​CHICAGO
– Jim
Montgomery’s first words prior to the St. Louis Blues ending their
season-opening three-game road trip was the coach wanted to see a
response.
Well,
he’ll have to wait until the home opener on Thursday.
The
urgency was there in the third period and parts of the first that
were quite frankly OK at best, but too much inconsistency again,
especially in the second period and the Blues dropped their second
straight, losing to the lowly Chicago Blackhawks, 4-2 at United
Center on Tuesday.
As
for the game itself, it was a mixed bag for the Blues (1-2-0), who
had some players shine and play well, and others who quite frankly
they need more from at this point.
As
for the game, let’s take a look …
*
McTavish pushes St. Louis ahead late in the first – There wasn’t
a ton going on by either team, other than a couple solid scoring
chances by each team with Connor McMichael and Frank Nazar each
getting stopped on breakaways.
But
McTavish was able to get his second of the season after McMichael
(we’ll get to him in a moment), was able to intercept a Nick Lardis
neutral zone pass, skate into the zone, drop pass a puck to McTavish,
who whipped his shot past Spencer Knight on the glove side at 15:38:St. Louis goal!Scored by Mason McTavish with 04:22 left in the 1st. Assisted by Connor McMichael.CHI: 0 | STL: 1#STLvsCHI#Blackhawks#StlBluespic.twitter.com/lgvAXORiEo— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) October 7, 2026
The
Blues carried the lead into the second period in the Hawks’ home
opener and a team that had dropped its first three games of the
season, this is a team you should bury.
*
McMichael goal overturned, turning point in the game – McMichael
thought he had his first as a Blue early in the second, into the
second minute exactly, and with the home crowd on Patrick Kane’s
return to the United Center was getting quite restless, and it was a
terrific play by Colton Parayko, who tied Barret Jackman for second
on the franchise all-time games played list with No. 803, skated
through a phone booth in his zone, goes coast to coast and makes the
play setting up McMichael.
But
the Hawks challenged for offside, and Jonatan Berggren, looking at
the play in front of him, was called for being in the zone too early.
Momentum killed and the Blues weren’t able to re-grab it.
“We
were playing pretty well in the second until we actually scored that
goal that got overturned,” Montgomery
said.
“There’s another area where we have to be more disciplined. That
was one of three offsides we had. There was another two that were
missed. Robert Thomas had a wrist shot that the goalie made a good
save, blocker, stick save on in the second, that was offsides too.
We’ve got to be more disciplined at the line and be able to play
the right way. That’s a big part of the game, staying onsides.”
The
Blues should be able to wipe the slate clean and re-grab momentum,
and they didn’t. They got sloppy in the period, the Hawks tied it
on a Sa