The St Louis Blues broke out of a scoring funk Tuesday night and dropped eight goals on the Edmonton Oilers in an 8-3 win.
Brayden Schenn had two goals and four points for the Blues in the win.
Schenn’s linemates, Vladimir Tarasenko (two goals and four points) and Jaden Schwartz (goal and three assists), also kicked in on the goal party with goals and the three combined for 12 points.
“When you see other guys playing hard, blocking shots, you can’t be [the] only guy who doesn’t do this,” Tarasenko said. “You just look at other guys, how they play, and they probably look on us how we play. That’s how we end up playing for each other. You just try to leave your teammate in a better spot and create a good situation for them to continue playing.”
Jake Allen made 26 saves to get the win for St Louis.
“Obviously the score is exciting, we scored lots of goals,” Blues head coach Mike Yeo said. “There was lots of good things that got to that point. A little bit disappointed we gave up a few at the end. I would like to tighten the ship a little more and play a bit better for Jake in that instance; I hate to say it, but sometimes it’s human nature too.”
Exciting for the Blues but another dismal effort for the Oilers as they dropped to 7-12-2 as their inconsistency is killing them this season.
Milan Lucic, Leon Draisaitl and Darnell Nurse struck for the Oilers.
The tension appears to be reaching a critical mass at this stage in the season and the Oilers head coach expressed displeasure after the game.
“That’s indefensible on my behalf,” Oilers head coach Todd McLellan said. “I can’t stand here and buy into [excuses] or anything else. In every facet of the game we were second. It wasn’t even close, and I’m very, very concerned, obviously, the way some individuals played tonight, many of them, and it’s indefensible on my behalf, and we’re responsible for having the team ready and obviously they weren’t.”
Dmitrij Jaskin, Scottie Upshall and Paul Stastny also scored for the Blues who improved to 16-5-1.
“Usually we don’t want to get in games like that. They only had 11 shots through almost two periods. We had the puck a lot, we were playing in their end, controlling it, kind of wearing them down. Obviously some nice goals. That’s just kind of the way things are going out there right now,” the Blues’ Jay Bouwmeester said after the run and gun win.
[WATCH: All Oilers vs. Blues highlights]
Cam Talbot got the start but was given the hook after giving up two goals on just three shots.
“First of all, we need to start games off better, myself included. Obviously giving up the first shot in the last couple of games puts us behind the eight ball right away and we feel we have to dig ourselves out, and that’s not the way you feel you have to play,” Talbot said after the loss and another hook. “So I feel like we need to clear a few things up, myself included, obviously, and make some big saves early and give the guys confidence in me and then they can go do their job on the other end.”
Laurent Brossoit relieved Talbot but yielded six goals on 37 shots.
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