I thought that was a pretty well-played game by the Blues, although I would credit this game as a special teams win more than anything else. We allowed too many shots/chances, but most of the stuff that concerned me happened after we had a 2 goal lead and the Rangers went into desperation mode. This was largely a toss up game up to the point where we scored our 2nd PP goal to make it 3-1. The Rangers turned it on (and we went squarely into lead-protect mode) after that and the numbers turned heavily in their favor.
I thought we earned our PPs by getting their D to run around chasing and then we scored 2 nice PP goals. The 4 PPs we got in the first half of the game are a huge reason the game was even to that point, but the penalty gap was a result of us getting them chasing. Then they earned their PPs from us running around chasing after the score was 3-1. I think this game was much more closely played than the box score indicates. Binner was
great, but I would not say he was the only (or even biggest) reason we won that game.
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I thought all of our goals were quality goals, so it isn't like we capitalized of a bad night by Shesterkin. The 1st was stoppable, but it was a low-to-high pass from the wall to the high slot and Kyrou ripped a quick release into the top corner. The puck flipped up on end as the shot was being taken, so there was no way for the goalie to read the shot off the blade. That's a good goal. The 2nd and 3rd goals go in damn near every time and the 4th goal was a well placed shot on a breakaway where Kyrou wasn't remotely pressured.
That's 2 good goals and 2 almost sure-thing goals. In addition to those plays, Shesterkin made a couple fantastic stops on back door cross-ice plays that easily could have gone in. I don't think our expected 2.5 goals accurately captures how good our chances were tonight. I'd expect 3-4 goals off those chances on the large majority of nights. Now, does Binner hold them to 2 most nights like that? No. But I think he holds them to 4 or less way more often than not.
That game reminded me of a lot of games in our 2021/22 season where we were opportunist with our chances and passed up quantity for ++ quality. There are absolutely things to work on and I'm not saying that it was a perfectly played game by us. But I think that was a decent win against a good team.