ST. LOUIS — Drew Bannister was looking for more urgency, more drive, more willingness to stay in the fight of games.
The St. Louis Blues coach certainly got it on Thursday night in a 4-3 overtime win against the Dallas Stars at Enterprise Center.
Despite allowing the game-tying goal with 39.7 seconds remaining by Logan Stankoven, his second goal of the game on a play that could have and should have been defended much better, the Blues (2-4-0) were sharp, they were crisp and they left the game feeling good about what they can do moving into the regular-season opener Tuesday against the Seattle Kraken.
There is one remaining preseason game on Saturday in Milwaukee against the Chicago Blackhawks that will field mostly a American Hockey League lineup.
“I thought right from the start of the first period, we played well,” Bannister said. “We were competitive, we worked for each other. There was a lot of good things in that game that I think we can take from that we can build on. Things that we didn’t do in the previous game, I thought it was there. As a group, but our leadership, everybody got on board and a lot of positive things tonight.
“… I didn’t think we had any passengers. I thought everybody showed up to play and they played with purpose and they played with urgency. It was a good sign for us because I thought we showed resilience. Last year I think we were 28th in the league when we were scored on first and it didn’tbother us at all. We didn’t deviate from our plan and I just thought we stuck with it and we got rewarded.”
Points-wise, Kasperi Kapanen and Philip Broberg each had a goal and an assist, Robert Thomas had two assists, including the game-winner from Jordan Kyrou at 1:43 of the OT session.
Plenty of good things happened in the game, a complete 180 reversal from the 3-1 thud on Tuesday against Columbus:
* Kapanen — By far his best game as a Blue, not just for the goal he scored, a beauty of a blind backhand driving the net, spinning and scoring on Broberg’s rebound chance at 11:16 of the third period to give the Blues a 3-1 lead …
… but Kapanen is — and has been — fighting for his job.
He finished as a plus-2 (could have had another assist had Mathieu Joseph not been called for goalie interference on Ryan Suter’s would-be goal), six shot attempts (three on goal) and one hit; he nearly missed scoring in the first period on a bounding puck that he whacked into the side netting.
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“I felt pretty good. I think it shows once you kind of get into a rhythm,” Kapanen said. “I think that’s the main thing for the body to feel good and fresh and I think that showed today.”
Joseph, who tied the game 1-1 at 8:33 of the second period on a beauty of a shot, credited his teammate for the way he played.
“He was good. He was great,” Joseph said of Kapanen. “He was on the forecheck using his speed, and he was going to the net. It was fun to play with these two tonight. I felt like we were hunting pucks, creating a lot of turnovers in the o-zone.”
* Kapenen, Joseph, Brayden Schenn line — It was the Blues’ third line, the first game together this preseason and they were puck hunters throughout.
They were sharp, they were crisp, they defended the puck. Schenn had one shift in the second period late which he skated back hard to break up a 2-on-1 at the end of his shift and the trio seemed to play off each other well.
“I thought we played a great game,” Kapanen said. “I don’t think we spent too much time in our zone, which is always a plus. ‘MoJo’ and ‘Schenner’ are two great players so I thought we had some good chemistry and it was a good game.”
Joseph’s goal was a great example of how they hunted for the puck.
“I feel like when we did that tonight, kept the puck in, tired them out, one guy at a time changing and changing in the o-zone, we had some really good looks after,” Joseph said. “I think they did a great job. Schenner after that won two or three battles in a row to get that puck to ‘Kapi’ and I feel like that’s how our line was tonight. We were responsible defensively and when we could hound pucks, we did and we created some offense.”
* Buchnevich line set the tone — Pavel Buchnevich, Alexandre Texier and Kyrou was a newly-formed line tonight that was able to set the tone for sustained o-zone pressure.
That line paved the way on a number of plays for the next line to come onto the ice and continue sustained zone time, and did so when Joseph scored.
The line didn’t get on the scoresheet together but it created positive momentum.
“They had a couple real good shifts that we were able to build momentum off of,” Bannister said. “They didn’t get rewarded, but you play that way consistently, you’re going to get more opportunities and the puck’s going to go in the net. They stuck with what they were doing well. I thought they managed the puck well when they were down low. I thought we did a good job down low holding onto pucks and making things happen and creating a cycle, a more willingness to shoot too by our whole group.”
* Broberg — Bannister felt Broberg, playing a second game with Justin Faulk, perhaps tried doing too much on Tuesday in his home debut. On Thursday, it was clear the defenseman played with a purpose and contributed at both ends of the ice, including scoring a nice goal to give the Blues a 2-1 lead at 1:23 of the third period.
“I thought he was outstanding,” Bannister said. “Our whole d-corps, their gaps, keeping pucks alive. There wasn’t a lot of space for the Dallas players out there and to have that size and that range, great stick, I thought our D did a great job in transition just getting the puck up to our forwards as quickly as possible so we could turn and attack. As a group, I thought they all played well, but I thought Philip had a real good night here tonight.”
Broberg was a plus-3 with three shots on goal and played 18:52.
* Robert Thomas — It had been a quiet preseason thus far for the Blues’ No. 1 center, but playing with Jake Neighbours and Dylan Holloway for the first time helped create some quick transition opportunities, and Thomas had nice assists on Broberg’s goal, then setting up Kyrou coming off the bench down the high slot at the end of a long OT shift to win it.
