by ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Blues knew exactly what kind of game they were in for against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.
It would be like trudging through mud or quicksand, with little or no room, especially in the middle of the ice. Patience would be a virtue, especially against a team that likes to sacrifice the body and block shots.
The Blues kind of had to move forward in this one, be patient, rely on some outstanding goaltending from Jordan Binnington, but ultimately, they lost 3-2 in overtime to Matvei Michkov’s overtime winner 28 seconds after the start of the additional session.
After a mud fest at the start, it turned into an entertaining hockey match at the end, with each team trading punches until the Flyers rookie slipped a backhand through Binnington on a breakaway after Robert Thomas had the puck slipped off his stick by a slippery Travis Konecny.
Let’s move on to the three takeaways:
* Too many weird leaks/escapes made — For the good that the Blues (11-12-2) were able to accomplish, this was a game in which the reads weren’t great at times, and in essence, the Flyers were able to get away with too many rushes odd numbers, including a number of escapes in the match.
“We started slow. There were a lot of whistles at the beginning, so it was difficult for both teams to find rhythm,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “I thought their attackers stretching us and our failure to cover the top caused us a lot of problems on our forecheck and, more importantly, on the follow-through. We can learn from that, but we also have to learn to overtake and not give up so many odd man races.”
The slow start can be attributed to the lack of offensive rhythm.
“We didn’t get the start the way we wanted. It was a bit flat, but I think we pulled ourselves together at the end and almost managed to come back, so overall it wasn’t a bad effort,” said the Blues striker. » said Dylan Holloway. “I think it was a good effort from our team and I think we just need to focus on getting started.
“We just have to make sure our F3 reloads. Sometimes we get a little too nervous in the O zone and we dive in a little bit. That’s what causes the odd man rush. We’ll get that done at training and I’m sure it will get better in the future.
*The goalkeepers were spectacular — Jordan Binnington was the Blues player of the match for all the right reasons. The Blues goalkeeper kept his team afloat and gave them every opportunity to grab at least a point, if not two.
“I liked the fact that our goaltending was so good that he gave us the opportunity to come back and tie, not once but twice,” Montgomery said.
“It’s tough. I really wanted this one,” Binnington said. “It was a really fun game, chances on both sides. At the end the rink was so loud. It was fun playing in front of our home crowd there. We really wanted this one, but we fought hard. I think that’s exactly it.
Alexey Kolosov was spectacular himself, thwarting high-end scoring chances from Jordan Kyrou and Mathieu Joseph on breakaways in the game before nearly stealing both points for Philadelphia in regulation when he knocked away the rebound effort by Justin Faulk before Jake Neighbors scored at 19:41.
“He was outstanding, just like the other guy,” Tortorella said of Kolosov. “But ‘Koly’, he played exceptionally well.”
* Third period resilience — It looked bleak, as the Flyers played their blocking pattern in the middle of the ice and played compactly.
The Blues simply had to skate harder and find a solution.
Holloway finally tied it with 8:41 left with a whistler from the high slot, top shelf, glove side:
And even after an unforced error from Brandon Saad led to Tyson Foerster’s goal at 12:02, the Blues remained aggressive and tied it up when Neighbors knocked away a loose puck after Kolosov made a brilliant save on Justin Faulk:
“The resiliency our team showed in the third,” Montgomery said. “I thought we had more energy, more life, I thought the crowd was good in the third because we started skating, we started playing, we started going to the net a lot harder. Winning one point is good, but we’ve got to learn and grow from this.
Montgomery changed his lines, trying to generate more offense and it worked.
“I thought we had more energy, more life,” he said. “I left one line together, I changed three. When you’re down 1-0, naturally, before the third, push and I was happy to see we had the push. I don’t know if that had something to do with the lines.”
Holloway added: “Everyone was playing well tonight. We just needed to change something and it ended up paying off. I think it was a good coaching decision on Monty’s part, but I think the most important thing for the future, I guess, is just to start better, sort of with a little more jumping.
“I don’t think there was a moment during the game where we didn’t believe we could come back and win. We felt good in the third period. We were pushing, we knew it was going to happen and then we had one, we had two and we were pretty pumped going into overtime it’s just hockey, but at the end of the day it’s a good push on our part and it’s a good testimonial for. us to know that we are a resilient group and that we can get back into these games.”
