Brad Marchand believes the Boston Bruins were fortunate to take a 2-1 series lead over the St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup Final.

"We got lucky (Saturday night)," the Bruins forward told reporters, including The Athletic's Steve Buckley, postgame after the Bruins dismantled the Blues 7-2. "We'll take that one. Hopefully, we're good next game."

The Bruins broke through for four goals on four man-advantage opportunities in Game 3 but did so while managing just four total shots on goal across those powerplays.

"Sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn't," Marchand continued. "We knew we could be better. That's just one of those nights where things just start to bounce your way.

"You can't expect that to happen every night. We still have areas we can clean up. It's nice that the power play came together. We were good on special teams, but gotta follow it up next game."

St. Louis outshot Boston 29-24 in the contest, though that can be attributed in part to the Bruins establishing a four-goal lead early in the second period.

"They came at us pretty hard in the second and third, and we didn't have a ton of pushback, so we can be better than that when we have the lead," Marchand said. "We can be better than we were at the tail end of the game."

Game 4 is scheduled for Monday night in St. Louis.

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Jordan Binnington owned up to his lackluster performance following a 7-2 defeat at the hands of the Boston Bruins in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.

"I've got to be better," the St. Louis Blues goaltender told the assembled media, including FOX Sports Midwest, postgame Saturday after being pulled for the first time in his NHL career.

"I've got to do a better job of giving the team a chance to win," he continued. "(The Bruins) got three goals in the first (period and) that's never good. It is what it is. They're a good hockey team. We've got to get back to our game and stay focused."

Binnington gave up five goals on 19 shots and was replaced by Jake Allen after Torey Krug scored to give Boston a 5-1 lead midway through the second period.

The rookie hadn't been removed due to performance from any of his 33 regular-season games nor his 21 previous playoff contests this spring.

Binnington is 6-2 with a .935 save percentage in games following a loss in this postseason, according to NHL.com's Dan Rosen. The 25-year-old Calder Trophy finalist is 13-9 with a .909 save percentage in these playoffs.

The Blues will host Game 4 against the Bruins on Monday night. Boston leads the series 2-1.

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The Arizona Coyotes have reportedly chatted with the Toronto Maple Leafs about veteran winger Patrick Marleau, according to The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun.

The 39-year-old is entering the final year of a three-year deal that carries an annual cap hit of $6.25 million, as well as a full no-movement clause.

Arizona has a projected $8.61 million in cap space, with restricted free agents such as Josh Archibald, Nick Cousins, and Lawson Crouse in need of new deals. Veteran forwards Richard Panik and Mario Kempe are also set to become unrestricted free agents on July 1.

Marleau's name also surfaced in talks between the Leafs and the Los Angeles Kings earlier this week.

The 21-year veteran hasn't missed a regular-season or playoff game for the Maple Leafs since joining the team ahead of the 2017-18 season.

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St. Louis Blues head coach Craig Berube isn't happy with the amount of penalty calls that have gone against his team in the Stanley Cup Final so far.

"We were the least-penalized team in the league in the first three rounds and now all of a sudden we've taken 14 penalties in one series … I don't agree with all the calls," Berube said according to The Athletic's Jeremy Rutherford.

The Bruins' power play - which has been lethal throughout the postseason - connected on all four opportunities with the man advantage in their Game 3 victory.

When looking at the amount of penalties the Blues took in each of the first three rounds, they've spent just as much time in the box through three games of the Stanley Cup Final.

Though he may not agree with the officiating, Berube did hold his team accountable following the loss for their inability to execute on the penalty kill.

When asked if he would consider replacing forward David Perron, who has been responsible for three penalties in the series, Berube implied that his winger will be more careful in Game 4.

"He'll be more disciplined tomorrow. I don't need to discuss if I'm going to take him out of the lineup," he said.

Boston will have an opportunity to move within one win of the Stanley Cup when the two sides meet in Game 4 on Monday night.

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BUFFALO - All 31 teams and more than 100 draft-eligible players descended upon Western New York this past week for the 2019 NHL Scouting Combine, which includes face-to-face interviews and off-ice testing.

Spencer Knight, a blue-chip goaltending prospect, stole the show during Saturday's fitness gauntlet inside the Harborcenter facility, collecting top-10 scores in eight of 18 testing categories. He notably finished atop the class in the FMS Score category, which measures functional movement.

