Perron scores hat trick, Blues cruise past Kings to remain undefeated

ST. LOUIS --The St. Louis Blues won their fourth straight game to start the season, 7-3 against the Los Angeles Kings at Enterprise Center on Saturday.

David Perron scored his sixth NHL hat trick and had an assist for the Blues (4-0-0), who started a season with four straight wins for the first time since 2017-18.
"It's very special obviously after what we've been through the last while," Perron said. "It was a special night, it was great. We were able to kind of put behind a bit of a slow start, I'm not saying like crazy bad, but like a few minutes there and we were able to kind of turn the page quickly on that."
Torey Krug had three assists, Jake Neighbours scored his first NHL goal, and James Neal scored his first with the Blues in their home opener. Jordan Binnington, who has started each game for St. Louis, made 32 saves.
Alexander Edler had two assists for the Kings (1-3-1), who have not won since defeating the Vegas Golden Knights in their season opener Oct. 14. Cal Petersen allowed seven goals on 40 shots.
The Blues played without forwards Brandon Saad (NHL COVID-19 protocol), Pavel Buchnevich (suspension) and Oskar Sundqvist (knee).
"That was pretty clear evidence that we're a pretty deep team," Krug said. "When one guy goes out, the other guy steps in and does the job to the best of his abilities. We're great up front with that depth right now. Any line can do some damage. It's fun right now, it's rolling, and obviously we've got to continue to work at it."
St. Louis went 4-for-7 on the power play and outscored Los Angeles 5-0 on special teams.
"I think that set us up for the whole night. When you're minus-5 in special-teams situations, it's not going anywhere for you," Kings coach Todd McLellan said. "That's the worst I've seen us penalty kill, maybe in the NHL, since I've been here. That was very disappointing. Our power play was just as bad. So obviously your 5-on-5 game's not going to be very good when that's as bad as it is."
Los Angeles was without defenseman Drew Doughty, who sustained a lower-body injury in a knee-on-knee collision with Dallas Stars defenseman Jani Kahanpaa in the second period of a 3-2 overtime loss Friday. There was no update on Doughty's condition.
Alex Iafallo gave the Kings a 1-0 lead at 11:29 of the first period.

"We just kind of let up," Iafallo said. "We talked about it, just having a good start, jumping on them. We've got to make sure that we stay on them and keep on the offensive zone and keep moving forward."
Perron scored a power-play goal to tie the game 1-1 at 14:36, and Ivan Barbashev scored shorthanded at 18:47 to give the Blues a 2-1 lead.
Perron scored his second of the game 45 seconds into the second period to make it 3-1, and Neighbours scored at 2:37 to make it 4-1.

"Pretty special," Neighbours said. "I think the fans were into it all night. They were feeding our energy all night. For them to get pretty loud for me there was obviously a pretty cool feeling for myself."
Ryan O'Reilly scored on the power play at 7:06 to make it 5-1.
Neal put St. Louis ahead 6-1 with a power-play goal 38 seconds into the third period.
Dustin Brown made it 6-2 at 1:33, and Carl Grundstrom got the Kings within 6-3 at 5:53.
Perron scored a power-play goal at 11:40 to complete the hat trick and make it 7-3.
Blues forwards Brayden Schenn and Vladimir Tarasenko each had two assists.
NOTES: Kings center Anze Kopitar's season-opening four-game goal streak ended (six goals). ... Barbashev has scored a goal in three straight games for the first time in his NHL career. ... The Blues scored at least seven goals in a home opener for the fifth time in their history, first since Oct. 20, 1984 (eight against the New Jersey Devils). ... The Blues and Kings will play again here Monday and wrap up their season series Nov. 3 at Los Angeles.