ST. LOUIS — For openers, it was too close for comfort. Columbus limped into town 0-2-0, minus the injured Patrik Laine, and having played at home (and lost) on Friday night.
But you would’ve never known it by what transpired for the first 2 1/2 periods of Saturday’s St. Louis Blues season opener at Enterprise Center. After the Blues squandered a 2-0 lead, things settled into a tight, tense checking affair at 2-2.
The Blue Jackets were scratching and clawing and checking, and with rare exception the Blues had trouble generating much sustained offense. Home openers were supposed to be more fun than this, right?
As the third period wound down, the sellout crowd was nervous. The Blues themselves looked a little tight. But there would be no heartbreak at the House of Blues on this night. Just when things were at their most tense, along came Ivan Barbashev — taking a short pass from Brayden Schenn and beating Columbus goalie Elvis Merzlikins to make it a 3-2 game.
Barbashev scored a career-high 26 goals a year ago, and since that was almost twice as many as his career high of 14 set during the Blues’ Stanley Cup season, conventional wisdom said he wouldn’t be anywhere near 26 this season.
Barbashev, always a positive thinker, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch during the team’s bonding trip to Charleston, S.C., that maybe he’d do better than that this season. Well, he’s got one goal. And counting. The game-winner in a season-opening 5-2 win over the Blue Jackets.
Just 20 seconds after the Barbashev goal, Jake Neighbours provided some insurance with some nifty maneuvering through traffic in the slot and a backhand past Merzlikins.
Vladimir Tarasenko then added some icing on the, uh, ice, with his second goal of the night. And Blues fans went off into the night happy.
If you had Pavel Buchnevich in the pool for first Blues goal of the season, please step forward and claim your prize. Left alone in the right circle, Buchnevich rocketed a shot past Columbus goalie Elvis Merzlikins for a 1-0 St. Louis lead just 5:05 into the contest.
The Blues were on the power play, their first power play of the season after setting a franchise record with a 27.0 percent success rate in 2021-22. Torey Krug, running the point on the power play, had the assist.
Buchnevich had 30 goals last season and coach Craig Berube thinks he could get more this season — but wants him to shoot more.
Just four seconds after the Buchnevich goal, Alexey Toropchenko had a shot on goal from distance. That was the fourth shot of the game for St. Louis, who had some strong chances early. But the Blues didn’t get another shot on goal for the final 14:09 of the period. That’s a long drought.
They missed the net with some open looks and overpassed at times, but couldn’t get much sustained pressure despite largely controlling the play in the opening period.
At this stage of his career, Tarasenko still finds a way to get open. We mean wide open. A Justin Faulk pass found Tarasenko all by his lonesome in the right circle. Tarasenko had time to dust the puck off not once, but twice, then whistled a shot past Mezlikins for a 2-0 Blues lead just 64 seconds into the second period.
The lead didn’t last long. Such is hockey. And some bad puck luck helped turned the tide. A shot by Johnny Gaudreau struck Colton Parayko in the face in the slot. The puck fell to the ice, and so did Parayko. (He was OK and returned to the ice.)
In any event, Gustav Nyquist swooped in to send a rebound past Jordan Binnington and shrink the Blues’ led to 2-1 just 2:21 into the second. Things can change quickly in hockey, and that was the case here. Just 18 seconds after the Nyquist score, Sean Kuraly stole the puck from Jordan Kyrou in the St. Louis defensive zone and, skated in and lifted a shot past Binnington.
Suddenly it was a 2-2 game, and all the momentum went Columbus’ way. The Blues were flatfooted and the Blue Jackets got to most of the loose pucks. At one point the shots on goal were 18-9 in favor of Columbus, but the Blues sprung to life late in the period.
In the final 70 seconds of the second, St. Louis put seven shots on goal including a good look by Ivan Barbashev and a great look by Jordan Kyrou. But it remained a 2-2 game after two periods
