TEAM SNAPSHOTS
BLUES The St. Louis Blues kept their momentum up on Monday night, winning their third in a row on the road trip and fourth straight overall. After a quiet first period and a half, the Blues broke the game open with three goals in the second and two more in the front half of the third.
Jordan Kyrou continued his sensational play, scoring his first career hat trick and adding an assist to drive the 5-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks. His was also the first hat trick by any Blue this season.
The Blues kept up their improvement on defense and special teams, denying all four Vancouver power plays and scoring on two of their own. Over the current five-game point streak, the Blues are 89.5 percent on the penalty kill - No. 6 in the League in this span.
They'll turn the page for the second half of a back-to-back set on Tuesday in Seattle, looking for their fifth straight win. The Blues are gearing up for their eighth back-to-back set, the most in the NHL so far this season.
The Blues head to Climate Pledge Arena with a record of 16-15-1, worth 33 points and fifth place in the Central Division.
KRAKEN In their second season in the NHL, the Seattle Kraken are making strides to establish themselves in the League landscape. New acquisition Andre Burakovsky has been helpful, leading the team in scoring as they try to keep in the hunt for a playoff spot.
A red-hot stretch in November propelled Seattle's early success as they recorded 25 out of a possible 28 points in 14 games from Oct. 29 to Dec. 1. Since then, however, they have weathered a 2-5-0 stretch entering Tuesday's battle.
Matty Beniers, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, has been one of the leading storylines for the Kraken thus far. His 11 goals and 24 points lead all NHL rookies, and his 17:13 ice time average ranks No. 2 among first-year forwards as he establishes his early Calder Trophy candidacy.
Looking to flip the momentum on their recent stretch, Seattle is coming off a strong win over Winnipeg on Sunday. Ryan Donato and Jared McCann scored a pair of unanswered goals in the third period to win it 3-2, and the Kraken held the Jets to a season-low 17 shots on goal.
The Kraken host the Blues with a record of 17-10-3, worth 37 points and third place in the Pacific Division.
HEAD-TO-HEAD Justin Faulk scored the overtime winner in the Blues' last matchup with the Kraken, winning 4-3 in Seattle in their second game of the year. All time, the Blues are a perfect 4-0 against the young franchise.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
BLUES Jordan Kyrou, looking to follow up his first career hat trick in Tuesday's bout with the Kraken. Kyrou is up to 16 goals on the season and leads the NHL with six since Dec. 11.
KRAKEN Andre Burakovsky, whose 28 points lead the Kraken this season. A member of the 2022 Colorado Avalanche Stanley Cup team, Burakovsky signed a five-year, $27.5 million contract with Seattle in the offseason.
BLUE NOTES
The Blues are 5-2-0 this season in the second game of back-to-back sets, which shares the most wins in the NHL... The Blues will face four teams who currently hold a playoff spot over their next five games to end the 2022 calendar year... Kyrou scored his 11th, 12th and 13th road goals of the season on Monday in Vancouver, now sharing the League lead with Washington's Alex Ovechkin. In his last 10 road games, Kyrou has 12 goals, eight assists and at least one point in all 10 games... Robert Bortuzzo's next game will be his 400th as a Blue.
The backhanded shot seems to be a lost art in the NHL.
However, there are still a few players who are proficient with it, like Seattle Kraken right winger Jordan Eberle.
Eberle showed off that skill Sunday, helping the Kraken rally for a 3-2 victory against the visiting Winnipeg Jets. Seattle will look to stay on track when it plays host to the streaking St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night.
Nearly midway through the second period against the Jets, Eberle took a pass just inside the left faceoff dot from teammate Adam Larsson. With former teammate Karson Kuhlman preventing Eberle from turning to the inside, he spun with his back to the net and lifted a backhander over goaltender David Rittich and into the roof of the net.
"I thought it was disgusting," Seattle forward Ryan Donato said of the goal. "I usually give him a hard time about his backhander, but with that it's hard to give him a hard time about."
Eberle said the backhander has become nearly obsolete because of the amount of curve most players have on their sticks.
"I would say 95 percent of the players nowadays, they have a big hook," Eberle told the Seattle Times on Monday after practice. "Whereas, for myself, I have a pretty straight curve, which is rare. I can think of a few others -- there's me, Sidney Crosby uses a straight curve. There are minimal guys in the league that use a straight curve now."
Eberle said he uses a "Modano curve" -- named after Hall of Famer Mike Modano, the highest scoring U.S.-born player in NHL history.
"I've used the same curve since I was a little kid," Eberle said. "I've tried to go to a little bit more curve and it just never really panned out, so I stuck with it."
Even Kraken coach Dave Hakstol marveled at Eberle's goal Sunday.
"His hand-eye coordination is special," Hakstol said. "He's able to do those types of things in tight spaces, and that one was in and out of the net pretty quick."
Eberle admitted Donato -- who scored the tying goal Sunday before Jared McCann netted the winner with 4:32 remaining -- often chides him about his backhander.
"He says that my backhand is better than my wrist shot," Eberle said. "He's probably not wrong."
The victory was just the second for the Kraken in their past seven games following a 12-1-1 run.
"I'm not a big believer that momentum carries over from game to game," Hakstol said, "but determination can definitely carry over. Coming back into this building, we knew we had to have that kind of an effort. We talked about that and the guys went out there and worked really hard for 60 minutes and for the most part were really responsible and really determined."
The Blues will be playing the second half of a back-to-back after a 5-1 road victory Monday night over the Vancouver Canucks. St. Louis center Jordan Kyrou netted his first NHL hat trick and added an assist.
"He's been playing real good hockey for some time, and the goals were going to come eventually, he's too good of a player," Blues coach Craig Berube said of Kyrou. "Now he's capitalizing (on chances). His work ethic has been there the whole year, in my opinion."
Robert Thomas had a goal and an assist, Vladimir Tarasenko contributed three assists and Jordan Binnington made 33 saves for the Blues, who have won four in a row and extended their point streak to five games (4-0-1).
Nathan Walker added his first goal of the season for St. Louis, netting the what proved to be the game-winner less than a minute after Vancouver tied the game 1-1 in the second period.
"Whenever you get on the board and chip in it's great, but that was right after their goal, so it obviously pulled the momentum away from them and gave it back to us," Walker said.
He added, "I'm just glad we got a win and we can keep this thing rolling here."
