Blues Postgame Show | 10/30/25

Blues Postgame Show | 10/30/25

Holloway into the corner now. Oscar Sunquist back to Holloway. Score. That line just needed. It’s big. And Sunquist finds Holloway. Holloway buries it. One- nothing Blues to get it to the right side in. Snugaroo shoots. Score. [Applause] [Music] Sniped by Snider. Power play goal. 58 seconds into the second period. Blues regain the lead to the line. Fowler shot. Rebound. Score. [Music] Son off the rebound. With 5 seconds remaining in the power play. They get the goal. We’re tied 33. 912 to go. Third period. To the line. Fowler shot. Rebound. Score. [Music] Son off the rebound. With 5 seconds remaining in the power play. They get the goal. We’re tied. 33. 912 to go. Third period. Jake the Brusk played for Jim Montgomery in Boston trying to win it for Vancouver. In on Bennington shoots, scores. Vancouver wins in the shootout. Man, that that hurts, right? Like it hurts. That’s the way that the game ended and it shouldn’t hurt because my goodness, what a game by the Blues tonight. Welcome everyone into the fourth period. It’s as always presented by First Community Credit Union and Scotley Heating Company and Urban Chestnut Zwickle Brewing Company. Alex Ferrario with you back up here in our broadcast booth inside Enterprise Center where the Blues do fall to the Vancouver Conucks 4 to3 in a shootout. Let’s get all of this out of the out in the front. Yes, they lost again. Yes, it was a six-game losing streak. Now, yes, they left a point on the table. All of those things have been said and are understood, but now that they’re out of the way, I do think there’s a lot of positives to take away from this one because despite the Blues losing this game tonight, this felt like progress was made for what Jim Montgomery has been talking about. This did not feel anything anything like what the Blues have gone through in the previous five games, in the previous five losses. First of all, you didn’t give up five or more goals. That should be a check in itself. You played a better game defensively. Yes, I know you gave up four goal, well, three goals essentially, one with the shootout. Yes, I know that somebody got a hat-tick on you. We’ll discuss that as we move along. But I think it’s important to look at the signs of growth from the team that they were trying to to develop, then worry just about the one loss. but it’s bigger picture rather than the instant results. With that being said, we’ve got lots to get to. We’ll hear from Jim Montgomery. We’ll get reaction from the locker room with our sound bites of the night and we’ll also have our final look at this one and then look ahead for the Blues. But before we do all of that, let’s get to our Ted Drews three takeaways. It’s time for tonight’s three takeaways presented by Ted Drews Frozen Custard. A St. Louis tradition for over 95 years. unmatched quality, unforgettable taste. So, first takeaway from me, this was this was a the result of this game to me was a positive for the Blues. And here’s why. I think they found their identity or at least have an idea of what the identity of this team should be. Now, that identity is not giving up oddman rushes. I think the Blues gave up six of those tonight. that identity is not um allowing the opposition to pull back into the hockey games. Those are things that I would imagine Jim Montgomery is going to tighten up. But why progress was made and to me this one was successful and Joey V is going to hop in alongside us. Um this to me was steps forward, Joe, from an a group of players that probably had zero confidence coming into this one. I mean, it felt like in the offensive zone at five on five, they couldn’t be stopped cycling the puck. Vancouver didn’t know what to do. Both periods, second and third, Vancouver’s goal was the first shot on goal. And that was after the midway point of the year. Ken Hitchcock used to say it, to come out of a losing streak, you’re going to lose a game that you probably should have won. That’s why this one felt like it was a step forward. It was. It was definitely a step forward. I I know it’s it’s only a point you wanted to, but you know what? It’s weird. This this game continues to almost be on the backside of the Blues where maybe they’re not getting the luck that they’re deserving. I thought they deserved more tonight, but then on the flip side, I mean, they they could have lost it all. You know, that that Evander Kane goal, you know, if that wouldn’t have gone their way, then all of a sudden it’s a 4-3 game. Maybe walk away here with zero points. The margin right now is so so thin, but big picture when you look at this league and this team and this season