ST. LOUIS — The Blues lost another forward on Sunday when Jordan Kyrou had to sit out the game with an injury, bringing to 10 the number of unavailable Blues at the moment.
After getting three straight wins with their No. 4 goalie in the nets, they turned to the No. 4 goalie’s backup, who isn’t really even No. 5 on the team’s depth chart.
The preposoterous has become routine for the Blues, who keep picking up old pairs of pants and finding $20 bills in the pocket. On Sunday, it was another star turn for Nathan Walker, who scored the go-ahead goal in the third period on a shot from the top of the slot that found the top right corner and, in the most unpredictable one yet, a big game in goal from Jon Gillies, who couldn’t get in a game last season as the Blues’ No. 3 goalie but wound up in net a season later because he was available when the Blues needed a goalie.
Oh, and by the time the game was done, the Blues had lost another forward, Brayden Schenn, who left with an upper-body injury in the third period.
The Blues ended up losing 3-2 on an overtime penalty shot by Troy Terry after he was hooked by Scott Perunovich on a turnover that led to a breakaway. The loss snapped a three-game win streak and a seven-game home win streak, though they got a point with a lineup that was their most decimated by injury yet.
The Blues offense wasn’t its sharpest, but that’s part of the constant flux of the Blues lineup, which has featured either an addition or a subtraction in almost every game since Thanksgiving. They’ve lost David Perron, Tyler Bozak, Robert Thomas and now Kyrou, while adding Dakota Joshua, Logan Brown, Nathan Walker and Matthew Peca. Only once in the past nine games have the Blues had 12 healthy forwards. Walker has four goals and an assist in his three games with the Blues as an emergency call-up.
Walker put the Blues ahead 2-1 with 12:20 to go in the third, skating the puck into the zone and just letting it rip from the top of the slot and finding the top right corner. The Blues couldn’t hold that lead, with Gillies first stopping Cam Fowler who was alone to his right but not being able to control a puck amid a scramble in the crease before Troy Terry put it in with 6:31 to play.
The Blues started Gillies in goal, their fifth goalie in the first 28 games and their fourth different starter in the past seven games. Gillies was the Blues’ No. 3 goalie last season and spent much of the season on the taxi squad, so he’s familiar with the group and has worked with them in the past – he even has blue and gold pads – and was available because he hadn’t signed with anyone after the Blues didn’t re-sign him after last season.
Gillies was in training camp with the New York Islanders but didn’t make the team, and played in five games this season on a tryout basis, four in the AHL, one in the ECHL, but hadn’t been able to stick with anyone. His most recent game was with Philadelphia’s Lehigh Valley affiliate on Nov. 27, a 4-1 defeat in which he stopped 17 of 19 shots he faced. (There were two empty-net goals.) The most recent NHL game for the 6-6 Gillies, who won an NCAA title with Providence, was on April 7, 2018, more than three seasons ago.
“He’s played some down in the minors of late, had some good games,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “He’s a big guy. He has to do his job, we have to do our job”
Anaheim took a 1-0 lead with 7:28 to go in the first period. Sam Carrick had the puck behind the net, threw it out front and it eventually ended up on the stick of Buddy Robinson for a goal.
The Blues got even with 13:17 to go in the second. A nice outlet pass from Schenn sprung Walker and Oskar Sundqivst on a two-on-one and Walker held the puck about as long as possible before sliding it across to Sundqvist for an easy tap-in to an open net.
The relief was visible for Sundqvist, who hadn’t scored in his 13 games this season since he came back from knee and hip surgery. (His most recent goal was March 3, 2021, also against Anaheim.) Sundqvist has had chances, including a fairly similar one earlier in the game, but he kept coming up empty. For Walker, it gave him four points in his three games since he was an emergency callup amid the Blues’ ongoing onrush of injuries.
Each team had a power play in the second period and neither scored. Just after the Blues power play, a turnover in the Blues end – it looked like a penalty could have been called on Anaheim on the play – led to a quick two-on-one on Gillies, with Trevor Zegras passing to Isac Lundestrom, and Gillies managed to get his right pad over in time to make the save.
