From unable to walk to a near shutout in two weeks, Blues goalie Jake Allen will be ready for opening night

A procession of players was congratulating goalie Jake Allen after the Blues’ 3-1 preseason victory over Dallas on Friday night. As teammates tapped his mask, Alex Pietrangelo was the most animated.

What did the captain say? Not even the netminder knew.

“‘Petro,’ he talks about a million different things in a million different seconds,” Allen said. “Two seconds after the game, he could be talking about (this week’s team-bonding trip to the U.S. Naval Academy). That’s Petro.”

A few seconds after asking Allen, The Athletic approached Pietrangelo’s locker for an answer. It turned out to be as simple as Allen made his 21 saves look Friday, the first time he’s played all three periods since the Blues’ 2017-18 regular-season finale April 7.

“It’s been a while — what, five months or whatever — since he played a full game,” Pietrangelo said. “I feel happy for the guy.”

Allen had missed the beginning of training camp with back spasms, making his preseason debut against Washington on Tuesday. There wasn’t much to celebrate in a 4-0 loss to the Capitals, a game in which Allen played only 40 minutes before being replaced by backup Chad Johnson. But Friday, a fan base that has singled out the starting goalie as the chief concern entering the 2018-19 season was clapping loudly after several of his glove, blocker and leg saves.

“It was nice to get a win for our fans,” Allen said. “It’s their last taste of hockey (at Enterprise Center) until next Thursday, when it really counts. I’m sure they’re champing at the bit for next Thursday.”

The Blues do have one more preseason game before then — Sunday in Washington at 2 p.m. CT — but Allen didn’t know whether he’d be in the net, and if so, for how long. But either way, after making 40 of 43 saves for a .930 save percentage in two preseason appearances, Allen has deemed himself ready for the regular-season opener against Winnipeg on Thursday at Enterprise Center.

“Oh, yeah. I’ll be there opening night,” he said.

That wasn’t an absolute guarantee for Allen when the Blues announced Sept. 12, two days before the start of camp, that he would miss the first 10-14 days.

After skating earlier in the day, Allen injured himself during an off-ice workout, finishing the final set of a leg exercise when his back locked up.

“I just think it was a little bit of fatigue,” he said. “I was a little tired and sometimes when you’re tired, your muscles are a little bit slower to react. It just sort of came out of the blue. My knees were buckling, and my hips were buckling. It was a weird feeling, something I’ve never experienced before. You get up off the exercise and you think you’re OK, and then 10 seconds later you start collapsing. I couldn’t really walk, so it was scary.”

Back spasms are actually fairly common among athletes, particularly in the summer when players are typically lifting more weight than they would during the season, or simply overworking muscles.

“It happens, especially this time of the year,” said Johnson, who has experienced his share. “Everything just seizes up, and it’s almost like a cramp. You have no mobility, really, from where your back is hurting on down. So in some ways, it’s paralyzing. It comes on pretty hard and you miss a couple of days — two or three days — and then usually you recover pretty quick. You’ve just got to make sure you manage the muscle around it, and then usually it goes away.”

But at that mesmerizing moment, Allen wasn’t aware of any of that.

“I’ve been very fortunate in my career, I’ve never had too many injuries,” he said. “When it happened, I was nervous, no question. I didn’t know what to expect. But as the next couple of days went on, there was some relief, and I could move a little bit better. It took some anxiety away.”

For almost a full week, Allen arrived at Enterprise Center at 7 a.m. for a workout and therapy, and his day was wrapped up by 9 a.m. Then on Sept. 18, just six days after the injury announcement, Allen was back on the ice in full gear, skating and eventually taking shots.

“He looks good,” Blues coach Mike Yeo said at the time. “Had a net to himself, getting him out there with the big boys. So obviously, the next step now is getting him into game action.”

It was another week before Allen would suit up for his first preseason game against Washington on Tuesday. He allowed two goals on 21 shots before Johnson came in for the third period.

“I felt solid for the first game,” Allen said afterward. “I honestly felt a little better than I thought I would out there, comfort-wise. I was happy with it. I’ll take it into (the next practice) and try to find a way to improve.”

Allen — who dropped 10 pounds this summer, arriving at camp around 195 so that he could be more explosive — has been focusing on his footwork and remaining more calm in the net.

“I’m a little bit more patient on my feet, so I can get that extra second to read pucks a little bit more instead of committing to a play a little bit too early,” Allen said. “That’s helping a little bit, just moving into pucks and making saves with my body instead of trying to react a little bit. I’ve always been a good skater, but I’ve simplified my skating. That’s the best way to put it. I sort of control my movements a little bit better.”