as a process, this was a massive step in the right direction. And you know what? I I thought it was a really good character point because you have Thomas out. Yeah, he’s your leading producer as far as chances created. You have your leading goal scorer and Jake Neighbors out. You know, you have Adala Bordski coming up. You have Jimmy Snuggarroot who had a good game for his van a couple weeks ago. He was big. You needed that secondary scoring. Now listen, Vancouver, they didn’t really get secondary scoring outside of one player. I mean, Kefir Sherwood was an absolute animal on the ice here tonight, but outside of that, they didn’t really have anything else. But then you look at the Blues, they had depth of that second opportunity. Pew Sudter had a great game. Of course, Oscar Sunquist, Dylan Holloway continues to stay hot against the Conucks here in the last couple seasons. And I thought the D jumped, you know, every player on the Blues had at least one shot on goal, which is a really cool stat when you’re looking at the depth and everyone contributing. So again, I know you’re disappointed in the point, but this is a game that I think now they can collectively look at tomorrow and say, look at all these great clips. Look at the Dzone. This is what it looks like. I’m telling you, if you play that tight in the defensive zone from this point moving forward, if you come close to that, you’re going to give yourself a chance to win every single night. He didn’t give up the the the grade A scoring chances, the the home runs that Jim Montgomery was talking about. I mean, Sherwood, two of his goals were off of the rush and then the third one was a broken play with a stick that I mean, it looked like Bennington couldn’t see around four different people. There wasn’t a goal given up. Now, there were a couple of scoring chances, but there wasn’t a goal given up in front of the slot. No. Exactly. Right. And so, I think that that’s what the most important thing was moving forward. You know, there was certainly a handful of items that the Blues were not doing well coming into this game and they were aware of it. But you know what I love? I love the way Jim Montgomery simplified this whole thing. He said, “Yeah, we have probably four or five big things we need to start figuring out.” But one thing is you can’t overwhelm the players with too much. You have to start with one. And I thought the fact that he started with let’s take care of defensive zone hockey in the middle and let’s build to me that’s where to go. I remember when he became a new coach here last year and we were talking he was about a month in and we were talking about you know when you come into a new team that’s struggling how do you how do how do you start a turnaround? And of course there was a great turnaround and he said the the hardest thing for a coach to do and this is last year. The hardest thing for a coach to do is come in and recognize that there’s five, six, seven things that need to be corrected and you throw all those things on the players. They they can’t handle it. It’s too much. It’s it’s system overload for the players. So, what you have to do, and this is hard for a coach because you want to just fix everything, right? Yeah. But but players can’t take on that much. So, you have to start small and then you have to build. In a lot of ways, Alex, I I kind of look at it the same way here. You know, there was a lot that they needed to figure out, but what did he do? He didn’t overwhelm with so much, right? You don’t have a lot of practice time here. This is a condensed schedule this year because the Olympics, so there’s not a lot of time to practice. Yesterday was an optional skate. Not everyone was out there. This morning’s a morning skate, right? There’s just not a lot of reps happening. Yeah. So, you have to start somewhere. And I love the fact that he started from the basic, the foundation of what we are, which is a defending first team. You took care of the middle of the ice. The Blues did that here. They deserve two points. They should have they should have walked away here with two. They had plenty of scoring chances. They dominated the majority of that game. But again, you play that game that exact same style. I promise you, you’re going to win probably seven out of those 10 games. The other thing I really felt good about, Joe, was the adversity that they handled. You said it on the broadcast, I think, after Sherwood took the 3-2 lead that this is the moment where you get punched in the mouth and what do you do? What do you respond with? This didn’t This never snowballed on the Blues. I mean, it could have. You give up the goal to Sherwood when you go up