Lou Korac Wed, October 14, 2026 at 4:13 AM UTC · 12 min read About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wantto watch the perfect road game, or as near a perfect road game as anNHL team can play, look no further than the St. Louis Blues and their7-2beatdownover the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire CentreIn Kanata, Ontario on Tuesday, endingOttawa's three-game winning streak.
Forgetthat they scored a season-high seven goals for the game; it was theway they did it.
Solets 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 fashionin which they did despiteallowing that Fabian Zetterburg meaningless power-play goal with 1:27to play in what was a 7-1 blowout.
Iknow that unit on the ice (Pius Suter, Jonatan Berggren, ColtonParayko and Justin Barron) won't like it, but that's alright. TheSens, who were 5-1-0 on the season, crafted that one well.
Butthat unit was so good again early on in killing three penalties toget to 17-for-18 to start the season (they're 17-for-19 now) andit's the aggressive nature in which those skaters are doing it.
Assistantcoach Greg Cronin has -- particularly the forwards -- on the ice,whether it's Suter, Robert Thomas, Pavel Buchnevich, Berggren, JakeNeighbours or whoever it may be with sticks in lanes taking away theopen areas of the ice when teams are in the zone, but the Blues aretaking away time and space so much, they're doing to teams whatteams have done to their power play: get on top of the puck handlersand forcing quick decisions, and it's working.
Oh,and on this night, Suter set the tone after what I felt like was abad call on Cam Fowler with a shorthanded goal at 14:28 of the firstperiod to make it 1-0:
Atthe time, it gave the penalty kill a 2-1 advantage on goals over theBlues' power play.
*Huge response after an Ottawa goal – Thisto 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 somefooting.
ClaudeGiroux scored at 17:52 of the second to cut the Blues' lead to 2-1and make this an interesting third period of what they thought wouldbe at least a one-shot deficit. And it was a goal that I thoughtBlues defenseman Brandon Carlo played well; it was just some bad luckthat 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 tohis feet and finding a seam to Giroux coming down the interior of theright circle and beating Joel Hofer with a really good shot.
ButMason McTavish and the second line had a response 33 seconds later torestore the lead to 3-1 at 18:25 that broke out into a 3-on-2 whereall three on that line (with Connor McMichael and Berggren) alltouched the puck, and how about Berggren being able to control thisMcTavish pass with his skate and being able to get it to his stickand finding McTavish in the crease for the contested finish:
*Dylan Peterson fit in, in his first NHL game – Welcometo the big show, and it was a successful game for the third-roundpick in the 2020 NHL Draft.
Peterson,who was recalled from Springfield of the American Hockey League onSunday, played just 8:57, which doesn't sound like a lot, but hehad four of the team's 18 hits, played physical throughout, startedthe process of Suter's second goal of the game on the forecheck byseparating the puck in the right hand corner that made it 4-1 at 7:54of the third period:
Andto top it off, he had his first NHL fight and it was a doozy withfellow 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:
Therewas good chemistry on that line with Suter and Ross Johnston, whopicked up his first point with the Blues on Suter's third-periodgoal.
*Doesn't Colton Parayko look good? -- It'sbeen a terrific start to the season for 'Colt55,' and when you'reseeing him skate with the puck like that, with such confidence, youknow things are going good.
Paraykogot the assist on Suter's shorthanded goal with the aggressivenessof checking the puck off two Senators skaters, then starting thebreakout and saucing a puck to Suter to finish, then he started thebreakout that led to the 3-on-2 for McTavish's goal late in thesecond period.
Parayko,who played 19:33 in the game, has skated well playing with JustinBarron the past couple games, then locked it down with Philip Brobergin the third period.
He'sa big reason why the Blues' defensive numbers through six gameslook so good right now. Some of the metrics don't read it, but theeye test does, and No. 55 is passing them in the early going so far.
*McTavish looks like the real deal (so far), sodoes McMichael; that line with Berggren looks really good– McTavishand McMichael were off-season acquisitions to help balance out thetop six and alleviate some of the pressure out on the DylanHolloway-Robert Thomas-Jimmy Snuggerud top line.
