St. Louis Blues coach Jim Montgomery keeps juggling his forward lines in search of combinations capable of producing his desired playing style.
His new fourth line of center Oskar Sundqvist between wingers Nathan Walker and Alexey Toropchenko became his top line as the Blues held on for a 3-2 victory over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night.
Montgomery hopes the Blues can build on the gritty tone that trio set when they host the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday night.
Sundqvist and Toropchenko missed time with injuries earlier this season, delaying assembly of the fourth line Montgomery projected during the offseason.
It finally came together this week, and it clicked.
“I don’t think you can measure how much they can help us because everybody sees what they do, and they do it the right way,” Montgomery said. “They don’t cheat the game at all. It’s infectious, and then everyone starts playing the right way. Everybody’s on the right side of the puck.”
Sundqvist (two assists), Walker (goal) and Toropchenko (assist) combined for four points against the Flames. They played extensively in a checking role during the final 5:06 of the game as the Blues survived Calgary’s comeback bid.
“Obviously, the two goals are nice, but the trust that they’re going to get the job done because they don’t take the easy way out,” Montgomery said. “They gain lines, they take hits to make plays. When that happens, it builds momentum on our team because our team sees the effort, the second and third effort.”
The Blues have points in their last three games (2-0-1) while the Flyers have points in their last four (2-0-2), giving Philadelphia its longest point streak of the season.
First-year Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet was disappointed with the outcome Wednesday night when the Flyers lost to the Edmonton Oilers 2-1 in overtime. But he was pleased with the effort. The Flyers played excellent team defense against the explosive Oilers during regulation.
“There’s positives,” Tocchet said. “Every game, it seems it’s tight. We’ve just got to learn, we have the puck in overtime and we’re throwing it away. Hold on to it, make a play. We want to make plays. And that’s their learning process, playing through pressure.
“It’s hard to play playoff hockey 82 games, but we’re in these games where it’s almost like a playoff game, so we want to kind of really learn from these moments. It’s good for our guys.”
After scoring just one goal in his first 13 games this season, second-year Flyers winger Matvei Michkov has scored a goal in three straight games. Tocchet was pleased to see him curl toward the net to gain prime shooting position against the Oilers.
“He’s been working on that downhill shot,” Tocchet said. “It was great placement. And he works on that every day. Great goal.”
Philadelphia winger Travis Konecny has also heated up with an eight-game point streak with four goals and six assists during that span.
–Field Level Media