by one. You give up the goal to Sherwood when you go up by two. And then you give up the goal before early on in the third period. And both were off the first shot on goal in each period. But the Blues never wavered. They continued to push back. They did. And you know, they continued to push by driving the middle and driving the hard areas. You know, when you’re down 3-2 and you’re thinking, “Oh boy, here we go again.” Right? I saw Matthew Joseph, he just he took on the front of the net on Storm. I mean, he just he completely burst right through there. Didn’t draw a penalty there, but moments later, you know, you had Pew Sudter driving, we had Papa Butch Navis driving, and I think it was ultimately Nathan Walker that was in front when Marcus Patterson, the defenseman for Vancouver, took a penalty in that third period. So, you drive the net, you draw penalties, right? And then you have your power play go to work. And that’s exactly what happened. So, you’re driving, you’re grinding, you’re getting to the front, you’re going to the areas where they’re not fun to go, but you pay a price to get there. You earn yourself a power play and then of course Pew Sudter gets on the board, gets the equalizer in that third period. That’s what hockey is, right? That’s hockey. And I think for a while there on the offensive side of things, we’ve heard Jim Montgomery talk about this a lot start the year, we just don’t have enough presence at the front of the net. Yeah. So again, as much as you took care of the defensive side, and the Blues did, they actually when you take care of the defensive side, it’s amazing. This is the most honest game on earth. You take care of the Dside, you take care of what you need to, you’re going to find offense. And I just love the way the Blues buried their nose, buried their head. Alex, got to the front of that. They drew penalties a lot here tonight. And their power play came up big. It was a big part of the game. How about that? So, I wrote this down. So, they had a total of nine shots on the power play. Three power play opportunities. Of those nine shots, Joe, six of them came from that second unit. Yeah. Well, you know, it’s interesting, too. That second unit is more of a shot unit. Yeah. And it just is. I mean, you look at the goal by Pew Sudter. You know, Yeah. Yeah, it’s a great net drive by him. He gets a fortunate rebound, but it’s Cam Fowler. He’s at the point. It’s not a hammer. It’s not a 100 mph slap shot. Just get it through, right? We’ve seen it happen all year long against lose. Sunquist and D’vorski were there. They were both there. I I thought D’vorski got a tip on that. That would have a point. I don’t think they registered for it, but unless they changed it, but you know what? You got D’vorki there. You got Sunquist there. It’s kind of that power eye formation of a double tip or a double screen rather. and and it gets through and then you find the fortunate rebound right there. I’m a big fan of that second unit. Yeah, because you have a shooter and fowler. You have D’vorski and Sunquist that are in front of the net, but then D’Vorski also pops out for his one-time. You have Jimmy Snugroot on his one-time. And listen, both those young kids, they played a hell of a game here tonight. You know, I like them on the power play because you got two one-timers, one on each side, and they’re both they both want to shoot it. I mean, Devorski in the very first period, he his shot hit the post late in that first and then don’t get me started on Jimmy Snugwood, his shot. I mean, it is just absolutely scary. This was this was a good night for the growth of this organization, for the growth of the young boys and then added Logan Mayu to it as well. I thought he had a really good game and he had a tough start. He took two penalties back to back and of course they scored on the second one which of course tied the game at one on Kefir Sherwood’s first goal. So, it was a tough start, but I love the way he bounced back. He was jumping up in the offensive zone. Had a couple good shots on net as well. So, I would say this was a big step for that younger group, you know, and and the question was going to be which of that second layer of scoring was going to step up big, but for D’Vorski especially, I mean, Jimmy Snuggger, we we’ve seen it, right? He’s had some really solid games this year. I thought defensively this was by far his best game. You look at him in the Dzone there with a minute to go and seconds to go, two faceoffs. He’s out there. I mean, that that says a lot. If you want to know who on the team, the the coach really trusts, go to a hockey game, tie game or onegoal game late, whoever’s on the ice, that