Theline combined for six points (two goals, four assists) in the gameand since Jim Montgomery moved Berggren up there, that line has beenon fire.
Sureit's early, but McTavish, who has four goals and three assists insix games, is on pace for 98 points (56 goals, 42 assists) in an84-game season, and McMichael, who had two assists in the game andhas 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.
Asa Blues fan, you'll take this return – or anything close to it –when these respective trades were made this past summer.
McTavishfinished this dart of a one-timer on the power play at 15:33of the third period for a 6-1 lead as part of three goals in a spanof 1:44:
*Pius Suter is so valuable in all facets – Thisguy may be the most trusted, reliable player the Blues have, andthat's no exaggeration.
Thecoaching staff is so comfortable putting the 30-year-old on the icein all facets, whether it's on the PK, in 5-on-5 situations late ingames protecting leads, and this season, he's centering the fourthline, and the guy probably deserves to be higher up in the lineup.
Suterhad two goals and an assist, was a plus-3 and won eight of his 11face-offs in 15:21 of ice time and did such a good job of helping setthe tone with two tough guys as his linemates in the game.
Tobe honest with you, I thought that Suter, who is in the final year ofhis two-year, $8.25 million contract, could be prime trade bait atsome point this season, and he still could, but if the Blues areanywhere in the playoff chase or in a playoff position as the seasonprogresses, I'm finding a way to keep him if I'm GM Alex Steen.
Wherecan you find such a multi-faceted skater like this that can beutilized in so many different situations? They're hard to find, andunless Suter would out-price himself to remain in St. Louis, I thinkyou have to find a way to keep this guy.
He'sa huge reason why your penalty kill is currently tied for sixth inthe league, and when you have such a trustworthy player like this,you find ways to keep them.
Hisgame tonight arguably was the the best all-around game by any of theBlues.
*Jiricek finally finds paydirt – It was coming. If you watched thisgame, it had all the earmarks that somehow, the 2024 first-round pickwould find his way onto the scoresheet, whether scoring or assisting.
Jiricekhad himself another solid game, making good, smart decisions on theice, proper reads, effective pinches and he read the play well whenhe scored his first NHL goal at 16:32 of the third to make it a 7-1game to finish as a plus-2 in 15:04 of ice time with five shotattempts (three on goal) and a blocked shot:
Healso made a nice recovery after initially getting beat down thelefthand side that turned the puck back and got the Blues going theother way before Neighbours scored his first of the game in thesecond period.
*Is Jake Neighbours finding his scoring touch – That'sthree goals the past two games for the 2020 first-roundpick.
Hisgoal at 13:20 of the second period made it a 2-0 game on a shot fromthe high slot:
Andthen he finished off an off-man rush with Pavel Buchnevich at 14:46of the third to make it a 5-1 game:
ButNeighbours set the tone with his solid check on Stutzle behind thenet in the second period, and when he's that engaging, it leads toother areas of his game, and his dad Ed apparently approved too:
Neighbourswas a plus-2 in 16:05 of ice time with three shots on goal, two hitsand three blocked shots.
*Pavel Buchnevich looks sharp, and it's one side of the puck that'sleading to it – Buchnevich had three assists in the game giving himfour points the past two games, and I've always felt like if hisdefensive game – like it was on Tuesday again – is noticeable andon par, it fuels his offense.
He'spart of that PK group that was engaging at the start and it helpedkickstart his playmaking abilities in this game.
*Blues again took advantage of a team on second of back-to-back games– Whenteams are traveling, like the Senators did after playing in NewJersey on Monday, you want to get them to retrieve pucks and go thelength of the ice.
TheBlues did a good job of keeping pucks alive in the offensive zone andforcing the Senators to defend, hence only allowing 17 shots on goal,and not getting hemmed in themselves.
Theychipped pucks and used the forecheck to win the possession battle andnot 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.
Allin all, a truly solid performance by plenty of skaters, includingBarron, who played 18:28 and was a plus-2 with two hits and three ofthe Blues' 18 blocked shots.
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