{"id":540728,"date":"2026-04-04T18:38:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T18:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/540728\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T18:38:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T18:38:17","slug":"jim-montgomery-calls-latest-win-one-of-best-performances-of-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/540728\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Montgomery calls latest win one of best performances of year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don’t count the St. Louis Blues out of the playoff race just yet<\/a>. After a 6-2 drubbing of the Anaheim Ducks on the road on Friday night, Jim Montgomery’s club has reduced the magic number for a Western Conference postseason berth to just three.<\/p>\n

While it’s still improbable, as the Blues have only seven games left \u2014 and need to leapfrog three teams \u2014 the result at Honda Center was encouraging<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo times we’ve been in this building has been two of, probably, our five best performances of the year,\u201d Montgomery said afterwards, per NHL.com’s Dan Arritt. \u201cWe played fast, we were really smart with the puck, we didn’t force things through the middle because that’s a team that really occupies the middle of the ice and they have great sticks and they transition extremely well off turnovers.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a fast and furious first period, with the Blues and Ducks combining for five goals in the opening frame. St. Louis led 3-2 after 20, and didn’t look back.<\/p>\n

With Robert Thomas leading the charge<\/a>, the Blues scored three unanswered \u2014 two in the second and one in the third \u2014 to seal the lopsided final.<\/p>\n

Thomas finished with a goal and two assists, while Jake Neighbours and Philip Broberg chipped in two apples each. Pius Suter and Colton Parayko each went for one and one.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s the most underrated passer in the league,\u201d forward Dylan Holloway, who scored twice, said of Thomas. \u201cSuch a nice pass and I was kind of blessed to have that lay right on my tape like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blues have had the Ducks’ number lately; they also beat their cross-division rivals 4-0 in this same building back on March 8.<\/p>\n

Now 32-31-12, St. Louis will likely need to win five or six of their last seven games to be one of the last eight standing in the Western Conference come the middle of April.<\/p>\n

It’s unlikely, but the squad has been known for late-season surges. Things don’t get any easier, though, with a back-to-back set against the NHL-leading Colorado Avalanche coming up. Those two games will make or break their 2025-26 campaign.<\/p>\n

Don’t count the St. Louis Blues out of the playoff race just yet. After a 6-2 drubbing of the Anaheim Ducks on the road on Friday night, Jim Montgomery’s club has reduced the magic number for a Western Conference postseason berth to just three. While it’s still improbable, as the Blues have only seven games left \u2014 and need to leapfrog three teams \u2014 the result at Honda Center was encouraging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Don’t count the St. Louis Blues out of the playoff race just yet. After a 6-2 drubbing of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[2210,233,5292,1739,5,4,84],"class_list":{"0":"post-540728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim-ducks","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-ducks","10":"tag-anaheimducks","11":"tag-ducks","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-st-louis-blues"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116347896049682184","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}