But after working with assistant coach Steve Ott in practice recently, he was surprisingly good on them Thursday.
He had won just 48 of them for a 24.6 percent winning percentage. In 422 career games, he had taken 195 draws with the Rangers and Blues. The other area of unfamiliarity is on the faceoff dot. I’m just skating for no reason, I feel like.” “The first period, I was just kind of lost there, can’t find the right timing to get the puck from our D. “You have to figure out timing on the breakout to get the puck from the D,” Buchnevich said. He went through some of that early in Thursday’s game. He’ll also have a different responsibility on breakouts than he does on the wing. There are going to be adjustments for Buchnevich, like positioning and playing down low in the defensive zone. You don’t want 11 or 12 minutes one night in San Jose to dictate your future, but it was nice to see him do that.”īerube kept Buchnevich on the wing for the next couple of games but said he’d commit to a decision “sooner than later,” and that came Thursday when the coach put him between wingers Jakub Vrana and Kasperi Kapanen. He’s a very good passer from the wing, but I thought (against San Jose) he controlled the middle of the ice.
“And he said, ‘It’s not out of the question.'”Īrmstrong said what intrigued him about Buchnevich at the new position was “just his ability to make passes. “I said, ‘Is Buchy maybe a top-six center?'” Armstrong recalled. The team won 6-3, and the next morning Armstrong spoke with Berube on the phone. That was the night before the NHL trade deadline, and Blues general manager Doug Armstrong was watching the game on television back in St. While they were out, Berube double-shifted Buchnevich a few times, including at center. On March 2, the Blues were playing in San Jose and lost Robert Thomas and Josh Leivo briefly to injuries. … If it doesn’t work, nobody going to blame me, you know? It’s a new (challenge), and good today.”īLUES WIN!!! #stlblues /fPCZLVTg53 He said to come back after the game and ask again, and when they did, he joked: “I’m still undefeated at center, so it’s good.
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He was solid all night.”Īt the Blues’ morning skate, Buchnevich admitted to reporters that his first full game in the middle might not go well. “He led our team in the faceoff circle percentage-wise. “I thought he had a real good game,” Blues coach Craig Berube said.
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And based on the results - two assists, including one on the game-winning goal in a 4-2 victory over the Sharks, plus 9 for 15 on faceoffs - the experiment will continue. Now experimenting with the lineup after trading centers Ryan O’Reilly and Ivan Barbashev at the deadline, they gave him the start there Thursday against San Jose. That’s where he played during his five years with the Rangers, and even after a trade to the Blues in 2021, he’s spent all but a few shifts on either the left or right side.īut the Blues have had the idea to move Buchnevich to the middle. New York drafted Buchnevich in the third round in 2013, and while watching him play in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League the next three seasons, the team always projected him as a winger in the NHL.
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