A goal, 2 assists, and a FIGHT?!?! All in a days work for The Schwartz
I’m sure we’ve often wondered how dangerous the St. Louis Blues could be if they managed to find a scoring touch to go along with their smothering defense. For the first two games of 2013-14 we’ve gotten an answer, and it’s total domination.
The Blues put up a 7 spot on Saturday Night against the overmatched Florida Panthers, chasing another former All-Star Goaltender from the game in the process. This time it was Tim Thomas heading to the bench after yielding 5 goals, 4 of which came in a flurry of offense in the last ten minutes of the second period.
The first 30 minutes was a lot of the Blues seemingly spinning their wheels. They picked up their first goal from newcomer Brendan Morrow at 13:58 of the first, and were outshooting the Panthers, but were still giving up their fair share of scoring chances. It had all the makings of one of those frustrating games that the Blues were winning the territorial battle, but couldn’t cash in and kept their opponent in the game. At the halfway mark that all changed.
Vladimir Tarasenko lit the lamp to start the barrage at 12:31, and under 3 minutes later it was Jaden Schwartz, who assisted on the Tarasenko goal (that will be important later), finding the back of the net at 15:07. Another Blues newcomer Derek Roy joined the fun just over a minute later at 16:12. The barrage ended with a penalty shot goal by Alexander Steen at 19:03. In the blink of an eye a 1-0 barnburner became a 5-0 laugher.
Thomas was replaced by his understudy Jacob Markstrom who didn’t fare much better in the opening minutes of the third as goals from Ryan Reaves and Patrik Berglund pushed the lead to 7-0 in the first five minutes of the third. As tends to happens in these type of games shenanigans prevailed for the remainder, but it did lead to an unlikely milestone for the young forward Jaden Schwartz.
After a scrum broke out, Panthers forward Chris Versteeg seemed to go after Schwartz when his beef was actually with Vladimir Sobotka. That mattered none to Schwartz who dropped the gloves and threw down with Versteeg which notched him the rare “Gordie Howe Hat Trick” with a goal, assist, and fight.
Lost in all of that was the 17th shutout by goaltender Jaroslav Halak as a member of the Blues, which broke the longstanding record held by the legendary Glenn Hall as the Blues rolled to a 7-0 win.
So the Blues sit at 4 points in 2 games, and have looked fantastic doing it. They are getting tons of pub from the national hockey guys, which can of course be a blessing and a curse. For now though, Ken Hitchcock has the boys running on all cylinders. The competition takes a big step up though on Wednesday Night as the defending Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks come to the Scottrade Center.
