Power play kickstarts Blues' 4-2 win over Kings

Krug's first goal as a Blue comes on heels of veteran players discussing where 

to go after slow start on power play through first four games, going 0-for-14

By LOU KORAC
ST. LOUIS -- It may not have meant much to those watching from the outside, which is basically relegated to members of the media, but on Friday, the Blues' top power-play specialists wanted to talk things over.

They worked extensively with both power-play groups on the man-advantage Friday, wanting to shake off the ineffectiveness of the first four games that resulted in an 0-for-14 start.

From left, Blues players Ryan O'Reilly, Jaden Schwartz, Torey Krug,
Brayden Schenn and David Perron discuss power-play strategy Friday.

It marked only the second time in Blues history they've started the season without a power-play goal (1973-74 Blues went five straight games), and it made one wonder with the talent that the Blues can throw out there on either unit, that it would instantaneously click.

Well, it finally did when the newcomer to the top unit, Torey Krug, stepped into a clapper and scored to finally rip the monkey off the back of the Blues' power play in a 4-2 win against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday at Enterprise Center.

And it was Krug, Ryan O'Reilly, David Perron, Brayden Schenn and Jaden Schwartz that got together in a circle and just hashed out some things as to why things haven't worked yet.
It was as if the consensus was that it's too good to not produce, and there's too much talent for it to at least not create momentum despite it being only four games.

Here was a unit that was third in the NHL last season, 24.3 percent effective, and adding to it this season with the addition of Krug and Mike Hoffman, who has been used recently on the second unit with Robert Thomas, Tyler Bozak, Jordan Kyrou and Vince Dunn. Maybe too much was expected too soon with some new additions (Krug, Hoffman, Kyrou and Thomas to an extent). But success breeds more success, and just lumping a bunch of names together doesn't necessarily breed success without proper execution.

So when the Blues (3-1-1) went on their first power play Saturday, and they had scored on five of their past six against Los Angeles (1-2-2), it was only a matter of time before the dam broke, and Krug made that happen when he stepped into a David Perron pass and beat Cal Petersen for a 1-0 lead at 13:12 of the first period.

"We can draw X's and O's up on the board all day long, but at some point, the players have to take ownership of the thing," Krug said. "We have five great players out there. Obviously four of them returning from a great unit last year. We want to be the piece of the puzzle that helps continue power play success. We just talked as a group that we've got to put things on our shoulder and go to work."

It was good timing for Krug as well, who went without a goal in his first four games as a Blue after signing a seven-year, $45.5 million contract Oct. 9. Krug had an assist in four games, but to get the first one, and on the power play to boot, should help the group get its mojo going.

"It feels good," Krug said. "Obviously our power play was not catching any breaks there. We need to work a little bit harder and hopefully now that we've got one, the floodgates will open and we'll feel the confidence to continue to work.

"We'll get a picture with (the puck) and hopefully it's the first of many."

The Blues finished the game 1-for-2 with the man advantage, and 1-for-16 doesn't mean by any means that they've turned the corner, but at least it's a start, and the veterans took it upon themselves to do a little bit of soul searching on Friday just to be on the same page.

"I like that Krug shot the puck from the top," Blues coach Craig Berube said. 'We talked to him about that. That was a good PP.

"He comes from a power play that’s different from this one. We need to establish the shots at the top here. I think that’s how we’ve done things here for a bit. It’s just something that maybe he’s got to get used to. He’s got a good shot and I’d like him to use it."

Perron, who had a goal and an assist, said even with the personnel, it would take the players some time to get on the same page.

"Yeah, it's early in the year, so we can't worry too much about some things," Perron said. "I always find it funny when you start seeing stuff, whatever, 'This guy hasn't scored, or the power play ... It's still we're going through different times right now where we have played some hockey over the summer, but most of the league hasn't played that much since March last year and now we're getting into a 10-day training camp with new faces and we're supposed to just go on and click. Our team structure is probably the biggest thing for us as a team. So I think as we go here, we're hoping that all of those details will come around. I honestly think our coaching staff has done a really good job of showing us some of the little things that we can do better every single time and we're going to keep improving."

It was evident that the Blues moved the puck better, and no better example than Krug's goal.
Schenn quickly took the puck off the boards on his backhand, his the bumper (O'Reilly) in the middle, who moved it to the point. Krug pushed it to Perron in the left circle, who quickly dished back to Krug for the one-timer with Schwartz providing the traffic.

(St. Louis Blues/Scott Rovak)

Blues players Brayden Schenn (10), Torey Krug and David Perron

celebrate Krug's goal against Blake Lizotte (46) and the Kings.

"That's an automatic play when the puck gets bumped back up to me, it has to get to the net one way or another," Krug said. "Those guys worked hard to recover pucks that whole shift, and I think we bobbled it a few times but they recovered it, made the right plays and 'Schwartzy' did the dirty work down in front of the net. All the credit goes to those guys."

All the Blues now have to do is get some consistency going with the man advantage, because they at least the past two games, have leveled off the penalty kill unit after a horrendous start.

"We were rolling for a while there and then we got into some penalty trouble once again," Krug said. "We've got to clean that up. They're a patient team. They sit back, they try to force you into some mistakes. We've just got to mature and grow as a group and just play winning hockey. We showed spurts of it and now we'd like a full 60-minute effort. Overall I thought we did a good job and it was a good win."