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Observations From Blues' 5-1 Win Vs. Kraken
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- Observations From Blues' 5-1 Win Vs. Kraken
ST.LOUIS – Forone night, the St. Louis Blues overlooked their record.
Losersof three in a row and eight of nine (1-7-1), the Blues found a silverlining in what has been a lost season when they came off the Olympicbreak with a thorough win, 5-1 against the Seattle Kraken atEnterprise Center on Thursday.
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DylanHolloway scored his second NHL hat trick and had a career high fourpoints with an assist, and combined with Pius Suter (one goal, twoassists) and Jonatan Berggren (two assists), that line combined fornine points in the game.
JordanKyrou scored and Justin Faulk added two assists for the Blues, whoimproved to 21-27-9 on the season. Joel Hofer made 23 saves.
Hereare Thursday's observations:
*Holloway looked refreshed –Forget the hat trick … well, wait,let's not, but aside from adding the offense in what was his mostproductive NHL game, Holloway looked as refreshed and healthy as hehas since the end of last season, when the injury bug derailed whatwas a banner year that carried over to the 2025-26 season.
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Hewas skating with fluidity, he was hounding pucks, laying hits andready to pounce when given the opportunity.
Hefinished the game a plus-4 with five shots on goal in 16:04 of icetime aftermissing 23 of the past 24 games – including the last eight – witha right high ankle sprain.
"Itwas great just to be back," Hollowaysaid."I just wanted to enjoy it. Honestly, if I didn't have an impactnow, I'm just grateful to be able to play. But it's obviouslynice to have an impact on the scoresheet."
Holloway'sgoal at 7:58 of the first period got the ball rolling for the Bluesin a 1-0 lead, a play that started with a Tyler Tucker rim into theO-zone, an overskated puck by Brandon Montour, the puck was put backdown low to Berggren, who quickly found Holloway in the left circlefor the quick shot past Philipp Grubauer:
"Iliked his game a lot," Hollowaysaid of Berggren, who was his linemate for the first time."He's a super-smart player, always trying to make plays. Fromwatching these past 20 games, I was kind of able to get a good graspon his game. I knew he would always be looking to make the rightplay. He's got a lot of patience out there too. I was trying tofind open spots.
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"Thatfirst pass he made to me in the first period was a great pass. It'sa special play there."
Hollowaymade it 3-1, 23 seconds after Kyrou gave the Blues the lead, when hefirst hunted down and forechecked a puck behind the net and got it tothe point for Logan Mailloux to get the shot to the goal. Sutercurled it back to the front in the crease where Berggren was, gettinga redirection that was stopped but Holloway was on the spot to pounceon the rebound.
Andwhen he backhanded in the empty-netter to make it 5-1 at 16:59 of thethird period, it completed a terrific game:
"Hisspeed, his tenacity, his ability to add depth scoring and mainscoring," Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. "When he's playinglike he did tonight and we saw it a lot right before he got injured(on Dec. 14 in practice), he's a difference maker."
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Berggrenadded, "I've never played with [Holloway], but you can see inpractice how skillful he is and fast. Really fiun to play with him."
*The Holloway-Suter-Berggren line led the way –Holloway earned hiscookies, but Suter and Berggren were also on the prowl.
Theyfinished with four goals, five assists and a plus-10.
"Thosetwo are really skillful players," Berggren said of his linemates."I think we think the game pretty similar."
Montgomeryhad the best description of the trio in this game
"Ithought they hounded pucks really well, I thought they used theirspeed andthey created a lot of turnovers on the forecheck," St.Louis coach Jim Montgomery said of the Holloway-Suter-Berggren line,"andthen in the offensive zone, they were connected in triangles andthey won races andthey had a great net front presence. Youlook at the Suter goal was the best example of it."
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Andthe Suter goal that made it 4-1 at 1:56 of the third was two guysdriving the net after Faulk's initial shot, Holloway makes a hit,gets up and get the rebound and finds Suter in the interior of theslot and right circle:
"Wewere moving our feet well and holding into pucks and kind of reset ifneeded," Suter said of the line. "And just kind of be around thenet. The bounces kind of worked out."
*Quick strike in the second period helps Blues gain control –Seattle found its legs midway through the first period when the Bluesled 1-0 and had an 8-0 edge in shots. But when Jake Neighbours waswhistled for tripping at 9:59 of the period, the Kraken were able togain an edge that started with a power play that had territorial edgefor the entire two minutes and ultimately led to a goal.
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TheBlues reset after the period and Kyrou's goal was a thing of beautyat 1:12 when he started the play breaking up things in the D-zone,moving into transition and starting a tic-tac-toe play with first,Colton Parayko, then Pavel Buchnevich:
*Winning another challenge –Things could have gotten dicey whenRyker Evans thought he had cut the Blues' lead to 3-2 on a shotfrom the point that had eyes and ricocheted off the ice and pastHofer at 10:19 of the second, but the Blues immediately challengedand won an offside challenge when Frederick Gaudreau failed to keep apuck alive and in the zone prior to it.
"Ididn't see it in real time, no," Montgomery said. "(Videocoach) Elliott Mondou and (assistant video coach) Ryan Stacey … asthey scored, it was already radioed into us that this was offside.Thank God they has the view. I was wondering what was taking so long.(The referees) came over and I'm like, 'You've got to have theview from the other angle.' I'm like, 'It's prettydistinctive.'"
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* Finley's debut –The numbers won't look gaudy, but for Jack Finley, who made his Blues debut after being claimed off waivers from the Tampa Bay Lightning on Feb. 7, it was effective enough.
The 6-foot-6, 227-pound center gained his first Blues point on Holloway's empty-netter, was a plus-1 and won five of 13 face-offs in 13:17 of ice time, but he was used in a penalty kill role, which was 3-for-3, playing on the fourth line with Alexey Toropchenko and Nathan Walker.
"I thought his defensive stick was really good," Montgomery said. "He won two huge face-offs down the stretch. One on the PK and one on the pulled goalie situation. I thought he was in really good support position. That line created momentum for us, so overall, a really good start and I think it's only going to get better as he gets comfortable with the way we play and more importantly, comfortable being in the lineup."
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