With all the attention that the other streaky Central Division teams were getting, it’s probably easy to ignore what the St. Louis Blues have been doing at home. The Boston Bruins shined a bit of a spotlight on that by beating them 4-2, ending the Blues’ franchise-record 21-game points streak in St. Louis.
Granted, it’s a points streak, not a winning streak. The Blues came into tonight’s game with a dazzling 18-0-3 record in their last 21 games in St. Louis, as they hadn’t lost a home contest in regulation since the Chicago Blackhawks beat them 5-2 on Dec. 3, 2011.
Brad Marchand scored twice while Chris Kelly and Milan Lucic also contributed to the 4-2 win as Tim Thomas edged Brian Elliott.
What this game means
Either way, this could be a nice reset for the Bruins and a test for the Blues.
Boston had been struggling a bit - at least relatively speaking - but beating a team as formidable and defensively adept as St. Louis could help them get back on track. The Ottawa Senators briefly “tied” the Bruins with 72 points tonight but now Boston has 74 and four games in hand.
St. Louis is hitting a tiny rut with recent struggles against the Central Division and two losses in a row. Once the Detroit Red Wings really revved up their home run, it was probably time for the Blues to kiss their division title hopes goodbye, but the young team needs to stay committed to make their thin-margin-of-error style work.
Perhaps they learned a little something from Boston, then, as the Bruins were once a lot like them.
Check out highlights from the game: