After failing to finish off one of the NHL’s highest-scoring teams, the slumping St. Louis Blues must contend with another one two nights later.
The Blues will host the Florida Panthers on Thursday on the heels of their 3-2 overtime loss at home to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday.
“We’ve got to be able to close out games,” said Blues coach Jim Montgomery, whose team is 1-4-1 in its last six games.
Playing on its home ice, St. Louis took a 2-1 lead into the final three minutes against the Oilers, but allowed a 6-on-5 goal with Edmonton goaltender Stuart Skinner off for an extra attacker.
Edmonton, which averages 3.28 goals per game, tied the game with Leon Draisaitl’s goal with 2:14 left in regulation, then prevailed in overtime with Connor McDavid setting up Connor Brown for the winner.
“I think we were more direct and harder to play against in the third,” Blues captain Brayden Schenn said. “At the end of the day, we had some chances to make it 3-1 and didn’t capitalize unfortunately, and gave some good players time and space.”
Now the Blues face the Panthers, who are scoring 3.27 goals per game. Forwards Matthew Tkachuk (four goals, three assists in four games) and Aleksander Barkov (two goals, seven assists in six games) have been leading the way.
Barkov sets a sturdy tone with his all-around play.
“A real powerful man, strong man,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “Never goes down. Never quits on the play. He’s such an honest player. He’s hard to handle one-on-one.”
St. Louis will be bolstered defensively by the return of Nick Leddy, who scraped off rust Tuesday after missing 49 games with an injury.
His return gives the Blues one of the NHL’s most experienced defensive units. St. Louis signed Ryan Suter in the offseason and acquired Cam Fowler during the season to join fellow veterans Colton Parayko and Justin Faulk.
“As a coach, it’s very comforting because all of them have played so much because they are good and because they’ve handled so many situations,” Montgomery said. “All of them have been top-pairing defensemen. All of them have been in situations where they’ve had to be shutdown pairings, and a majority of them have also been relied upon to run a No. 1 power play, four of them.”
The Panthers had a three-game winning streak snapped by a 6-3 loss to the Capitals in Washington. That game was tied 2-2 going into the third period, when the Capitals caught the Panthers playing too aggressively in the offensive zone.
“I think we were pushing a little bit too hard for a goal and gave up a couple too many odd-man (rushes), and gave up too many good scoring chances and they capitalized,” Panthers forward Sam Bennett said.
“We don’t turn over pucks in the offensive zone, and we did, and it’s in our net,” Maurice said. “The margin for error for two good teams is pretty tight.”
On its home ice, Florida defeated St. Louis 2-1 in overtime on Dec. 20. Barkov had an assist in regulation and scored the winner in overtime. Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves.
