Blues even series with the style that got them here

Now this is Blues hockey.

Even leaving the result aside — a convincing win to pull them even at two games apiece in the series — everyone in the St. Louis room had to be happy with the way they played. After a brutal Game 3 in which seemingly everything went wrong all at once, there was ample opportunity for soul-searching, digging deep, and getting back to the style of play that got them to their first Cup Final since blah blah blah.

Recall that Craig Berube’s crew was the least-penalized team in the postseason before this series. Well, they stopped taking penalties (no doubt aided by Berube lobbying through the media to get fewer calls against them). Recall that Ryan O’Reilly was maligned for his notably poor play over much of this series to date. Recall that even when Boston couldn’t get anywhere near the net, the Blues weren’t making much headway in their own offensive end either. Recall that they had two days to ruminate on a historic turd of a Game 3 at home.

None of that mattered because St. Louis got almost everything back on track and ensured it was, uhhh, not a good first period for Boston. The Blues got in on the forecheck and, unlike previous games, didn’t take penalties in doing so. That crucial difference was what allowed them to generate a good amount of zone time and plenty of quality looks (they went 4-1 on high-danger chances).

Two of those chances went into the net, both on Tuukka Rask gaffes. The first was a wraparound from O’Reilly just 43 seconds into the game, and while a wraparound is often an “everyone” problem, Rask didn’t look particularly good reacting to the initial shot.

The second goal, too, was an everyone problem Rask exacerbated. Alex Pietrangelo made a great move to open up a shooting lane, and Rask booted it right to Vladimir Tarasenko, who’s probably not the best guy to let streak into the slot at 150 miles an hour.

Not to be outdone, though, Jordan Binnington also conceded a bad goal — when a weak wrister rebounded to the top of the crease — to keep the Bruins more “in it” than they deserved to be. That had to be the message for Bruce Cassidy: “Sure we got our asses handed to us, but we’re only down a goal on the road against a great team, so let’s go.”

And go they did, largely keeping St. Louis away from their own net and putting five shots on goal before the Blues got one (and that stretch included a pathetic Blues power play). But then order was restored with a stretch in which the Bruins never got the puck past center with possession for more than three full minutes.

The problem for the Blues in this series, if we’re being honest, is that their power play is a net neutral (one goal for, and now Brandon Carlo’s shortie against) through four games. A little more efficacy from the power play and it might not even be tied. And that shortie against could have been a knife in the heart Monday, but St. Louis didn’t buckle.

In fact, the hosts got right back to it. The Bruins continued to have difficulties breaking the puck out of their own zone, and the D was stretched thin with Matt Grzelcyk out and Zdeno Chara missing almost all of the second and a good chunk of the third. More importantly, the Bruins couldn’t do a thing to generate offensive zone time.

When O’Reilly came through again, on another not-great rebound conceded by Rask, it felt just about right. More than that, it felt inevitable. The Blues’ losses in this series were two games in which they were dramatically outplayed for the bulk of the game. Their win was one in which they were the better team, but only barely, which is why it made sense that things were decided in OT.

This one? This was bruising hockey of the type that got the Blues this far — the Blues were credited with 44 hits to the Bruins’ 41 — and earned a 38-23 edge in shots. They also held a 3.07 to 1.55 advantage in expected goals. While the xG difference is skewed by an empty-net opportunity, which has a high expected value, any time you hold a team that spent a good chunk of the game trailing to about 1.5 expected goals, you did great.

They did a great job getting out of their own end and into the neutral zone with speed. They shot the puck with both quantity and quality. They got up to “the line” on physicality without crossing it. They involved the defense in the play (with four assists in the game). They didn’t let the Bruins dictate pace and in fact took everything away in the neutral zone.

So it didn’t matter that Binnington gave up two ugly goals but was otherwise as-expected. He’s been much worse than his reputation for some time (he has just a .910 save percentage dating back to the start of March), but when the team in front of him plays like this, they’re not going to give up enough looks for even subpar goaltending nights to threaten them.

The series shifts back to Boston and the Blues have something to serve as proof of concept that St. Louis Hockey works against the league’s second-best team in the regular season.

Perhaps more importantly, the Bruins now officially have something to think about.

Ryan Lambert is a Yahoo! Sports hockey columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

All stats via Natural Stat Trick, Evolving Hockey, Hockey Reference and Corsica unless noted.

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