Blues won a game Thursday, not happy with how they managed it after gaining lead

"To be honest with you, I didn't like the way we played after that," Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said after gaining the 3-0 lead in the second period. "I thought we got caught in a track meet. When we're in a game like that, we've got to be more disciplined with how we manage our game."

The Islanders began to push the pace, and in fairness, the Blues were getting some quality Grade A looks, but they were also passing up chances to shoot to score, over-passed and pucks would wind up getting behind players and allowing the Islanders to turn back into odd-man rushes.

Thanks to Jordan Binnington and his 38-save shutout, the lead never evaporated.

"We've just got to do a better job of not getting sucked into that and just taking care of pucks," Blues captain Brayden Schenn said. "Even though you have momentum and stuff like that, you play the right way, that game could end up 4-, 5-, 6-0, whatever. You know they're going to press and they're going to take chances offensively. When we do get leads, you have to be a little bit smarter definitely, but we had 'Binner' back there and he was great last night."

Smarter, as in boring. And even though fans that pay for tickets may not want to hear that, it's the right way to play for the Blues (30-24-2), who are in search of points in the standings, not style points.

"We're looking for two points right now," Schenn said. "If you're up in a game and you feel like you've got the momentum, you make the game as boring as possible and at the end of the day, we're looking for two points right now and that's all that matters."

Bannister said the Blues were dictating the play well enough when the game was scoreless. Then it all changed.

"They're going to push and they're going to hang behind and they're going to 'D' up and play a little bit more aggressive because they had to find a way to get themselves back in the game," Bannister said of the Islanders. "I thought the way we played kind of fed to that. We have to be more disciplined. I thought in the first period, not a lot of chances 5-on-5, but defensively we were pretty good. Then we came out in the second, and we played well. We did some real good things, but like I said, after that 3-0 goal, I thought we got caught in a track meet."

Maybe because the Blues know they have a backstop that can gloss over playing the risky game.

"He's been our backbone for years now, especially early on the PK made some big saves to keep it 0-0 and we kind of built off the momentum," Blues center Robert Thomas said of Binnington, who is 9-4-1 with a 2.21 goals-against average and .930 save percentage since Jan. 4. "At the end there, we've got to do a better job closing it out for him. He fought the whole way for us and we gave them too many chances at the end of the game. He was great all night."