The St. Louis Blues reestablished their team defense to get a four-game homestand back on track. The Los Angeles Kings have embarked on a five-game road swing in search of last season’s form.
These teams will come from different directions Tuesday night when the Blues host the Kings.
After losing their first two home games by the combined score of 13-3, the Blues stifled the Dallas Stars 3-1 Saturday night. Blues coach Jim Montgomery shuffled his forward lines and defensive pairings, most notably replacing rookie defenseman Logan Mailloux with Matthew Kessel.
The result was a tight-checking performance the team hopes to build upon. Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington (2-1-0, 2.81 goals-against average) faced only 19 shots.
“It was for 60 minutes,” Montgomery said. “That was a really good team effort, and they feel really good about themselves. When you work and you play as five, our goaltender had to make some great saves, but they weren’t 15, they were less than five.”
Montgomery balanced his forward lines by forming a third line with Jordan Kyrou and Mathieu Joseph flanking Brayden Schenn. The new lines and defensive pairings delivered a cohesive performance.
“I thought we were all connected,” Blues defenseman Cam Fowler said. “Nineteen or 20 shots on goal against a team like that with a lot of firepower, that means we’re checking from the inside out and keeping those guys in bad ice and the outside of the rink. That takes everybody. Our forwards were reloading all night, which allowed our defensemen to have good gaps. When we were forcing dumps, we were able to execute on our breakouts and get going the other way.”
The Kings have struggled to a 1-3-2 start this season. Along the way, center Anze Kopitar suffered a foot injury that will sideline him from week to week.
Goaltender Darcy Kuemper also missed time with a minor lower-body injury and Anton Forsberg (1-1-1, 3.89 GAA) stepped up in his absence.
To offset Kopitar’s loss, Kings coach Jim Hiller made a change on the fly during his team’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday. He loaded up a top line of wingers Kevin Fiala and Adrian Kempe with center Quinton Byfield.
“I’ve had it in my mind and I would keep it in my mind once ‘Kopi’ went out, for sure,” Hiller said. “We didn’t want to start that way, see how things settled, but we got into a situation where we needed a spark.”
The Kings rallied to earn a point against the Hurricanes, but they are still striving to play more complete games.
“Everybody knows we’re going to get wins, we’re going to be better at the start of games and all that kind of stuff,” said Kempe, who leads the team with seven points (two goals, five assists). “That’s the days, weeks, months coming up that we validate it. If we keep doing our things, we’re going to start getting wins.
“It’s good to know we can chase but it’s always nicer to have the lead, play with the lead and so I think in the future here, next game, we want to just have a great start, a better start, obviously, and just keep on going. Don’t even think about the third period, second period, just shift by shift, go back to basics and compete.”
