ST. LOUIS – Hello humble pie. Welcome to St. Louis, courtesy of the Carolina Hurricanes .
The defending Stanley Cup champions doled out plenty of it to the St. Louis Blues on Saturday, winning 4-0 and abruptly ending another modest two-game streak for the Blues (5-5-1), who just can't seem to win three straight games on a consistent basis.
When the Blues took down the other Stanley Cup finalist on Thursday, the Western Conference champion Vegas Golden Knights 6-2, it was a good measuring stick to learn who they are, what they are and how they want to play.
They came out of it wanting to be a more relentless team to play against on a daily basis, but when it comes to relentlessness, the Hurricanes (9-2-2) are the gold standard, and it showed here at Enterprise Center.
"Very humbling," Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. "Also, (a) tutorial by the Stanley Cup champions about how to play to who you are no matter the score. They were as committed in the third period up 3-0, up 4-0 as they were at the start of the game. It's an opportunity for us … it's hard work, but that hard work becomes who you are when you do it every day and in practice and it translates. That's what we're trying to grow and grow into. Unfortunately, we expected early in the year with a lot of new faces and I don't want to say young team because I don't even know where we are in the scope of ages in the league. … It's humbling when you see it happen to everyone in our lineup. They stick-check pucks, they go through arms, they're above us, so that's an elite team in the league, if not the elite team in the league, and that's what we've got to work towards every day, and we'll get there."
The learning lesson from this result is?
"Just grow, learn," Blues forward Jake Neighbours said. "That's the standard of the NHL. We played one of the other standards the other night and had a really good game and beat them 6-2. Obviously you'd like to be able to rinse, repeat, come back tonight and beat another really good team. But there's a lot of humbling nights in this league and a lot of learning lessons and we have one tonight. Nobody's going to hang their head over it, show up for practice tomorrow, get better and continue to move forward."
Let's delve into the game itself …
* Failed early opportunities set the tone –The Blues actually came out of the gates looking like they were going to pick up where they left off Thursday.
They were attacking and pressuring, kind of like the Canes do to teams, and Dylan Holloway and Jimmy Snuggerud each had Grade A scoring opportunities to get the Blues off and running but were stopped by Pyotr Kochetkov.
The Blues had a 4-1 shots on goal advantage and conceivably could have had a 2-0 lead.
"Right off the bat, I'm pretty sure we had a few good chances and even throughout the second, I think we had a breakaway, we had some good chances ourselves," Blues defenseman Colton Parayko said. "That's just a part of it. We definitely had our chances, but just kind of got to build and learn, make sure that we continue to push forward."
Connor McMichael did have a breakaway to begin the second period, in the first couple minutes, of a 0-0 game but was also stopped. Holloway also had another great chance but was poke-checked by Kochetkov before toe-picking and colliding with the goalie.
But as Montgomery said, the game was already slipping away from the Blues.
"I thought it got away in the first, the last half of the first," Montgomery said. "They just kept playing the same way. I thought the first 10 minutes, I really liked the way we played. They just maintained it (and) we didn't. And the second period is what happens. Their consistency to who they are and how they play in all three zones. It wears you down and it may look like the second period because that's where they really did break away on us, but it starts in the first period."
Was Carolina taking that away from the Blues or did they just get away from it themselves?
"I think it's a combination," Montgomery said. "They maintain it because that's who they are. We're not at that level yet of being able to maintain it. It's more mental than physical and some of it is just we fall off because what happens is teams break your spirit. A team like that does.
"When the Blues won that Stanley Cup, that's what they did that year. I coached against them, it was impressive. It was like, 'Wow.' I remember the game in January, they were on a 10-game (winning) streak. We actually won it, but the first period, if it wasn't for our goalie, it would have been over, but then we were able to match it, and that's what we're going to have to do. We're going to have to find that consistency level. It doesn't take long to get it, but it's doing it every day."
* Canes struck fast and closed this out –Once McMichael didn't convert his opportunity to give the Blues a lead, Carolina said enough was enough.
Sean Walker and Jesperi Kotkaniemi's goals 20 seconds apart at 4:45 and 5:05 of the second period made it 2-0. One was on a delayed penalty – although the puck could have been blown dead prior to it – and the other came off a forecheck battle won out on rookie Adam Jiricek and lost coverage by Justin Barron (we'll get to that below) and as Carolina's game was growing, the Blues' was faltering away due to the relentless pressure.
"That's the standard. We knew that coming in," Neighbours said. "Even when you know it's coming, it's still really hard to play against. They play a very structured game. They're very predictable to each other and they do it at a very high level. You can learn a lot from a team like that."
* Stankoven goal was final nail –The Blues were down 2-0 and power plays were obviously going to be hard to come by, but when they were given one courtesy of Carolina having too many men on the ice at 11:24 of the second, it was a chance to get back into the game, and the Blues' power play was hot coming in with a goal in five straight (6-for-17).
It never happened despite a could looks, and when Barron had his pocket picked by Seth Jarvis, the Carolina forward sprung Stankoven for a breakaway that he sniped at 13:35 to make it 3-0.
"That's a good team. They play hard obviously. There's no surprise," Parayko said. "That's why they're a good team and they always are competitive and obviously last year they won it all. They compete hard, they play man to man, they're tight on everyone all over the ice. Obviously take a lot of time and space away.
"They just take away time and space. I feel like they're on top of players a lot. … They're obviously good at what they're doing."
* Relentless is Carolina's standard –The Hurricanes always looked like they had 10 skaters on the ice with their speed and tenacity. It's in all three zones, and the Blues just simply didn't handle it well enough as the game wore on, and it was evident on the stat sheet, and as Montgomery noted, the Hurricanes played to the same standard up 3-0 in the third period that grew to 4-0 on Nikolaj Ehlers' power-play goal at 4:30.
"I don't think it's pace, I don't think we have a problem keeping up with them," Neighbours said. "It's just more the competitive edge that they have, their ability to win battles in all areas of the ice and just how they're on top of you at all times. It's something that early in my career, I still admire about that team. They give you no time and space, they're over top of every check all over the ice and it's almost a man-on-man system from our end all the way to theirs. They do it very well and there's a lot to learn."
* Montgomery loading up with Broberg, Parayko –Carolina's top two lines are very lethal, and even though Barron was coming off a career-high four points (one goal, three assists) against Vegas, Montgomery went with his bread-and-butter defensemen in Broberg and Parayko to face the Sebastian Aho line along with Cam Fowler and Brandon Carlo to fend for the Stankoven line, leaving Barron and Jiricek – two right-handers – to fend for the third pair, and it was that one that was left exposed on the Hurricanes' second goal.
"I wanted to have those guys out, and I wanted to have Carlo and 17 (Fowler) out against their second line," Montgomery said. 'There's a drop in their third- and fourth-line. Not in work ethic but in play-making ability and goal-scoring ability."
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