ST. LOUIS _ The Blues will beat you with their physicality and psychology.
They'll out-work you and they'll out-Freud you.
And because they score first more times than not, the Blues wear a team down _ and just wear on a team.
"I don't know what our record is (when scoring first)," captain Alex Pietrangelo said, "but I assume it's pretty good."
It's 18-0-4.
This season, the Blues are the NHL's only team to never lose a game in regulation after scoring first.
On this eight-game winning streak, they've scored first in six of the games. And they did so Sunday at Enterprise Center, winning 4-1 against Winnipeg.
"The thing is with us _ we defend well, and when we do have the lead, teams are trying to play catch-up, it's always hard," said Pietrangelo, who tallied the primary assist on the game's first goal. "We went through that last year _ you're always pushing hard, trying to catch-up.
"And if teams do tie it, they're trying so hard to get back on us, because we're so good defensively. Maybe it wears them down as the game goes on, and we just find a way to win."
The St. Louis Blues have a way of getting inside opponents' helmets by setting the tone. It really is impressive to watch. They have an eight-game win streak _ the next-closest in the league is Vancouver's four-game win streak. The Blues are galloping through the Western Conference like Secretariat, operating like a tremendous machine. All eight wins in this streak have come against conference opponents, and St. Louis now has 58 points, second-most in hockey behind Washington.
"I don't know what the stats are, but it's about 75-to-80% that the team that scores first, wins," coach Craig Berube said. "You get the momentum."
We saw it in Sunday's matinee. They played physical hockey _ Colton Parayko smothered a Jet behind the net for one particular turnover _ and worked some fancy give-and-go plays to penetrate the zone. And then, Pietrangelo's howitzer ricocheted over to Ryan O'Reilly for something more rare than an "ROR" trip to the penalty box _ an "ROR" home goal.
"I was trying to think _ if that was my first of the year at home?" O'Reilly said.
Yup.
"It was? That's kind of embarrassing," deadpanned the defending Conn Smythe winner, who does so many other things to help the Blues play great. "I got a good bounce off the skate there, getting right on the stick. Go to the net. that's where the goals are. ... And we're winning hockey games at home. That's all that matters. I want to shoot the puck more, but at the same time, I'm also holding on to the puck. I don't know if it sets up other lines or gives us confidence with the puck, but we're winning. There's got to be something I'm doing OK to be effective."
O'Reilly used a cool word to describe the Blues. He said they're "investing" in the game the right way. An interesting way to look at it. They invest in their style of play, in their relentless approach, and most importantly, when they lose their way, they find it quickly. And so, they control the game. And when they score first, which they often do, "teams make pushes, but we adjust quickly. And it's everyone on our team. I think our goaltending has been the best part of our team, but everyone is stepping up and making contributions. It's _ let's go do things the right way and put ourselves in a good spot. And that's what we do. We're not focused on the outcome. We find a way to compete and play our game. And hopefully win. ...
"It's all the little things, doing things the right way."
Last season, the Blues were 36-8-4 when scoring first. Only one team tallied more wins when scoring first, and that was Tampa Bay Lightning, the Presidents' Trophy winners. Remember, the Blues weren't the No. 2 team overall in the NHL _ in fact, they finished as the No. 3 team in the Central Division. But, they sure did well when scoring first.
And because of that, the Blues are now in elite company.
Counting the 16 playoff wins, the Blues have 72 wins overall from Jan. 1, 2019, until now (with one game left to play, at the Coyotes, in 2019). That's tied for third-most all-time _ Sunday's 72nd win put the 2019 Blues ahead of the 1978 Montreal Canadiens, who won 71 games with the likes of Larry Robinson and Guy Lafleur.
St. Louis can tie the 2013 Penguins with a 73rd win on Tuesday.
Another team from 2013, the Blackhawks from Chicago, had the most all-time with 80.
After Sunday's game, the Blues' Jaden Schwartz described this feeling of confidence to be similar to last spring's Cup run.
Belief in the system, belief in yourself.
Score early, win often.
And perhaps the captain put it best.
"We can talk about guys' assists and points, but to me, that's not the stuff that matters," Pietrangelo said. "If you look at what guys are doing in the defensive zone, guys are playing hard minutes, allowing other guys to play free. And even guys like (Jay) Bouwmeester and Parayko, you see what they do against these top lines, it's pretty impressive. And it allows some of us to have some offensive zone starts. And it's the same things up front. It's what a good team does, right? They find a role and everybody takes pride in what they do. None of that stuff goes unnoticed to us."
