Many Blues can score goals. There is plenty of offensive talent on this team, I swear.
Sooner or later these guys were going to break loose. They just needed a little help to escape the funk that left them with a minus-7 scoring differential after 12 games.
Fortunately, the haphazard Colorado Avalanche proved accommodating Sunday afternoon at Scottrade Center. The Blues pressured them into mistake after mistake and riddled goaltender Semyon Varlamov.
The Avalanche offered up open ice, clean looks at the net and opportunities for the Blues to skate in on goal all by themselves. Given all their Grade A scoring chances, the Blues were working on a 4.0 average during their 5-1 victory.
"Looked like a team that was right on the mark," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock gushed. "We could have really put it away in the first period, but man, we did a lot of things that, (when) you're drawing up the game plan, that's exactly what you want."
Yeah, but the Avalanche were awful. They yielded five goals for the fourth time in 11 games. At 5-6 this season, they are still suffering from a persistent strain of Kroenkitis.
They haven't won a playoff series since 2008. They missed the postseason entirely in five of their last six seasons under the ownership of land-hoarding recluse Stan Kroenke.
New coach Jared Bednar is trying to build a sturdier team structure after replacing the overmatched Patrick Roy, who did the franchise a favor by abruptly quitting over the summer.
By exploiting the 'Lanche, the Blues should be a bit more confident with the puck. They scored as many goals Sunday as they did in their previous five games combined.
Consider which Blues broke through:
First up was Robby Fabbri, who scored 18 goals in 71 rookie games but none in his first 12 games this season. That Fabbri had zero goals entering Sunday's game was mind-boggling.
He delivered stretches of tenacious play during the early season, but that effort didn't translate into goals. That changed with the help of linemate Dmitrij Jaskin, who slid a nice pass across the ice to Fabbri on a two-on-one break.
Fabbri hammered home his shot and celebrated his first goal of the season like it was the first goal of his career.
Next up was Jori Lehtera, Vladimir Tarasenko's running, er, skating mate of choice. Lehtera was a high-impact player in the KHL _ averaging nearly a point per game during his last three seasons with Novosibirsk Sibir _ and he built an impressive international resume playing for his native Finland.
But Lehtera slipped from 44 points in his first NHL season to just 34 points last season. He had no goals in his first eight games this season before finally scoring Sunday, converting defenseman Carl Gunnarsson's deft pass into the slot.
To roll three strong forward lines, the Blues need Lehtera to produce. Like Fabbri, Lehtera should be more at ease after scoring.
"Both of those guys deserve it," center Paul Stastny observed. "Things aren't going well sometimes, they are not going in, it gets frustrating. I think it's good for both of them. They can get that gorilla off their back, they can breathe a little bit and loosen up that grip a little bit and hopefully they start coming."
Next up was Jaden Schwartz, who scored 25 and 28 goals in his first two full NHL seasons before injuries began taking a big toll. In his first eight games since recovering from a preseason elbow injury, he produced just one goal and one assist.
The Blues need more from him, much more. They got some Sunday when Schwartz drove the net to score a power-play goal in the second period.
Kevin Shattenkirk created the opportunity by getting his shot on goal, then Alexander Steen fired the weak-side rebound off Schwartz as he crashed the crease. Greasy goal!
Next up was checker Scottie Upshall, who scored 14 or more goals four times in his NHL career. He is fully capable of converting on the counter-attack.
This time he blasted home Ryan Reaves' beautiful backhand pass for the fourth Blues goal. And, yes, that was really No. 75 doing the playmaking.
Finally, David Perron scored the fifth goal to bury the Avalanche. He enjoyed 20- and 21-goal seasons during his previous Blues stint and he scored 28 for the Edmonton Oilers in 2013-14.
Perron still is in his athletic prime, as he demonstrated by taking a nice diagonal pass through the neutral zone from defenseman Colton Parayko and hammering a shot off Varlamov's glove.
After an especially unhappy trip to New York and Dallas, the Blues looked like the team we've expected to see all season.
"We're not there, but you make a determination, are you going to get on track and play the game the right way?" Hitchcock said. "Sometimes it's really difficult, to win in this league, you have to check. The more you check, the more you score."
Especially against the Avalanche.
