Blues are anywhere in the playoff chase or in a playoff position as the season progresses, I'm finding a way to keep him if I'm GM Alex Steen.
Where can you find such a multi-faceted skater like this that can be utilized in so many different situations? They're hard to find, and unless Suter would out-price himself to remain in St. Louis, I think you have to find a way to keep this guy.
He's a huge reason why your penalty kill is currently tied for sixth in the league, and when you have such a trustworthy player like this, you find ways to keep them.
His game tonight arguably was the the best all-around game by any of the Blues.
* Jiricek finally finds paydirt –It was coming. If you watched this game, it had all the earmarks that somehow, the 2024 first-round pick would find his way onto the scoresheet, whether scoring or assisting.
Jiricek had himself another solid game, making good, smart decisions on the ice, proper reads, effective pinches and he read the play well when he scored his first NHL goal at 16:32 of the third to make it a 7-1 game to finish as a plus-2 in 15:04 of ice time with five shot attempts (three on goal) and a blocked shot:
He also made a nice recovery after initially getting beat down the lefthand side that turned the puck back and got the Blues going the other way before Neighbours scored his first of the game in the second period.
* Is Jake Neighbours finding his scoring touch –That's three goals the past two games for the 2020 first-round pick.
His goal at 13:20 of the second period made it a 2-0 game on a shot from the high slot:
And then he finished off an off-man rush with Pavel Buchnevich at 14:46 of the third to make it a 5-1 game:
But Neighbours set the tone with his solid check on Stutzle behind the net in the second period, and when he's that engaging, it leads to other areas of his game, and his dad Ed apparently approved too:
Neighbours was a plus-2 in 16:05 of ice time with three shots on goal, two hits and three blocked shots.
* Pavel Buchnevich looks sharp, and it's one side of the puck that's leading to it –Buchnevich had three assists in the game giving him four points the past two games, and I've always felt like if his defensive game – like it was on Tuesday again – is noticeable and on par, it fuels his offense.
He's part of that PK group that was engaging at the start and it helped kickstart his playmaking abilities in this game.
* Blues again took advantage of a team on second of back-to-back games –When teams are traveling, like the Senators did after playing in New Jersey on Monday, you want to get them to retrieve pucks and go the length of the ice.
The Blues did a good job of keeping pucks alive in the offensive zone and forcing the Senators to defend, hence only allowing 17 shots on goal, and not getting hemmed in themselves.
They chipped pucks and used the forecheck to win the possession battle and not give the Senators any time and space.
They did the same thing to the Columbus Blue Jackets -- finally -- in the final two periods on Saturday in a 5-3 win.
All in all, a truly solid performance by plenty of skaters, including Barron, who played 18:28 and was a plus-2 with two hits and three of the Blues' 18 blocked shots.
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