Blues' Tarasenko-Lehtera-Schwartz line stays red-hot in rout of Buffalo
ST. LOUIS -- A red-hot line and solid goaltending can go a long ways toward winning hockey games.
At some point, though, St. Louis figures to need some production from elsewhere to survive in the ultra-competitive Western Conference. It's just not clear when that time will come.
Certainly, no one expected it to be against the last-place Buffalo Sabres, who brought a minus-34 goal differential with them to the Scottrade Center on Tuesday night. That goal differential got a lot worse thanks to a natural hat trick by Jori Lehtera, followed by three goals during a late five-minute power play in the third period of a 6-1 St. Louis rout.
The goal scorer was different, but the end results were nothing new for the line of Lehtera and wingers Vladimir Tarasenko and Jaden Schwartz, who have scored between them 21 of the Blues' 39 goals this season. The Tarasenko line has been on the ice for seven of the last eight St. Louis goals at full strength, including six straight.
"They really had success because they've got skill, but they really played the right way," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said after Lehtera joined Schwartz and Tarasenko as the only Blues to score a hat trick this season. "When you play the right way and you've got that level of skill, that's a good thing."
It's why the Blues have won eight of their last nine against some of the league's best, including a gritty 2-0 triumph over the Western Conference-leading Anaheim Ducks. That game stands out as an astonishing anomaly, considering the Tarasenko line didn't score and David Backes, T.J. Oshie and Paul Stastny were all out with injuries.
But since then, St. Louis reverted right back to its winning formula that began with Tarasenko's hat trick in a 4-3 overtime victory at Dallas. Jake Allen and Brian Elliott have needed to be great to pick up the slack in six wins decided by one goal or a shootout.
Tarasenko, Lehtera and Schwartz have combined for 32 points over the last seven games, dominating with the kind of skill it's tough to stop. That doesn't mean it won't happen, though, something even Lehtera conceded after scoring the first natural hat trick for the Blues since Al MacInnis in 1998.
"Of course we need help," Lehtera says. "There's 82 games and this is the NHL, so it's not possible that we can score every game, but so far, so good."
He's hopeful a late goal from Backes and two by Lindstrom will provide a spark for the team's other forward line, and Hitchcock says the line of Backes, Stastny and Steen showed an encouraging spark after getting into a scrum behind the goal early in the third period. That helped the Blues forget about a lackluster first period in which Buffalo had 15 shots and probably should have ended its streak of 12 straight games without an opening period goal.
Instead, another bit of magic from Tarasenko to set up Lehtera gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead, although it still would have been just the second team in 17 games to get outshot by Buffalo without a late five-minute spearing penalty on Nicolas Deslauriers for a dirty hit on Tarasenko. Lindstrom said the rest of the Blues know they need to contribute more offense going forward, though he hesitated to put too much stock in his two goals.
"I don't know," he said. "It was a long power play and they were tired. I don't know how many D-men they had left out there."
Still, the feeling of watching the puck go in the net will surely provide some sort of boost, and St. Louis has some other reasons for optimism as forwards get healthy. Stastny may not yet be back to his usual self after playing three games following an injury that kept him out for virtually nine.
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Although Hitchcock said Tuesday morning that Oshie is "not close" to returning from a concussion, he has skated with the team two days in a row. Clearly, the addition of a forward who ranked second on the team with 60 points a year ago should help, even though he had just one point in eight games before the injury.
"We have the potential when (Oshie) comes back to really have some real beef that plays the game the right way," Hitchcock said. "We have a real opportunity to do some damage here with more than one line when (Oshie) gets back."
Until then, a one-line attack might be good enough.
You can follow Luke Thompson on Twitter at @FS_LukeT or email him at lukegthompson87@gmail.com.
