ST. LOUIS — Well after St. Louis Blues practice ended Wednesday, Jordan Kyrou and Pavel Buchnevich were the last two players sitting at their locker stalls, about 10 feet apart.
Kyrou, his hair as long as it’s ever been in his Blues’ career, and Buchnevich, his stare as stoic as it’s ever been, had been chatting for several minutes when The Athletic walked up to ask Kyrou a few questions.
As is often the case in these situations, the interview started with an icebreaker: “Jordan, do you like playing with Pavel?” And as is also often the case, that was followed by a player pointedly pumping his teammate’s tires: “I love playing with Buchy! He’s an elite centerman. Pavel Datsyuk-like.”
One day after the Blues’ 4-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild, the players were loose. They’ve played four games this season, and they’re 2-2. It’s still too early to start drawing too many conclusions.
But after falling behind opponents by multiple goals in all four games, it’s apparent that the Blues must start scoring earlier. They’re having to play catch-up, and while that worked in comeback victories over the Seattle Kraken and San Jose Sharks, it’s not a sustainable way to win, as evidenced by consecutive losses to the Vegas Golden Knights and the Wild.
So on Wednesday, not far from where Kyrou and Buchnevich were chatting, there were new line combinations on the smart board at the front of the locker room. When the club hosts the New York Islanders on Thursday at Enterprise, it appears that Kyrou will be reunited with Robert Thomas, while Buchnevich will have Jake Neighbours on his line.
“(Thomas and Kyrou) have had chemistry in the past, and I feel they are two players that we need to get going, and they need to be top players for us,” Blues coach Drew Bannister said. “This is a way to get them an opportunity to get on track and start playing some real good hockey for us, because we need them if we’re going to have some success.”
#stlblues practice lineup:
Saad-Thomas-Kyrou
Bolduc-Buchnevich-Neighbours
Holloway-Schenn-Joseph
Toropchenko-Faksa-Kapanen
Extras: Texier-Walker-SundqvistSuter-Parayko
Broberg-Faulk
Joseph-Kessel
Perunovich
*Leddy not skatingBinnington
Hofer— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) October 16, 2024
There’s a couple of things to be clear on here:
• Kyrou has already been “going,” with two goals and six points in the four games, and he could’ve had another goal Tuesday if not for a referee blowing a play dead when the puck was still loose.
• It’s not just Thomas who is off to a slow start, statistically. The offense as a whole is lagging, which is why the Blues have found themselves trailing so often.
The Blues ranked 19th in the NHL in goals per game (3.00) through Tuesday night, and a majority of those came in the second and third periods when they were forced to fight back. They have a combined 41 shots on goal in the first period this season and just two goals.
Meanwhile, they were ranked 14th in shots per game (28.8) through Tuesday, and a lot of those were one-and-dones. They are spending just 42.1 percent of their time with the puck in the offensive zone (75th percentile, per NHL Edge player tracking).
“We’re shooting, and then no one is at the net, so there’s no one to recover the puck,” Kyrou said.
And the initial shots themselves aren’t effective. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Blues have scored three high-danger goals on 39 higher-danger chances (7.7 percent).
“We’re getting shots, but we need better quality,” Thomas said. “We need high-grade chances and dangerous chances. Yeah, volume is good, but we need to find a way to get better shots.”
So now Bannister is expected to put Kyrou and Thomas back together on the top line. They’ve played about 15 minutes of five-on-five time together this season and have 14 scoring chances for and two against, including five high-danger chances for and none against.
“We’ve had a lot of success in the past,” Thomas said. “You go through stretches where it doesn’t work, but I think if you look at the overall sample, we’ve had a lot of chances and a lot of success.”
Thomas does have four points (one goal) in four games, but he hasn’t been as effective as in the past.
“I think he’s still trying to find his game offensively,” Bannister said. “For him, we’ve tried different combinations, which probably is not easy as a centerman when you’re having different wingers every second and third game. It doesn’t seem to be going in the net for him right now, but I don’t foresee moving forward that there’s going to be an issue. For him, the focus has to be away from the puck, making sure that his details away from the puck will give him more opportunities offensively.”
Thomas admitted that the revolving door on his wings — Dylan Holloway, Brandon Saad, Buchnevich, Neighbours, Schenn and Kyrou — have been a lot.
“It’s hard,” he said. “Plays happen quick and you need to know where guys are, so yeah, it takes a little bit of time to get used to guys.”
The most success Thomas has had this season has been with Kyrou and Buchnevich.
Bannister hasn’t played them together at the start of games, but he’s found points in games — after an offensive-zone faceoff or a specials-teams sequence, for instance — to get them on the ice to take advantage of a situation.
In parts of four games this season (13:09 of five-on-five ice time), the Buchnevich-Thomas-Kyrou line has 10 shots for and four against, and they have an expected goal-share of 85.14 percent, per Natural Stat Trick. They have one goal for and none against.
“Every time we’ve been out there, we’ve created a lot of chances,” Thomas said. “We’ve only scored one goal, but I think if you look at the chances we’ve created, it’s been really good. We’re a line that’s had a lot of success, especially last year, so it’s nice to get out there in those situations.”
Bannister was asked Wednesday if it’s been tempting to use that line more often.
“It’s tempting in situations, but I know for the team as a whole, it’s best to have Buchy in the middle for us to have success long-term,” he said.
Some Blues fans believe that playing Buchnevich on the wing is crucial to creating more offense, but the reality is that other players need to generate more than they are now for the goals to come.
Neighbours, who had 27 goals last season, has no points after four games.
“I think Jakey has been playing well, but even for Jakey, I think he could be a little bit more direct in the way he plays and be a little bit harder around the net,” Bannister said.
Schenn has just one point — a goal, which was the overtime game-winner in San Jose — and Zack Bolduc has just one assist.
In fact, of the Blues’ top-six point producers, three are defensemen: Justin Faulk (four points), Philip Broberg (four) and Colton Parayko (two).
The team has a lot more speed this season, but it’s not maximizing it in a way that creates offense.
“Our transition game has got to get better — getting the puck up quick, getting it into our forwards’ hands at full speed,” Bannister said. “That’s just quick puck movement, quick decisions, especially when our D have it on their stick — not looking to slow the game down.
“We have to get our transition game going here. Our back end skates really well. We want them involved in our breakouts, and we want them involved on entries and we want them involved in offense. So getting up the ice quick, with our forwards and our D working together, is going to be important for us.”
It’s only been four games, but the Blues are playing a lot of catch-up — literally.
“Guys are still trying to find their chemistry for sure and sometimes it takes longer than we’d like,” Kyrou said.
(Photo of Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou: Harry How / Getty Images)