those are his guys. That’s who he wants out there. And Jimmy Snuggroot’s out there. And not only out there, he made a block on his rear end with like 12 seconds to go. And then he made the poke that led to the game eventually going into overtime. He made a great Oh man, his back check in overtime. I thought he was just as good defensively as he was offensively and he had that wicked shot. So Jimmy Snugaroo, this was his best game defensively, but Daortorski, yeah, I want to end on that one. We saw we saw a boy turn into a man tonight. And when you have a young player, first rounder, spends a couple years in the minors, couple camps, little steps, baby steps, small steps, but then all of a sudden they take a giant leap. Tonight that was the giant leap. This was a giant leap for Da Borski. I sense it this morning talking to him in the stall. He didn’t seem skittish. He seemed sure of himself. He seemed like he had authority. He seemed confident. He seemed comfortable in his own skin. And we had a great conversation. And he just felt good. He looked good. And then he took that feeling right onto the ice here tonight. And listen, this isn’t a call up to, hey, let’s get your feet wet. Let’s let’s give this kid a couple more games. Get him comfortable. No, we need you. Like, this team needs you. They’re missing a couple big guys. It is your opportunity. And it’s not just a call up, Alex, on a third or fourth line. Hey, go eat up eight minutes and bang some bodies. This is a, hey, we are missing our top center. You’re a centerman. We’re going to give you two guys that are going well, Kyu and Joseph. Go out there and make an impact to the game. And not only did he do it offensively, his faceoffs were great. He was always on the defensive side of battles. He was composed. His routes were good. Went to the front of the net. Yeah. He looked like he’s been a player that’s been playing in this league for honestly three, four years. I mean, he looked that good. So to me, he he sees the opportunity in front of him and there’s going to be a bigger opportunity for him here even when Thomas comes back if he can maintain this level of play. There’s going to be some other moves around him because to me he was an impact player in this game. Yeah. And I mean that that’s I think most of this game they had him skating with Holloway and Kyru which tells you how Jim Montgomery felt about him. And I’ll wrap up with this Joe because I I played some audio earlier on pregame. We had Connor Walchuk on uh who was the head coach for D’Vorski down in the AHL and we asked him you know when does a a young player know he’s ready for the NHL and he said well last season he would try and slide through games by talent alone and he said this season he’s come out and he’s basically taken everything he wanted and he said when you’re not a passenger in hockey games when you’re the driver that’s when you know you’re ready for the NHL and that’s what they said and it felt that way when he was on the ice tonight. Yeah it did. And you know, with players like D’Vorski, you know, so much of their game when they go from junior to minors and they they turn pro, everything is driven through when you have the puck. You know, youth hockey, minor hockey, junior hockey, you’re growing. You’re 12, you’re 14, you’re 16, you’re 18. Everything is when you have the puck. When you have the puck. But when you turn pro and you turn this into a profession, you know, all of a sudden you go from a kid playing hockey to a hockey player and those are diff that’s a difference there. You know, you’re young, you’re a kid playing the sport of hockey. But this past year, he has now become a hockey player. He has taken this profession on. And the best area you can see that is their play away from the puck. You know, when you’re a kid playing hockey, you just want the puck. And when you don’t have the puck, you’re like, “Well, I don’t have the puck, so I’m not going to do anything.” A hockey player, a mature guy, a guy that’s ready and seasoned, they take more pride in what’s happening away from the puck than actually with the puck. Because the reality is you may be lucky if you have the puck on your stick for 2 3% of the game if you’re lucky, right? So, it’s far more important away from the puck. And I think that the the of course the comments there from the coach is really summarizing that up. And I thought that that play away from the puck, which led to offense, which led to confidence, was supreme tonight. I mean, again, tracking back in the neutral zone, backing, supporting your defenseman, stopping in the D zone, you know, sorting things things out, you know, taking command on on faceoffs. You