2 weeks Ago
WINNIPEG — A few days before his first Stanley Cup playoff game, St. Louis Blues forward Jake Neighbours was asked about the future benefits of getting this opportunity. Neighbours is 23 years old and has played 211 regular-season games in the NHL, and if the Blues hadn’t made a second-half surge to sneak into the playoffs, he would’ve had to wait until at least his fourth full year in the league to play in the postseason.
Thus, a first-round series against the Winnipeg Jets was widely viewed as a welcome chance, regardless of the result against the team that won the Presidents’ Trophy with 116 points. Advertisement But that’s not how the Blues left winger was looking at it going into Game 1 on Saturday. “I’m sure there’s a lot of learning experiences that come out of playoffs, but we’re not really going in with a mindset that we’re just young guys trying to learn,” Neighbours said.
“We’re going in trying to win. We believe that we have an opportunity to beat Winnipeg and advance to the second round, and that’s our focus. The experience and things, you can look back on that after it’s all said and done and take whatever you want from it.
But at this point in time, I’m focused on winning.” The morning after the Blues’ 5-3 loss to the Jets, who will take a 1-0 lead into Game 2 of the best-of-seven series Monday night, Neighbours had a new understanding of playoff hockey. He took a two-minute slashing penalty that led to a power-play goal, and then, after the Jets capped their third-period comeback with an empty net goal, he was part of a melee that led to a 10-minute game misconduct.
“You have a decent idea about what to expect, but when you get in the moment, there are a lot of emotions,” Neighbours said. “The crowd is loud and the game’s being played at such a high rate and so physical. I think just throughout the course of the game, staying calm, staying present and continuing to focus on the task at hand was the biggest thing I learned.
” The Blues still think they can win against Winnipeg, and, weirdly, they can gain a little confidence from the Game 1 loss. They scored three goals on 17 shots against Jets goalie and league MVP candidate Connor Hellebuyck, they had a lead in the third period, and they feel like they know what they did wrong . Their play with the puck in their defensive zone, especially on their breakouts, wasn’t nearly as clean as it’s been in the past couple of months.
Advertisement “Overall, I liked our game for the majority of it,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “I loved the way we started the game. We played with a lot of intent and purpose.
As the game went on, I thought the Jets started to establish their game plan a little bit better than us, and that’s where we have to be able to maintain our energy and our execution level for 60 minutes. “You’re up 3-2 with 10 minutes left in the third, and we didn’t prevail, so we’ve got to grow and learn from that.” That’s an accurate assessment, but what the Blues have to realize in the wake of the loss is that they’re going up against a hardened opponent.
Yes, there are five Stanley Cup champions still on St. Louis’ roster, but the Jets are playing to erase the memories and criticism of back-to-back first-round losses the past two seasons — 4-1 to the Vegas Golden Knights in 2022-23 and 4-1 to the Colorado Avalanche in 2023-24. In both series, they claimed Game 1 and then suffered four consecutive losses.
“We have 20- and 22-year-olds,” Montgomery said, referring to Jimmy Snuggerud and Zack Bolduc. “I don’t think Winnipeg has that in their lineup. Even a guy like Neighbours, he’s 23 (and) going through it for the first time.
The exponential growth that they can have from game to game is really valuable to us. Besides that, our team is pretty veteran. So, we’ve got to balance that experience with the youth and we’ve got to become the regular-season team we were in the last 26 games.
” This is no more important than when dealing with Winnipeg’s veteran top line of Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele and Alex Iafallo. In Game 1, they each had a goal (Scheifele’s came on the power play) and combined for seven points. Scheifele had two assists, including the setup on Connor’s game-winning goal with 1:36 left in regulation, which came on Connor’s 11th shot attempt of the game.
Advertisement For the most part, Jets coach Scott Arniel put Scheifele’s line out against Robert Thomas’ line with Neighbours and Pavel Buchnevich. According to Natural Stat Trick, those units were on the ice against each other at five-on-five for 9:33, and the scoring chances were similar (6-5 Blues). However, they did give up the score-tying goal to Iafallo.
“The third goal really bothers me because that’s our team defense not executing,” Montgomery said. “I liked Thomas’ line offensively. I think defensively we’ve got to be a little sharper and a little quicker.
” On Connor’s goal, the Blues had their second line of Snuggerud, Brayden Schenn and Jordan Kyrou on the ice. On both the Iafallo and Connor goals, they had their top defensive pair of Colton Parayko and Cam Fowler on the ice. When Fowler was asked Sunday if he could sense the determination of the Jets’ top line , he wouldn’t budge much.
“We’re all determined this time of year, and we’ve all had our fair share of failures and triumphs, too,” Fowler said. “So give them credit. They made some great plays, but in a motivational way, I think we’re all at the same level.
” Winnipeg, though, showed in Game 1 that it can play at another level. And it’s not just the Blues’ youngest players that need to be better for the team to compete in this series. “Listen, a lot of them made a lot of real good plays, too,” Montgomery said.
“I think you’ve just got to let them learn. I don’t think it’s anything different than when your child doesn’t do their homework and they don’t hand in their book report on time. It’s like preparation, right? “(But) I still think we have a lot of guys that have experience that maybe weren’t at the top of their game for us, and they’ll be better.
This is a (Jets) team that’s had incredible success because of their details and their habits, and we’re going to have to fight through those details and habits to get our chances.” Advertisement As Neighbours said, the Blues aren’t here for the experience. They’re here to win.
“A lot of young guys, including myself, who have never played in the playoffs, getting one game under our belts is going to make us more comfortable,” he said. “That’s only going to give more confidence, feel better about ourselves and grow. If we come out in the third period and play better, we’re probably coming out with a different result.
(But) it’s just the first game of the series and we all learned a little bit. We’ll move forward and focus on Game 2.” (Top photo of Josh Morrissey and Jake Neighbours: Terrence Lee / Imagn Images).
