The First Step
In their first game of the season, the St. Louis Blues tried to do
what they will have to do for the other 81 games in the regular
season - prove that they can win without Brett Hull.
And for the first half of their season opener at Boston, it looked
like they were starting to prove something.
Tony Twist became the team's improbable leading scorer when he
netted his first goal of the young season, deflecting an Al
MacInnis shot past Bruin goaltender Byron Dafoe to give the Blues a
1-0 lead nine minutes into the game.
A little over seven minutes later, the Blues' power play got a chance
to prove it could make it without both Hull and defenseman Steve
Duchesne, who bolted back to Los Angeles as a free agent. Their
presence on the man-advantage, which netted 15 goals for the Blues last
season, was not expected to be replaced.
But all great teams have to try and find a way to fill the holes in
their lineups. For the Blues to be great, they had to find others who
could put the puck in the net.
In this match, Pavol Demitra contributed with his first goal of the
year on the team's third power play of the night. His goal, assisted by
Al MacInnis and Pierre Turgeon, gave the Blues a 2-0 lead.
But the Bruins got one back when Steve Heinze scored a power-play goal
of his own to bring narrow the deficit to just one goal at 2-1 heading
into the first intermission.
After the break, the Bruins had the chance to tie the game with three
power-play opportunities in the first eight minutes. None of them were
fruitful and the Blues lead remained at 2-1.
That changed with 6:29 left in the middle frame when Pavol Demitra put
his second goal of the game on the board to give the Bluenotes a 3-1
lead.
But, once again, the Bruins fought back and returned their deficit to
one when Sergei Samsonov picked up his second point of the night, this
one a power-play goal from Heinze and Dave Ellett to make it 3-2
going into the break.
With the Blues gaining and losing leads throughout the game, it seemed
inevitable that the St. Louis lead would be lost.
And, indeed it was, but the person that erased that lead wasn't
anybody that the Boston faithful even dreamed of.
Bruin left wing Ken Baumgartner (yes, Ken Baumgartner!) scored his
first goal since the 1995-96 season when he was a member of the
Toronto Maple Leafs. His unassisted goal 3:17 into the third tied
the game at 3-3 and proved that, if he and Tony Twist can score a
goal in the same game, anything is possible.
But it wasn't possible for anybody to win the game as the final
16:43 of regulation and five minutes of overtime failed to yield a
goal as the Bruins and Blues tied in the first game of the season
for both squads.
"There's two ways to look at it," MacInnis said. "It's good to get a
point, but we had the lead."
The Blues were able to put some offense up in their first real game
without Brett Hull. And, even though they let up three goals, an
absent Hull was something the Bruin defense was happy to see.
"He's synonymous with St. Louis," said Boston's goaltender Byron
Dafoe. "As a goaltender, its kind of nice. Brett Hull or no Brett
Hull, though, they're still a good hockey club."
Discovering an Arsenal
The Blues found out they could put the puck in the net without Brett
Hull. Their three goals in the Boston game showed that St. Louis
still had some firepower left.
On the night of their game with the New York Rangers, that player
proved to be Al MacInnis.
His natural hat trick during a 12-minute span of the first period
was all the Blues needed to beat the hapless Rangers. Goal No. 1
came on a power play when MacInnis blasted a shot from the point
that beat Rangers netminder Mike Richter for a 1-0 lead. Goal No. 2
came on a slapshot from the red line. The shot that MacInnis has
used in the past to beat Chris Osgood and Felix Potvin beat Richter
for a 2-0 lead 11:49 into the game. Goal No. 3 came off of a
face-off. Pierre Turgeon won an offensive zone face-off back to
MacInnis who beat Richter cleanly for the natural hat trick. That
would be the last goal Richter would allow in the contest, as he
was replaced at the beginning of the second period by Dan
Cloutier.
The switch didn't matter as Geoff Courtnall got his first goal of the
season 9:05 into the second. Third-period goals by Brian Leetch and
Alexander Karpovtsev didn't make a difference as the Blues went on to
a 4-2 victory, earning their first win of the season. St. Louis
goaltender Grant Fuhr ended up facing 18 shots, stopping 16 of them.
Richter and Cloutier had to fend off a combined 42 shots, stopping 38
of them.
In their first two games, the St. Louis Blues have four points. It's
not a bad start, but they could have had six points if they kept their
lead in the Boston game. Right now, the Blues' problem is not putting
the puck in the net, but rather keeping it out of the net. If the Blues
want to move into the upper echelon of NHL clubs, they have to learn to
protect the lead, especially in the big games against the teams they
want to join.