know, he’s organizing. He’s a quarterback. Again, you look for little things like that that shows confidence. And Alex, he had it uh 200 feet here tonight. Joe, I’ve kept you way too long. You’ve been like in 18 different places from 5:00 on all over the place. Flash Flash our dash. We need to put a statue up here of you and you the broadcast booth. That’d be nice. You want a bronze one or you want a gold one? We’ll turn that 101 ESPN sign as the Joey V Joey V Alex and Jimbo. Just There we go. We’ll make it our broadcast booth. We’ll do it. It’s lonely up here. There’s cobweb starting to build up over on that side of the area. I know. Need you back up here. Great call tonight, my man. It’s good to be with you guys. There you go. Joey V is going to be headed to the airplane soon and headed off to the Columbus Blue Jackets for their game on Saturday. Uh Jordan, let’s play our sound bite of the night next. The soundlight of the night is presented by Rocket Convenience Stores. Fuel your car and your daily cravings at Rocket Convenience Stores. I think so. I mean, obviously it’s it’s tough right now. Uh, I don’t think we’re playing playing bad. Uh, it’s feels like, you know, we’re making a couple mistakes and it’s back in our net. Uh, it’s it’s tough. Um, but I don’t think I mean, most of the games I think we’re playing pretty good. Um, you know, we almost almost got 40 shots on that. So, have you seen anything like this? I mean, where you talk about the mistakes are minimal, but when they are made, they’re in the back of the net. Have you seen anything like this before? No, I don’t think so. You know, it’s uh it is it is tough. Um when you see it too and like you know, like I said, it’s it’s not like we’re passing up the middle when they walk down the highway and rips it in. Uh small mistakes and you know, we’re maybe more more not protecting the middle eyes. uh good enough. Uh cuz I don’t want anyone to to write anything about me trying to rip the goals apart here. Uh you know, Binner and Hope has been amazing for us for years and uh they uh they’ve been they’ve been playing they’ve been playing good and they they work worked their asses off every day. So, uh none of none of this is on them. Uh it’s on all of us and uh we we just need to be better at covering covering the middle and covering up for them. Did you do a better job of that tonight, though? I I think so. A little bit at least, you know, uh you know, a little communication mistake on the on that uh PK goal. Uh you know, obviously obviously it’s it’s it’s some rebound goals and you know, obviously breakaway. Uh not much you can do there, but we’re trying. I mean, it’s it’s I don’t know what to say. It’s it’s it’s kind of uh it’s it’s hard right now. It’s um we we just need we need a freaking win. This guy you out shoot them 39 to 18. Is that a game that you really should win? I think so. Uh I think we’re better than them most of the game. Uh you know and we we should win this game. Uh that’s that’s the bottom line. And uh we didn’t and it sucks. Uh, and honestly right now I don’t I wouldn’t care if we we got dominated a full game as long as we win. You feel like the dam’s going to break though at some point here and it’s going to the breaks are going to start going your way cuz it seems like there was a couple breaks out there that just went against you tonight. Yeah. No, that’s you know that’s what we’re we’re believing in and we’re we’re talking about it uh within the group and with the coaches and uh you know it we just got to keep going. Uh like I said, I don’t think we’re playing bad. Uh, I think we’re playing hard and we were we’re creating a lot of scoring chances and and and we should should have won more hockey games, but uh, you know, it’s at some point it’s it has to turn. It it it just has to. Sony, how how difficult is it to try and build off of like we were talking about some of the things you felt like you guys done well when, like you said, you know, you just need the win. I mean, when you when you don’t have the win, how different is that trying to build off of the things you guys feel like you did do well? I don’t think it’s difficult at all. I think it’s more uh have that in mind what we did well. Uh and like I said, we got to clean up uh clean up uh uh covering the middle of the ice. Uh you know, it’s we’re talking about it and obviously people getting frustrated, you know, obviously not going our way. Uh, but we just need to stay stay together and stay stay compact and kind of just try to figure out this um covering the middle part and we should be all good. There you go. That’s Oscar Sunquist covering the middle part. I mean, it wasn’t as bad as it