Another big Blues win over the Jets has series tied 2-2: Takeaways

New York Times

27-04-2025

The St. Louis Blues held serve in St. Louis, and now the Western Conference first-round series between the Blues and Winnipeg Jets is tied at two games apiece.
Winnipeg took the first two games at Canada Life Centre, and St. Louis responded with back-to-back wins at Enterprise Center, including a 5-1 victory in Game 4 Sunday.
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The home team overcame a 1-0 deficit on a goal by Kyle Connor, his third of the series, with Jake Neighbours, Tyler Tucker, Brayden Schenn, Justin Faulk and Robert Thomas responding for the Blues.
The goals by Schenn, Faulk and Thomas came on three shots, and the last one chased Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck from his second straight game. He surrendered five goals on 18 shots in Game 4 after allowing six goals on 25 shots in Game 3, and he's now given up 15 goals on 81 shots in the series for a .817 save percentage.
Hellebuyck's latest playoff loss could be a confidence-cracker for the goalie who's expected to win his third Vezina Trophy and perhaps the Hart Trophy as the league's MVP.
So not only will the Jets have to find some offense when the best-of-seven series returns to Winnipeg for Game 5 Wednesday – they've scored just three goals in the last two games – but the top-seeded team will somehow need Hellebuyck to return to his regular-season form.
The Blues didn't have the start in Game 4 that they had in Game 3, in which they netted three goals on 15 shots in the first period. They had just five shots on goal in the opening period and were lucky to be tied 1-1 on Neighbours' first-career playoff goal.
The Blues' defense, one of the highest-scoring blue lines in the league this season, took over on the scoreboard after that.
In the first two games of the series, Blues defensemen did not score a goal. But in Game 3, Cam Fowler had a goal and a five-point night and Colton Parayko also scored. In Game 4, Tucker picked up his first goal of the NHL playoffs and Faulk added another.
Blues goalie Jordan Binnington allowed just one goal on 30 shots for the win.
This is beginning to look like an implosion.
Neighbours made a circus deflection to make it 1-1. Brandon Tanev, Oskar Sundqvist, and Josh Morrissey screened Hellebuyck to make it 2-1. Justin Faulk bounced a point shot off of Neal Pionk's back and in to make it 4-1. You can argue those plays. You can pick them apart, put yourself in Hellebuyck's sightline, and – while not everyone will agree – you can argue that those pucks would have beaten anybody.
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On the Blues' 3-1 goal, the decision Hellebuyck made to try to fight off Brayden Schenn with the paddle of his stick took Hellebuyck completely out of the play. Short of somebody tackling Schenn, Hellebuyck's one-handed effort was doomed to failure and left him protecting a tiny portion of the net when Schenn buried it.
Coming on the heels of his giveaway in the third period of Game 3, it's the second straight game wherein Hellebuyck played a substantial role in the Blues' backbreaking goal. The Jets don't have enough secondary scoring to give up a goal per game for free.
over the last three seasons, connor hellebuyck has allowed 15.2 goals above expected in 14 games
the next worst goalie, stuart skinner, is at -5.6
absolutely insane
— dom 📈 (@domluszczyszyn) April 27, 2025
Hellebuyck was pulled in consecutive playoff games for the first time in his career. Enterprise Center responded with multiple 'We want Connor!' chants long after Eric Comrie entered the game and, during one stoppage in play, the organist even joined in.
If there was a Blues storm to start Game 4 – and let's not forget they got two attempts from the slot before the game was a minute old – it ended after Winnipeg killed Vladislav Namestnikov's tripping penalty. The Jets followed that kill by going on a 10-2 run in shots, with a heavy forecheck and multiple pucks stolen by Connor, Alex Iafallo, Mark Scheifele, and Cole Perfetti after Iafallo had changed to create Connor's 1-0 goal.
It was Winnipeg's best first period of the series and Hellebuyck did his part – but the Blues still got out of it with a tie. For Winnipeg, it's a case of a two-on-two battle lost by Scheifele and Luke Schenn in the corner. Worse, it's a case of Neighbours hanging out all alone beside that board battle, despite Nino Niederreiter and Iafallo looking on. Neighbours popped the puck to the point for free, then went to the net and scored on a high deflection of Colton Parayko's knuckling puck from the point.
JAKE NEIGHBOURS! 🚨
The @StLouisBlues have tied this one up with 23 seconds remaining in the first period! #StanleyCup
🇺🇸: @NHL_On_TNT (TBS) & @SportsonMax ➡️ https://t.co/4TuyIATi3T🇨🇦: @Sportsnet or stream on Sportsnet+ ➡️ https://t.co/4KjbdjVctF pic.twitter.com/CJfKw0hAsC
— NHL (@NHL) April 27, 2025
The Jets were 23 seconds away from a perfect opening period but couldn't win the board battle or pick up the puck when the battle had ended. It was also an unfortunate end to a solid period for Hellebuyck: Neighbours' circus deflection was only the Blues' fifth shot of the game.
Clearly, the Blues were not done.
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In the first period of Game 4, Winnipeg had back-to-back power plays after a roughing penalty on Pavel Buchnevich and a tripping call on Tyler Tucker. But despite six shots by the Jets' power play, they did not score, and as a result, Neighbours was able to tie the game late.
Winnipeg has two power-play goals in the series, but through four games, the Jets are now 2-for-12 on the man advantage.
The success of the Blues' penalty-killing unit comes after a regular season in which it ranked No. 28 in the NHL (74.2 percent). They're doing it without defenseman Ryan Suter, who averaged nearly three minutes of PK ice time in Games 1-2 and has been a healthy scratch the past two games.
Pat Maroon, who won a Stanley Cup with the Blues in 2019, recently announced his retirement from the NHL. With his free time, the native St. Louisan wore a Blues' jersey and waved the team's rally towel before Game 4.
Maroon has always been a fan favorite, so the loud reaction Sunday was no surprise, especially when Maroon grabbed his beer and chugged it.
A few weeks ago, Maroon played his final game in his hometown as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks, who is the Blues' biggest rival. So all seemed right with the world again to see him back in Blues' colors.
During an off-day practice Saturday, Blues coach Jim Montgomery had Mathieu Joseph on the third line and it appeared that he would draw back in for Alexandre Texier in Game 4.
'Sometimes you have a gut feel that it's going to be more of a checking game,' Montgomery said. 'Mojo (Joseph) does a lot of penalty-killing for us, so it's just another weapon in our arsenal.'
Then Sunday morning, Montgomery doubled down when asked what Joseph could bring to the lineup.
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'To continue the hit parade we're doing on their D corps, and to have dogged determination on pucks,' he said.
But then when the puck dropped, Texier remained in the lineup for his second straight game and Joseph was a healthy scratch.
Gabriel Vilardi was a 'gametime decision,' as per Scott Arniel, and even took the warmup, although it was clear at Jets practice on Saturday that Vilardi was unlikely to play. Nikolaj Ehlers remains out week-to-week and will not be an option for the Jets in Round 1.
Vilardi alone won't be able to turn the tide of this series but somebody other than Scheifele and Connor needs to contribute to Winnipeg's offence. Scheifele and Connor have five points each; the Jets' next highest scorers are Cole Perfetti, Jaret Anderson-Dolan, Josh Morrissey, Mason Appleton, and Morgan Barron – a five-way tie with two points each after four games.
Winnipeg could survive without offense or saves. However, it's in trouble heading into Game 5 because it's not getting either.
(Photo of Brayden Schenn celebrating: Jeff Le / Imagn Images)