GDT #77: Blues vs Bruins | 8:00 pm CT | ESPN+, Hulu, 101 ESPN

[theohall]

BLUES The St. Louis Blues are firing on all cylinders, doing everything they need to in order to set themselves up for a successful Playoff run.

On Friday, the Blues withstood a third-period rally to defeat the Minnestoa Wild in overtime, their second overtime win against the Wild in eight days, and clinched a Playoff spot for the 45th time in franchise history.

The Blues immediately left Enterprise Center and flew to Nashville to complete the back-to-back set, taking on the Predators in another Central Division showdown. What followed in Nashville was historic.

The game quickly changed in the second period, when the Blues delivered a franchise-record seven goals in the period to break a 1-1 game wide open. Five different skaters got in on the action - Calle Rosen scored his first two goals as a Blue, Jordan Kyrou looked to reignite his game with his own pair of goals, plus Brayden Schenn, Vladimir Tarasenko and Nathan Walker left their marks.

"We know that we have a really deep offensive group, so it's honestly not that surprising," Kyrou said. "Every line can play, every line can score goals and do the right thing - it's obviously huge (now), and it's definitely going to be huge in the Playoffs."

The dominant 8-3 win in Nashville kept a multitude of impressive streaks alive, just the latest showing from the Blues' high-powered offense this seaon.

Hosting the Bruins for the first time since defeating them in the 2019 Stanley Cup Final - and donning the iconic new Winter Classic sweaters - the Blues are looking to stay red-hot and solidify their Playoff seeding. Currently holding a one-point advantage over Minnesota, the Blues would have home-ice advantage in their first-round series if the season ended today.

The Blues bring home a record of 46-20-10, good for 102 points as they look to keep up their electric stretch of play. After Tuesday night's game, the team will set out on a four-game road trip out West to take on the Sharks, Coyotes, Ducks and Avalanche before the regular season finale at Enterprise Center against the Golden Knights.

BRUINS Since the Boston Bruins hosted St. Louis last week, they finished their homestand by splitting a pair of tight games. The club dropped a game to the Ottawa Senators - their third straight loss - before beating Pittsburgh and clinching their spot in the Playoffs.

Saturday's win over the Penguins was a close 2-1 battle, with Boston only needing a pair of first-period goals to come out on top. Rookie goaltender Jeremy Swayman made 23 saves on 24 shots to secure the win, starting all three games on the homestand.

Star forward David Pastrnak and Trade Deadline acquisition Hampus Lindholm continue to miss time with injury. Both skaters have now been sidelined for five and six games, respectively. The Bruins will surely hope for their returns as soon as possible, relying on their production to be at their best for the postseason.

Their matchup in St. Louis is the first in a two-game road trip, concluding with a rematch against the Penguins on Thursday night. The Bruins' remaining schedule brings a fair set of challenges, seeing five Playoff teams in their last seven games.

With all eight Eastern Conference Playoff teams clinched, only the matchups remain to be determined as a number of tight-seeding battles play out. As of Monday afternoon, Boston holds a three-point advantage over Washington for the top Wild Card Spot, and trails Tampa Bay by three points in the Atlantic Division standings.

The Bruins bring a record of 46-24-5 to Enterprise Center, worth 97 points and slotting them into a matchup with the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round if the Playoffs began on Monday.

HEAD-TO-HEAD The Blues got the better of the Bruins last week in Boston, driven to a 4-2 win on two goals from Tarasenko. The Bruins have not visited St. Louis since winning Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on June 9, 2019.

The Blues are 4-2-0 in their last six games against the Bruins at Enterprise Center.

PLAYERS TO WATCH
BLUES Pavel Buchnevich, sandwiched between outstanding performances from linemates Thomas and Tarasenko, has been putting on a show of his own lately. His goal and two assists in Nashville brought him to 69 points on the year, an increase of 21 over his previous season best.

BRUINS Brad Marchand leads the Bruins with 73 points this season, his 12th full year with the club. The 33-year-old forward scored the first goal in the Bruins' 5-1 win at Enterprise Center in the Final, also notching an assist against the Blues last week in Boston.

BLUE NOTES
Thomas (13 games) and Buchnevich (10 games) have the longest and second-longest active point streaks in the NHL... The Blues are the first team to score four or more goals in 12 straight games since the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins...Their nine-game win streak is just two shy of matching their franchise record (11 games from Jan. 23 - Feb. 19, 2019), while their 12-game point streak is one shy of matching their franchise record (12-0-1, from Jan. 3 - Feb. 5, 2015)... Tarasenko, the NHL's First Star of the Week, scored the game-winning goal in three consecutive games from April 9-14, becoming the first Blue to do so since Keith Tkachuk from Nov. 4-8, 2003...With his next win, Craig Berube will pass Brian Sutter for third on the Blues all-time coaching wins list with 154 as head coach.