has been. Still not good enough. And that’s probably the biggest takeaway from the players down in that locker room. But I I think Oscar Sunquist feels like a lot of Blues fans feel. It just felt like you should have won this game tonight and it does suck. And I see plenty of the comments talking about how a massive missed opportunity for the Blues with a team that was down eight or nine players. We’ll talk about that when we get to the final look and we’re going to hear from Jim Montgomery on the other side. It is the fourth period extended postgame coverage here on your home for the Blues 101 ESPN. Welcome back to the First Community Credit Union Blues Postgame Show presented by Scottley Heating Company and Urban Chestnut Brewing Company on 101 ESPN. Final time here on the fourth period presented by First Community Credit Union. Alex Ferrario back with you. We got Jordan Deacon doing a phenomenal job back in our studios. Jim Huer on site engineer who’s also doing a phenomenal job taking care of us on the airwaves tonight. How about my Ferrario um stat of the night? This is just a segment I’m going to come up with right now because I looked at this. I’m thinking when Sherwood scored that hattick, I’m like, man, I feel like there have been a lot of hat-ticks against the Blues this season. There haven’t been. There have only been two. Although, I guess I could hear the argument of two in 11 games isn’t good. But how about this for you? In 11 games that the Blues have played this season, there have been nine of those games where a player has been on hat-tick watch. Nine games where a player has been on a hat-tick watch against the Blues. Now, two of those nine games have been a hat-tick. And then one of those games, two players were on hat-tick watch. Keller got the two goals and then Logan Kulie had the four goals. But I I thought that was crazy. in 11 games so far this season. Nine of those have had players on hat-tick watts, but only two hat-ticks going in. So, I’ll take that one as a uh positive rather than, you know, nine guys having hat-ticks against the Blues. Let’s hear what Jim Montgomery had to say after his team’s 43 shootout loss to the Canucks. It’s time to hear from the head coach Jim Montgomery. Presented by Fiser window and door store, offering quality Americanmade Marvin windows and doors. Visit their showrooms in Brentwood or East Alton, Illinois. Can you take a game like that most nights and feel like you’re going to come away with two points the way you play? Uh, yes, usually. Um, and not because of the shot clock. We’re not a real shot on goal evaluators as a staff. Um but we had a lot of point blank shots. We had a lot of traffic going to the net. We created a lot of chaos offensively. Um but you know um Vancouver um did a good job of hanging around and then they got the lead a couple of times. I love the way we fought back, but some of the goals that we gave up like we got to be smarter. We got to continue to build in the right way. We did build tonight. It’s a step in the right direction. We need to win that game. It’s that simple. Uh Sunny was just kind of lamenting his missing chance. A few chances tonight that you know probably got to have. I got to think that there’s six to seven chances that should have been in the back of the net. You know, at least we’re there now. We’re getting more chances. That’s that’s a good thing. Um, you know, so it’s a step in the right direction. That’s the positive. The negative is there’s some game management issues and there’s some um decisions that just we we have to become a smarter hockey team. the same problem where they don’t get many chances, but they get some grade a chances. Yeah. Well, I mean, you give up a breakaway off a twoon two like that shouldn’t happen. Um, you know, we we we didn’t get lucky with the goalie interference, but like we you can’t be giving up that many cracks from the middle of the ice with three minutes left. like you know guys that are out there have to value ending plays protecting valuable ice a little more than what we are doing right now. Was the staff feeling pretty confident there that you should make that challenge? Uh you know what it was right down to the last minute? Um we saw the overhead uh on the bench pretty quick. Um Elliot Mandu did a really good job um saying, “I’m not sure right now. I’m not sure.” The communication lines through coach were great. Um and then when I called the ref over to buy some more time, we had seen it enough that I was comfortable, ready to challenge it. And then Elliot came in and said, “Yes, challenge it.” Was stick on stick and it went through his blocker side. So I was leaning towards it. He