The St. Louis Blues ride an offensive surge into Thursday night’s game against the reeling Canadiens in Montreal.
The Blues have scored 14 goals in their past three games. They won their past two outings, beating the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1 at home Saturday and handling the Ottawa Senators 5-1 Tuesday on the road.
The forward line of Robert Thomas centering Vladimir Tarasenko and Pavel Buchnevich led the charge in Ottawa. Tarasenko had two goals and an assist, Thomas had a goal and two assists and Buchnevich had three assists.
“We’ve played before together and we’ve had some success,” Tarasenko said. “We just try to play hockey and enjoy our time on the ice. I think this is always very important when you’re working hard and creating some chances. I thought we played well today, but I’m pretty sure we can play better.”
Tarasenko came into the season as a major question mark as he continued his comeback from another shoulder surgery. He requested a trade during the offseason, but Blues general manager Doug Armstrong opted to hang onto him.
That proved to be a good call, since Tarasenko has produced 18 goals and 26 assists in 43 games this season.
“He’s all over the ice,” Thomas said. “He’s playing the right way defensively. He’s in on the forecheck, he’s always open. He’s a superstar, and when he plays like that, it’s tough for teams to defend.”
The Canadiens come into this game with a 10-game winless streak (0-8-2). They have won just once since Dec. 16 and they are 8-33-7 overall.
Montreal just traded former 30-goal scorer Tyler Toffoli to Calgary and more swaps are likely ahead of the March 21 trade deadline as the franchise embarks on a long-haul rebuild.
Former NHL star Martin St. Louis has taken over on the bench. He is gaining some on-the-job training in his first professional coaching job.
“I’ve learned how to prepare myself and how to prepare for the different scenarios that happen in a game, just to be prepared for the unexpected,” St. Louis said. “I can say that the game has already slowed down for me on the bench, which is very encouraging, and I think it’s going to keep slowing down. At first, it looked very fast, so I’m encouraged.”
But the Canadiens have lost their first three games since St. Louis replaced Dominique Ducharme.
“He’s been bringing new ideas, I’m not going to name them, but I think we’ve been doing a good job of trying to apply it,” forward Nick Suzuki said. “As a team we’ve been better, we’ve worked hard, just the results haven’t been there.”
Injuries have made this coaching job even more difficult. The Canadiens have been missing forwards Jonathan Drouin (wrist) and Mathieu Perreault (lower body), goaltenders Carey Price (lower body) and Jake Allen (lower body) and defensemen Joel Edmundson (lower back) and Ben Chiarot (lower body) with various ailments.
The Blues have been playing without injured defensemen Marco Scandella (lower body) and Scott Perunovich (upper body).
–Field Level Media