The streaking St. Louis Blues will try to extend their offensive surge when they host the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.

The Blues (46-20-10, 102 points) have scored four or more goals in their last 12 games -- the longest such stretch in the NHL since the 1992-93 season, when Pittsburgh scored four or more goals in 15 straight games.

St. Louis is 11-0-1 during this span with nine consecutive victories, including a 4-2 win at Boston last Tuesday. The Blues are coming off an 8-3 victory in Nashville on Sunday that kept them one point ahead of Minnesota for second place in the Central Division.

"We've been saying it all year, we all know that we have a really deep, offensive group," said Blues forward Jordan Kyrou, who scored twice against the Predators. "It's not that surprising."

The Bruins (46-24-5, 97 points) snapped a three-game losing streak by beating Pittsburgh 2-1 on Saturday to clinch a playoff spot.

"We have a standard here," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "We're not gonna go out and celebrate that we made the playoffs, but it's still an accomplishment you should be proud of."

The Bruins can finish no worse than fourth in the Atlantic Division. They are three points behind third-place Tampa Bay.

"We're in now, and we can start building our game for the playoffs -- which I think we've been doing for the last few months," Cassidy said.

The Blues are clicking on all offensive cylinders, but the line of Robert Thomas centering Pavel Buchnevich and Vladimir Tarasenko has been especially dangerous.

Thomas has a 13-game point streak with six goals and 19 assists. Buchnevich has a 10-game streak (18 points; six goals, 12 assists) and Tarasenko has scored goals in five straight games (eight goals, six assists).

"I'm very happy with the team, the way they're performing," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "They are playing for each other and right now, they are doing a good job. It's all about the team. They've got to stick with that. We've got to keep pushing."

Berube has been alternating goaltenders, so he may go back to Ville Husso after starting Jordan Binnington on Sunday. Husso stopped 39 of 41 shots in the victory at Boston last week.

The Blues could get defenseman Nick Leddy back after he missed the last game with a facial laceration. Calle Rosen filled in for him vs. Nashville and scored twice.

"I like his speed and his ability to move the puck," Berube said of Rosen. "He's a heads-up player. He's got real good feet. He makes good plays with the puck. He's played well."

The Bruins will play without winger David Pastrnak, defenseman Hampus Lindholm and goaltender Linus Ullmark, who remained back in Boston with injuries.

"(Pastrnak) has been here a lot of years, but again he's a timing guy so he needs to play," Cassidy said. "(Lindholm) hasn't played a lot of hockey with us, so I think it'll benefit him to play with our guys and our system. Right now we'd like them to get in and get playing as quickly as possible."

Jeremy Swayman has regained the lead role in goal in Ullmark's absence. He stopped 23 of 24 shots in the victory over Pittsburgh.

[glen a richter]

I had a dream this one ended as a 2-1 OT win but then a computer glitch was showing it as a 9-1 win. I'll take the latter, thank you.

[theohall]

As mentioned a few games ago, this looks like the beginning of a new era with increased scoring. NHL Network brought up this same thing during the Blues game Sunday night. With the current total goals/gm averaging 6.27, it's the highest average since 90-91 - which is essentially the final season before the left wing lock became so prevalent. They were discussing it due to the Blues ridiculous recent production and even with that the Blues are only 4th in G/Gm with 3.76, behind Florida (over 4 G/gm), Toronto and Colorado. Yes, the Leafs are ahead of Colorado in G/Gm. I'd lose that trivia bet if someone had asked before today.

Hoping the Blues can keep this rolling. I'm almost afraid they are peaking just a hair too soon before the playoffs. That being said, if Binner gets his form back, this team will be a beast to beat in the playoffs and it looks like Binner is re-gaining that form. Two of the GAs vs Nashville weren't really stoppable, while there was only one he likely wanted back. And seeing the team perform in front of him the same way they'd been playing in front of Husso is huge. Just shows the team is playing consistently the same from night to night which is what coaches want. Being consistent makes coaching easy - since errors that do happen stand out so much.

One thing we are seeing is every line using the dump and retrieve, low-high, cycle game. One of the goals vs Nashville Kevin Weeks pointed how well the Blues shifted from a retrieval in the corner to a high cycle where three players basically had the puck in the same area. They just skated and rotated essentially the same position forcing the Predators to come out higher to defend which created the eventual shooting lane. It's simple, smart, hockey and when executed properly is incredibly successful. The big issue with that high cycle - if you fumble the puck and turn it over, it's usually an odd-man break the other way.