when he confirms it because he studies all those things, it really um made us feel that we were 80% certain it would get reversed. M talk about game management. That second goal they scored, Roberg, Steve Ro comes in, Buchad’s changing. Is that just communication awareness or Well, there’s two things there. Um the you know, Buch uh not Buchad Buad’s fine changing. he should expect that um the puck’s going to go to the goal line. We have a twoon two and it’s an opportunity for our players to learn. Uh we got to start learning and applying though. Uh Broberg needs it’s just a twoon two. He thinks he can hit 26 for a breakaway. He’s not on a breakaway. So the puck just needs to go to the goal line because they’ve all been out there for a while. 55 is coming to join as the third man. That can’t happen. You know, one defenseman’s in, the other defenseman protects the middle of the ice. That’s that’s the way we want our defenseman to play when one of their if their partner is in the offensive rush. You talked about protecting the middle of the ice as a whole. Did you do that much better tonight? We did it better, but not to the level that we need to do it. We’ll continue to get better at that. A lot about the game tonight, but D’Vorski, what did you think about his game? I thought it was really good. Played a really good game. You know, I thought uh he did some really good things on the power play. He looked uh I I liked his speed and pace tonight. So, a lot of good things about him. And then I thought our other young forward was our best forward tonight and Snugoo. Is that one of the reasons why you felt comfortable with them? You had them out there with late in the game. They deserve the ice at that point, I guess. Yeah, they definitely did. If I didn’t think so, I wouldn’t have put them out. I mean, that’s that simple. Like I when it comes down as a coach, you have a gut feel behind the bench and you have a gut feel about who are the players that that might get it done and that’s who you put out there in those situations. Usually it’s it’s not your young forwards. Um but tonight they played really well that they had earned it. There was one game with the boards keeper. Does he look like a guy who could stick around and help you? Too early to tell. Yeah. I mean, you know, you you you get called up, you get really excited. Uh, as an individual, your adrenaline’s going. There’s a lot of u dopamine going on. It’s the NHL. You’re excited. We play in front of great fans. Like, but now it’s it’s it’s the every day. It’s the recovery now. We practice tomorrow. We go to Columbus. We got to do it. It’s rinse repeat. We got to play better than we played tonight. Hughes wasn’t there for Vancouver tonight. That’s their best player, right? I know we’re missing Thomas, so you can say that’s a wash. But you know what? We’re the more desperate team right now. And now we’re going into a Columbus team that’s playing really well. I think they’re five and one in their last six. It’s time to take a look back at tonight’s game with a final look driven by Pure Performance. Only stop for all your aftermarket vehicle needs. Once again, Jim Montgomery. So, let’s get the final look. I loved it. Jim Montgomery, blunt, honest, forthcoming with his team. Yeah, it’s a game they should have won and you know he can have that feeling and I can see it differently as well to where I felt like there were positive steps and he does as well. It’s not like he’s just sitting here acting as if this was a failed game because you didn’t win. He understands there’s steps to be made and it’s progress from where they were for the last five games. And if you don’t feel like this is progress from the last five games, then I don’t know what to tell you because this was absolutely different than the last five games. But yeah, there are still mistakes being made. You know, go through each one of them. The Sherwood goal, a Jordan Bennington pass on the penalty kill to Justin Faulk that gets misplayed. Puck that just needs to come out of the zone. The second Sherwood goal, Joe Montgomery broke it down. It’s awareness on the ice. It’s awareness on where the puck is going rather than going east, west, north, south when you’ve got guys that are trying to make a change and defenseman being too aggressive. And then the third Sherwood goal. I I mean breakdown in terms of the zone entry, but also a wacky shot where Ratu Ratty’s stick breaks. Sherwood picks the puck up around a broken stick on a player. Bennington’s trying to find it and finds the back of the net. And he’s right. First of all, 80% gut feeling on that goalie interference call is wild because the scenario was if they call it and