Blues Vs. Leafs Recap

Blues Lineup:

Jaden Schwartz - Brayden Schenn - Vladimir Tarasenko

Zach Sanford - Ryan O’Reilly - David Perron

Patrick Maroon - Tyler Bozak - Alexander Steen

Sammy Blais - Ivan Barbashev - Jordan Kyrou

Defensive pairings minus one Jay Bouwmeester

Vince Dunn - Alex Pietrangelo

Jordan Schmaltz - Colton Parayko

Joel Edmundson - Robert Bortuzzo

In goal Jake Allen

Game Highlights:

First Period saw no scoring for either side. However of note, the Blues held Toronto to just four (yes four!) shots on goal. Given the recent state of the Blues defense, that’s worth almost a win in itself.

Speaking of the Blues defense, Robert Bortuzzo nets the first goal of the night. Four minutes and forty five seconds into the second, Bortuzzo shot a puck at Leafs’ starter Frederik Andersen. That puck deflected off a Toronto defender and past Andersen to give Bortuzzo his first goal of the year. It also gave Perron his second helper of the season.

With 6:55 to go in the second, the Blues make it 2-0. Zach Sanford finds the top corner on a great shot. That goal is Sanford’s first of the year, and Perron got credit for his second assist of the evening. (Pietrangelo got a secondary assist as well).

Things were looking good for the Blues as the Leafs still couldn’t generate any offense to this point in the game. Things got even better for the Blues when Ryan Oh Oh O’Reilly made it 3-0. Tarasenko with the pass through the Leafs’ players legs that found O’Reilly open in front of the net. Of course that was O’Reilly’s first of the year. Tarasenko got his fourth helper of the year and Maroon gets number four as well.

At the end of two it was three to nothing Blues. The Blues again held the Leafs to just four shots on net. With as many people that were touting how great it was, it was no where to be found.

Here comes the dreaded third period. We’re not gonna talk about the Blues blowing leads or anything here. Nope we’re just gonna talk about...

Crap. Toronto finally breaks through to end the shutout for Allen. However, despite a late/ iffy call on Schwartz giving the Leafs a 6 on 4...Ivan Barbashev finds the back of an empty net to seal the Blues second win of the year.

The Blues survived the onslaught of the Leafs’ late push that saw a game high 15 shots on goal in the period. The Blues were finally able to play their style of smothering defense. Was that Montreal game the wake up call this team needed? Time will tell, but they sure did play their best game of the year so far. Shots finished 25-23 in favor of the Blues.

From The Twitter Machine:

From the “That’s what she said” department:

Boy it’s gonna be really hard to justify Bouwmeester getting back in the lineup Monday night...

And finally because you all want to know who the Panger award winner is...