It was a ping pong battle as the Blues took the lead four straight times and the Jets tied the game four straight times. In the same pattern, the Blues managed to score the go-ahead goal for the fifth time in the game, but this time it was in overtime and gave them the victory. Kyle Connor had a multi-goal game and Laine picked up two assists.

There were two distinct Hellebuyck’s playing last night against the Blues. The first Hellebuyck wasn’t pretty. That’s the Hellebuyck that let in the first goal on a routine save off a point shot. He wasn’t screened, and the puck wasn’t tipped. Somehow the puck just went through the space above the pad but below the glove. The only explanation is that he ate a little too much turkey over the Christmas break.

It was exactly the type of goal that Hellebuyck doesn’t normally give up.

But there was another Hellebuyck in this game. That’s the Hellebuyck that Winnipeg has enjoyed all season long. He was flashing the glove and moving easily around the crease to adjust his angles.

Unfortunately, the too much turkey Hellebuyck showed up twice in this game, once off the first goal, and once off the second as it squeezed through Hellebuyck from a bad angle.

Everybody knows it by now, Kyle Connor’s hands are phenomenal. He’s always been a natural goal scorer and one of the main reasons is his ability to stickhandle in tight. This ability was on full display for his first goal of the game as Patrik Laine brought the puck across the line. He played it to Beaulieu who found Connor all alone at the side of the net. Connor stickhandled out in front and roofed it from right in front of Binnington for the goal.

The St. Louis Blues are a really good hockey team. They have really good forwards, strong defense, and a young, up and coming goaltender. While all of those attributes are nice, that doesn’t make them a good team.

One thing that was evident when watching this game was how much the Blues nag the puck carrier all over the ice. There are constantly little slashes and holds that cause discomfort to their opponents when they have the puck. These minor bumps and hits cause more turnovers and allow the Blues to turn up the ice with speed.

This is also something that Vegas does exceptionally well and it was one of the reasons they took everyone by surprise in their inaugural season. To be honest, it’s annoying to play against but extremely effective to do.

During the broadcast, Kevin Sawyer mentioned that the Jets have had a strong PK for a big chunk of the year. That couldn’t be further from the truth as the Jets have been near the bottom in PK% from the very start of the year. They had a decent stretch of four or five games, but it didn’t take long for them to revert back to their old ways and give up way too many goals.

It happened again last night. The Jets got sucked out of position and Bitetto was left with two players in front of the net. He blocked the first shot, but nobody was remotely close to the rebound as it was easily put past Hellebuyck.

It was nice to finally see Winnipeg getting to the dangerous areas. They had a number of shots from in tight and that’s where most of their goals came from.

The shots were similar and so were the expected goals. As you can see, both the Blues and Jets were expected to score roughly the same amount of goals in this game.