ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Blues were waiting for a night like Thursday from Jordan Kyrou. Perhaps even Kyrou was waiting for it.
In a 5-2 win over the Senators at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, Kyrou was one of the best skaters on the ice, totaling three points on one goal and two assists. It was Kyrou’s fifth three-point night of the season and first since Jan. 28 against Los Angeles before the All-Star break.
“I was really happy with Jordan’s game,” Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said. “That’s the way he has to play if we’re going to move forward. We need him at his best and I thought tonight, he was real good again. So that’s a positive thing. I know he’s been struggling a little bit with his confidence in his game. It was nice to see that he was back to his old self here tonight.”
Kyrou had the primary assist on Brandon Saad’s and Colton Parayko’s first-period goals, and his insurance goal in the third period restored a two-goal Blues lead just as the Senators were pushing to tie the game.
On Saad’s goal, Kyrou wound up and waited at the blue line for a one-timer opportunity. After Anton Forsberg spit out a rebound, Saad was there to put it home for his 21st goal of the season that gave the Blues a 1-0 lead.
“We talk about him getting pucks to the net from up front, whether it’s sifters or shots, and the rest of us being around the net for him,” Saad said. “Fortunately, we got a bounce here tonight.”
When Parayko scored, Kyrou carried the puck behind the net and spotted a cutting Parayko to the post. The pass was on time and on target, and Parayko slipped his shot through Forsberg.
“I felt like I was trying to play quicker without the puck and being more aggressive on the forecheck and just on guys,” Kyrou said. “I feel like when I do that, the rest of my game comes along.”
Kyrou scored himself on an impressive turnaround shot from the slot in which he never looked at the net before he shot the puck. And he picked his spot, hitting the corner on Forsberg’s glove side for his 22nd goal of the season.
After the game, Kyrou called the goal “just kind of an instinctual play.”
“You turn around and you know where you’re going to shoot,” Kyrou said. “Maybe just because right when I got the puck, I saw one or two guys on my right right here, so I thought that side of the net might have been more open.”
The tally came less than four minutes after Dominik Kubalik scored on the power play to bring the Senators within one goal, and after Ottawa registered eight of the first nine shots of the period.
While Joel Hofer provided the backing the Blues needed, Kyrou’s goal gave them some breathing room to pick up their fifth win in the last six games.
“There’s also been times earlier in the year where if a team scores, they keep on the pressure for quite a while,” Hofer said. “I thought the team did good resetting and getting back to work.”
For Kyrou, this week has been an up-and-down one.
Last Saturday, he had a goal, an assist and the game-deciding goal in a shootout win over the Wild. It brightened up a dry spell in which he scored just one goal in a 12-game span. On Sunday, as the Blues power play sputtered to three goalless chances in the first period, Kyrou was removed from the top unit.
On Tuesday, he took an ill-timed tripping penalty against Colorado that led to an Avalanche goal and was taken off the top line in favor of Jake Neighbours.
Against Minnesota, he played almost 23 minutes. He did not crack 17 minutes in the three games since.
“I just thought he kept things simpler, he used his speed to his advantage and drove plays wide,” Bannister said. “When he didn’t have anything, he put pucks underneath. If you look at the goals that he scored, he was on the interior. He did a lot of that tonight, and he got rewarded.”
In the 12 remaining games of the regular season, the Blues will need Kyrou to resemble the offensive player who scored 37 goals a season ago. Since Robert Thomas (plus Brayden Schenn and Jake Neighbours) will likely draw the toughest matchup from opposing teams, that should open up Kyrou (plus Saad and Pavel Buchnevich) for more opportunities.