[WaukeeBlues]

As mentioned a few games ago, this looks like the beginning of a new era with increased scoring. NHL Network brought up this same thing during the Blues game Sunday night. With the current total goals/gm averaging 6.27, it's the highest average since 90-91 - which is essentially the final season before the left wing lock became so prevalent. They were discussing it due to the Blues ridiculous recent production and even with that the Blues are only 4th in G/Gm with 3.76, behind Florida (over 4 G/gm), Toronto and Colorado. Yes, the Leafs are ahead of Colorado in G/Gm. I'd lose that trivia bet if someone had asked before today.

Hoping the Blues can keep this rolling. I'm almost afraid they are peaking just a hair too soon before the playoffs. That being said, if Binner gets his form back, this team will be a beast to beat in the playoffs and it looks like Binner is re-gaining that form. Two of the GAs vs Nashville weren't really stoppable, while there was only one he likely wanted back. And seeing the team perform in front of him the same way they'd been playing in front of Husso is huge. Just shows the team is playing consistently the same from night to night which is what coaches want. Being consistent makes coaching easy - since errors that do happen stand out so much.

One thing we are seeing is every line using the dump and retrieve, low-high, cycle game. One of the goals vs Nashville Kevin Weeks pointed how well the Blues shifted from a retrieval in the corner to a high cycle where three players basically had the puck in the same area. They just skated and rotated essentially the same position forcing the Predators to come out higher to defend which created the eventual shooting lane. It's simple, smart, hockey and when executed properly is incredibly successful. The big issue with that high cycle - if you fumble the puck and turn it over, it's usually an odd-man break the other way.

The scoring this year has been insane. If someone has a good article that explains the "why" that would be great.

I hope the good times keep rolling tonight!

Blues 4
Bruins 2

[glen a richter]

That’s why I’m only cautiously optimistic about their chances this year. Yeah, the Blues are scoring at an unbelievable pace but so is everyone else. At the end of the day I’m expecting a 1996 rematch Florida/Colorado with Florida exactly their revenge 26 years later.

[theohall]

So happy to be listening to a Bruins broadcast on ESPN+

Kyrou looks way more confident at both ends in this game.

As to my long post, if someone does write an article or discuss it at length on radio or tv, this is what I bet they say:

1) Influx of talented players who are starting at much younger ages resulting in them having more NHL experience sooner allowing them to take advantage of that talent at an age which used to be reserved for the very rare high end players.
2) A major shift in coaching. Most of the defense first grognards are gone and the few that still try to force that style over a more balanced game aren't keeping their jobs.
3) Rules changes and coaches implementing things to take advantage of those changes. This has been a more gradual change since the lockout.

Combine the above 3 things and it isn't surprising, even though it still seems like one. In regard to 1) & 2). Look at the 100 point players this season. 4 of the 5 started young while the old guy, Gaudreau, has straight up responded to Darryl Sutter whose changed the style he expects when compared to what he did in LA. Matthew flipping Tkachuk will be a 100 point player this season. Someone tell me anybody saw that happening ever based on his style of play.

[theohall]

Bruins played a solid 2 periods and executed in OT. Had the Blues committed to playing the hard way in the 2nd the way they did in the 3rd, the result may have been different. Old refrain, it's a 60 minute game or 60+ when you skip playing the right way for 20 minutes

[theohall]

There was a point with about 5:30 left in the game that pretty clearly demonstrated why Scandella shouldn't be playing ahead of Rosen. The Blues had the puck in the Bruins zone. It get turned over and comes around the boards on the Bruins RW to a guy whose about 10' inside the blueline. Scandella is at the blueline and immediately turns, because the Bruins player has a little forward momentum. The problem - the Bruins forward, forgot which one, but no one on the Bruins has crazy speed - skates past Scandella like Scandella is skating in slush. Yes, Scandella lost a 10' gap when he turned early to attempt not to lose it. Had Parayko not been in the high slot at the Bruins blueline, he wouldn't have been able to cover for Scandella's massive lack of speed and the it would've resulted in a breakaway. So... why is Scandella playing ahead of say, Rosen? IMO - it's Berube and his size preference, but if that size can't get there in time, it's time to play the defenseman who can get there in time. Lately, Scandella simply hasn't been good, even with the Blues long point streak. Rosen may not be as big, but he's sound positionally, good with moving the puck, and uses his legs and head effectively to be in the right place at the right time. Rosen gives up 2" in height and 40 lbs. Scandella gives up better speed and puck moving ability. I'd take the latter in this era. This might change in the playoffs, but the Bruins played a very playoff like game and Scandella didn't measure up.