it’s not goalie interference, you’re on the penalty kill with 232 left to go. And I guess as a coach, you got to take the chance if you’re confident in it. But uh still, yes, that was called back, but also you can’t allow those chances to happen. Those are the areas that need to be fixed. But to fix those areas, you got to feel confident in other areas of the game. What it’s been is everything is broken. Everything is broken down and you don’t know where to go. You don’t know where to start. Tonight, some mistakes, not a lot of mistakes, some mistakes. But in the offensive zone, to me, they found an identity there. Cycling the puck, forchecking hard, making the other team make mistakes. Now, it’s about finishing. That’s an area that you hope some of the puck bounces will go your way. You tighten up the areas on the defensive side of the game, but to me, not only did it feel like your team made progress, but man, you saw some signs of real excitement on some of these younger players. I thought Logan May, you had a really good game tonight. Took two bad penalties. The one was a high stick, the other tripping, not a good penalty. And it would give gave up a goal. Got to feel defeated at that point. But after that, he was forceful in his own end. He was good and a a piece of the solution in terms of exiting the puck out of the zone and even started to put some shots on that. And let me tell you, his shot, it is a heavy one. Not a slap shot, wrist shot that gets on that. He even caught the goalie off um cut him off by surprise. Jimmy Snuger tonight, one of the best players on the ice. Saw him late in the third period in overtime. And that’s trust from the coach. And then I really liked Dalor D’vorski’s game. Montgomery’s right. Don’t get too far out of your skis because this is the elements of the NHL you got to figure out how to handle. But he was demanding tonight. He was forceful tonight and he pushed the ice. What he said there at the end, he’s right. And that’s the coach speak of you should have won that hockey game. But I’ve seen a lot of people say, “Well, they were missing nine of their guys. The Blues should have won.” Yeah, they were missing Quinn Hughes. They lost Brock Besser after the first shift. They didn’t have Connor Garland and Philip Heale. The Blues were without Robert Thomas and Jake Neighbors. Those are the those are your top goal scorer and your best centerman. And they were using a 20-year-old centerman in their top six who actually looked the part. So I again, it’s separating the two entities. One of they should have won that game. You needed to win that game to stop this losing streak. The other one is to stop this losing streak. You’ve got to start feeling good about your game in certain areas. And tonight felt like they found an identity in the offensive zone and made strides to fixing their problems on the defensive side of the puck. And those elements you hope can build together. We’ll end it with what we said earlier and what Kerb said on the on the uh postgame breakdown. Ken Hitchcock, a Hall of Fame hockey coach, used to say it all the time. to come out of a slump, you’re going to lose a game that you probably should have won. That’s what tonight feels like to me. Now, if they go lay an egg in Columbus, you got bigger issues because that’s not making strides forward. That’s taking one step forward and one step back. But if you play this same way offensively and you tighten up defensively, this feels like a team that might be coming out on the other side of a losing streak. We got to wait to find out though. They got the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday and he’s right. Columbus has been playing some very, very good hockey and as we all know, the Blues uh have their issues with this Columbus Blue Jacket squad and have for the last couple of years. They’ve won three in a row, 6 and4 overall. The Blues will be taking on that Blue Jacket squad on Saturday. 6:00 puck drop, 5:30 pregame skate, 5:00 extended pregame right here on your home for the Blues 101 ESPN. Hope everyone has a great rest of their night. Once again, a huge shout out to Jordan Deacon and Jim Huer doing a phenomenal job tonight. I’m Alex Ferrario. Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their evening. Enjoy Halloween. Be safe and we’ll talk to you on Saturday for Blues and Blue Jackets, what I like to call the battle of the blue, right here on your home for the Blues 101 ESPN. Thanks for listening to the First Community Credit Union Blues Postgame Show presented by Scottley Heating Company and Urban Chestnut Group.

The Blues earn a point in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Canucks.