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After a late goal from the Flyers, the Blues end their trip with a 2-1 defeat
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After a late goal from the Flyers, the Blues end their trip with a 2-1 defeat

PHILADELPHIA — The Blues bounced back thanks to their performance. The result did not follow.

In a 2-1 loss to the Flyers on Thursday night, the Blues delivered a much more even effort than in lopsided losses to Montreal on Saturday and Ottawa on Tuesday. With this result, however, the Blues finished the four-game road trip with a 1-3-0 record.

Bobby Brink scored the game-winning goal for Philadelphia with 3:01 left in the third period. Brink’s goal came after a Jordan Kyrou passed the puck in the neutral zone and Brink slammed hard into the net.

Nathan Walker scored the tying goal for the Blues at 9:58 of the third period, scoring his first of the season on a rebound as he headed into the net fresh off the bench. Philip Broberg made the play by entering the offensive zone alone, holding the puck against the wall and firing a shot toward the far pad of Samuel Ersson.

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Blues Flyers Hockey

Blues goalie Jordan Binnington, right, pushes the puck away from the Flyers’ Ryan Poehling during the second period, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Philadelphia.


Chris Szagola, ASSOCIATED PRESS


By collecting the first assist, Broberg collected his ninth point of the young season. This is his new career high after recording eight points in 46 games with the Oilers two years ago.

Jordan Binnington stopped 19 Flyers shots. Meanwhile, the Blues struggled to get their shots through Philadelphia’s defense, as St. Louis had 28 blocked shots.

Same old story

For the seventh time this season, the Blues allowed their opponent to score the first goal of the season, this time giving up Garnet Hathaway’s goal with 8:48 remaining in the first period. It was the third straight game that St. Louis lost 1-0 in the first half.

Hathaway was the benefactor of Ryan Poehling’s hard work lugging the puck up the ice and dancing past four different Blues on his way to the net before finding a sharp Hathaway at the far post. Poehling carried the puck around Jake Neighbors, avoided a hit by Pavel Buchnevich, cut inside Matthew Kessel and Scott Perunovich played neither Poehling nor Hathaway.

It was the third goal Perunovich was on the ice for in his seventh period of action this season, and he was in the penalty box for another.

The Blues struggled to find a reliable bottom pair in defense early on. Kessel was scratched earlier this trip when the Blues wanted to see the more physical defenseman they saw a season ago. Perunovich was eighth on the depth chart when he was scratched for the first seven games of the season. Pierre-Olivier Joseph was absent from the lineup Thursday after going minus-4 Tuesday in Ottawa.

Going into Tuesday’s slate of games, only six teams in the league were behind more often than the Blues’ 60% mark (six times in the first 10 games). Only the Sharks have been behind more often per game than the Blues.







Blues Flyers Hockey

The Flyers’ Tyson Foerster, left, knocks the puck away from the Blues’ Brayden Schenn, right, during the second period on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Philadelphia.


Chris Szagola, ASSOCIATED PRESS


Second without a goal

Neither team scored in the second period, marking the first scoreless period in a Blues game since the third period against the Islanders on October 17, two weeks ago.

Jordan Kyrou had a few close calls, though. He rang the post twice in the same shift early in the second period, the latest denial in the goal drought he began on Thursday. He hadn’t scored since the season opener in Seattle on Oct. 8, when he scored twice in a Blues victory.

During the nine-game scoreless streak, Kyrou had 28 shots on goal and he had five shot attempts in the first 40 minutes, including two shots off the post. Kyrou (nine), Brayden Schenn (eight) and Pavel Buchnevich (seven) all suffered lengthy droughts in Thursday’s match.

Dylan Holloway saved a potential goal later in the period with a solid backcheck, disrupting a Sean Couturier chance immediately after a Blues power play.

The Blues went 0 for 2 on the power play in the period and fired up their second unit for their first chance of the night. It was the third straight power play where the Philip Broberg-led unit took the ice first, including late in Tuesday’s 8-1 loss to the Senators.

The best power play unit (Neighbors, Kyrou, Buchnevich, Justin Faulk and now Brayden Schenn) entered Thursday without a goal since October 11 in Vegas, almost three weeks ago.

Post-Dispatch Blues beat reporter Matthew DeFranks and columnist Jeff Gordon to discuss the problems the Blues are facing in Ottawa.




Dylan Holloway gets comfortable at center, with the Blues on a productive road trip


Effort level 'wasn't even' enough for Blues in 8-1 loss to Senators


Not yet: like during a defeat in Montreal, the Blues are all too used to chasing matches