ST. LOUIS — It was clearly evident early on Tuesday that the game between the St. Louis Blues and New Jersey Devils was going to be tight-checking and limited offense.
The first period was a strong indicator that it was going to be a game where there would be no easy ice.
Whichever team blinked first would likely have a tough time overcoming a deficit.
The Devils struck first, and in the end limited the Blues to one of their lowest shot outputs of the season in a 4-1 win over the Blues to split the season series between the two sides at Enterprise Center.
Ondrej Palat, Stefan Noesen, Brenden Dillon and Jesper Bratt scored for the Devils (21-10-3), who limited the Blues (15-15-3) to 20 shots on goal.
The Devils’ smothering defensive structure spoiled another goal from Jordan Kyrou, who scored in his HL career-high fifth straight game and 12th straight game on home ice with a point.
The loss dropped the Blues’ home record to a disappointing 6-8-1, something center Robert Thomas said earlier in the day has to get better.
Let’s get into Tuesday’s Three Takeaways:
* Blues started checking well, the became easy checking targets — The Blues had good life when this game started, and that boded well against a very good hockey team.
New Jersey didn’t have but four shots on goal until late in the first period. Neither team gave the other an inch and it was shaping up to be one of those low-scoring games that the first team to flinch would have a tough go of it.
The Devils broke through on what Blues coach Jim Montgomery called a broken play when Luke Hughes’ snap pass from his own side of the red line off the end boards right into the path of Palat, whose one-timer grazed off Jordan Binnington’s right shoulder top shelf:
“It’s a broken play,” Montgomery said. “They tried to hit the guy through the middle of the ice. I think it went through his legs or under his stick, off the end wall, they had speed on the outside. The guy made a good shot.
“I thought our first 15 minutes, I thought it was pretty good. I thought our intensity was there, I thought we were a little bit faster than they were. They scored that goal and the air came out of the balloon.
“They check really well. They meet us to spots. So every time we were trying to advance pucks, because we weren’t anticipating offense, just skating hard enough to get to those spots. They were there ad they denied us. They’re a good checking team.”
The Blues seemed to be taken back a bit by the goal and started to leak some cracks
“We made it easy to be checked,” Montgomery said. “Jersey did a great job of checking. Their habits and details were superior to ours after they scored that first goal. And that’s where we’ve got to become a little more resilient.”
Added defenseman Colton Parayko: “We did have a good start, good second as well. I don’t necessarily think we let that goal take over the game, but obviously they scored o the power play to score their second one, which was big.
“Obviously they play a tight game for sure. I thought they played well. We definitely had some good opportunities. We generated a few things, but they kind of hold to their structure. If there is a breakdown, it’s tough to kind of penetrate through.”
* Special teams — In a tight game like this, special teams would be crucial — and limited.
There were no power plays in the opening period, but when Nathan Walker was tripped by Tomas Tatar at 7:06 of the second period, down a goal, the Blues had to pounce.
Not only didn’t they pounce but they had no shot attempts. The Devils were the ones to gain momentum.
Walker took a tripping minor of his own at 12:41, Noesen made it 2-0 28 seconds later at 13:09 stuffing a puck inside the near post off Binnington’s sprawled skate to really put a stranglehold on the game:
“I think my stick got caught under something,” Parayko said. “I tried to lift my stick up and it was caught under something. I tried to stay available and loose, but obviously it got caught and had no way of getting over there.”
* No early third period pushback — Down two goals, conventional wisdom says the Blues will come with a push and the Devils will play prevent defense.
Hardly.
New Jersey actually played as if it was down two goals, controlled play in the Blues’ zone and put a hammerlock on the game when Dillon got a good bounce when his shot off the left boards caromed off Jake Neighbours’ stick and over a screened Binnington to make it 3-0:
“There was zero pushback,” Montgomery said. “That was disappointing. We’ve got to get our crowd into it.
“From my experience, St. Louis has always been a hard place to play because the fans are wild. I thought we had a couple real good hits early. I didn’t think it was enough to be a little bit louder and more into the game.”
Parayko agreed.
“We should have came out with a stronger push in the third,” he said. “Obviously frustrating, but I think as a group, we continue to push in the right direction. We’re at least finding more habits and little details like that. They’re a good team obviously and they capitalized on a couple chance and shifted the game, but all in all, we have some things to build on obviously.”
Montgomery sensed the need to do something, so he pulled Binnington midway though the period and Kyrou scored from the left circle, putting a shot through Markstrom at 10:28 to make it 3-1:
There was life. The Blues finally had some bite and had quick chances for a second but too little, too late.
“We got some emotions (finally),” Blues forward Pavel Buchnevich said. “We got one goal and after that, we have a couple good shifts and (a) scrum. We had a couple good chances and just missed the net or something. Good game to learn from that game.
“… We have to learn how to win those games.”