Blues center Ryan O’Reilly doesn’t really have a base in which to evaluate Allen, not becoming teammates with him until this season, but O’Reilly has been impressed.

“Not seeing him at first in camp, but just shooting on him in practice, to see the detail he puts into his game, it’s really nice to see,” O’Reilly said.

Allen wanted to continue creating those habits, building off Tuesday’s appearance, when he took the ice for his first full game Friday against Dallas.

High five if you’re ready for the game. pic.twitter.com/vCumreZ7Vh

— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) September 28, 2018

The 28-year-old didn’t see a ton of work early, facing only four Stars shots in the first period, but then saw 11 in the second period.

With the Blues’ lead at 1-0 on a goal by O’Reilly from Vladimir Tarasenko, the first of the preseason from that pair, Allen made a sprawling save on Dallas’ Jason Spezza with 7:29 left in the middle period, drawing applause from the crowd. About four minutes later, he gloved a 46-foot slap shot from Tyler Seguin, with Stars captain Jamie Benn standing in front of the net.

After that stop, Allen and Benn carried on a friendly conversation in the crease.

“I’ve known him a little bit from Team Canada camps,” Allen said. “He was just asking me what happened, how did I see it.”

Tracking the puck well and looking everything into his glove, Allen was visibly composed Friday.

“Every team is different, how they approach attacking the front of the net,” he said. “Obviously Benn, he’s a great net-front player, so it’s more or less just finding a way to find the puck. It’s less systematic and more just trying to find a way to see it. If I have to get onto my tippy toes, or I’ve got to get down on the ice to find a glimpse of the puck, that’s what I’m trying to do.”

In another area that has been one of Allen’s strong suits, he was impressive moving the puck against Dallas, helping the Blues exit the zone in a hurry.

“I feel like I’ve always been a pretty good puck handler; I just need to go out and do it,” he said. “There’s no stats or anything for it, but I love trying to help our team exit the zone and get us in the O-zone. Sometimes I’m going to turn it over, no question, but I think I’m doing a fairly good job, and the ‘D’ has been flaring out to me, giving me options. Our new D coach (Mike Van Ryn) is really preaching get the puck out of the zone quick. And if I can help out with that, I will.”

“He made the hard play (Friday); he made the play that needed to be made,” Pietrangelo said. “When he’s moving the puck, it makes it easier for us. So I was happy that he was kind of able to get that going.”

Allen was less than two minutes from posting a shutout against the Stars, who pulled their goalie and scored with an extra attacker.

But considering where he was two weeks ago, writhing in pain in the Blues’ workout room, the goalie is ecstatic about where he is now.

“I didn’t know how long it was going to be at the start,” he said. “To have two games in and tons of practices, I feel good where I’m at. So it is definitely a little bit of a relief that way.”

In hindsight, Allen wonders whether the late start to camp could be an advantage.

“A little bit more rest, I guess, save the legs a little bit,” he said. “It might have benefited me, but I hate being out of the lineup. You sort of feel left out of the group. So for me, I would have rather started right off.”

But Allen’s absence did place more of an onus on Johnson, and in putting together the NHL’s fourth-best goals-against average (1.01) and fifth-best save-percentage (.961) in the preseason, he created a more positive vibe than when the Blues signed the journeyman to a one-year, $1.75 million contract in July.

“He’s been solid,” Allen said. “He works hard in practice. He’s just a simple, solid goaltender. He’s not a flashy goalie, which a lot of times is a good thing. He’s an experienced, veteran guy that knows how to play his role well.”

It’s a role and a relationship that Johnson believes will work well, especially given what he’s heard from Allen’s former goalie partner, Brian Elliott.

“I knew Brian when I was a tandem with him in Calgary, and he had great things to say about Jakey,” Johnson said. “Then he texted me after I signed here and just let me know that I’m going to love this city, all the guys, and Jakey as well. So I know Brian had a good relationship with him, and I don’t expect anything different. We’re both really competitive people, we both want to have success personally and for each other, too, and help this team do something special this year.”

But with Allen expected to get the bulk of the Blues’ load in 2018-19, he must be more consistent than the past two seasons combined, in which he went 60-45-8 with a 2.58 goals-against and a .910 save percentage in 120 appearances.

Recently, The Athletic’s Craig Custance published his annual “Goalie Tiers,” an anonymous 10-person panel composed of general managers, head coaches and goalie coaches, and Allen was rated in the fourth tier and tied for No. 19 among NHL netminders.