But while the combine is largely geared toward helping teams make decisions, it's also an opportunity for us to identify the odd trend and learn a thing or two ahead of the draft, which will take place June 21-22 in Vancouver.

Here are four takeaways from Saturday's festivities:

All eyes on the Kings

Every spring, as the draft approaches, the hockey world just can't help itself.

When will the intrigue really begin in Round 1? Is it the first selection? The second? At which point will we be on the edge of our seats, anticipating the announcement of a particular pick?!

At events like the combine, that noise is amplified and consensus gains momentum. And this week, the fifth overall selection - which is owned by the Los Angeles Kings - commanded the most attention. Why? Well, it's believed that pick is when the draft will become must-see TV.

The way it stands now, the New Jersey Devils will almost certainly use the first selection on American sensation Jack Hughes. The New York Rangers, picking second, won't think twice about choosing Kaapo Kakko, who's being hailed as the Finnish Auston Matthews. At No. 3, the prevailing sense is that the Chicago Blackhawks will go one of two ways - Bowen Byram, the dynamic Vancouver Giants defenseman, or Alex Turcotte, a two-way center from the U.S. National Team Development Program. Then, the Colorado Avalanche will most likely fall into line and select whomever Chicago passed on.

From there, relative certainty will go out the window, as Kings GM Rob Blake will have a helluva decision to make at No. 5.

There's a traffic jam of worthy players - many believe seven or eight - creating an unpredictable second wave of draftees. It could be Dylan Cozens, or Vasili Podkolzin, or Kirby Dach, or Cole Caufield, or Trevor Zegras, or Peyton Krebs … the list of possibilities is long, and each selection will heavily influence the next.

Expect chaos on June 21 once the first four players are off the board.

Long journeys

Speaking of Cozens, he and fellow projected first-rounder Alex Newhook share something heading into the draft. Both hail from remote areas of Canada, and both went to great lengths to find elite-level hockey at an early age.

Cozens grew up in Whitehorse, Yukon, skating mainly on outdoor rinks against uneven competition in makeshift leagues before moving to the Vancouver area as a young teenager.

In terms of leaving Yukon, the tipping point came when Cozens, who was only 5-foot-8 and 12 years old at the time, broke his leg during a game against men in what he described as a beer league.

"We're like, 'This isn’t real hockey. We've got to get out of here,'" Cozens said Saturday, recalling a conversation with his parents. "'I want to play in the NHL and it’s not going to happen if we stay up here for much longer, so I've got to get out.'"

So, Cozens moved at age 14 to suit up for Delta Hockey Academy. Leaving his family and territory behind was a difficult decision, but was "what I needed to do to chase my dreams," he said.

Now 18 and fresh off an 84-point season as a member of the Western Hockey League’s Lethbridge Hurricanes, Cozens is primed to become not only the first Canadian drafted in 2019, but also just the second Yukon-born draftee ever. Peter Sturgeon, who dressed for six career NHL games, went 36th overall to the Boston Bruins in 1974.

"It always seemed far away," Cozens said of the NHL. "It just seemed like a dream, not a reality, to be honest. I always wanted to make it come true and be that guy who came from a remote place and had a cool story."

"Lots of people don't know what it’s like up there," he added with a smile when asked to name the biggest misconception about Yukon. "They think it's some little community with igloos and stuff, but it’s just a normal place, a normal little town. We've got working electricity, houses, wifi."

As for Newhook, his pre-draft journey has taken him from coast to coast - all the way from St. John's, Newfoundland, to the Greater Toronto Area (York Simcoe Express minor hockey and St. Andrew's College prep school), to British Columbia (Victoria Grizzlies junior hockey).

And starting this fall, he's relocating once again, shipping off to Massachusetts to play for Boston College.

"'Tell us your story.' ... It's a pretty common question," Newhook said of his interviews with NHL teams. "I've been on a pretty cool journey so far."

These super athletes are human

The combine is a whirlwind event.

Teenagers from all over the world travel to Buffalo, and over the course of a few days, every single one of them stands in front of representatives from NHL teams to plead their case, interview-style. Then, on the Saturday, they power through rigorous fitness tests before meeting with the media. Later that day, it's all over. They fly out to resume their life ahead of the draft.

Leaving Buffalo in one piece is impressive, yet the combine always emphasizes a truth about this whole draft process - these teenagers are, well, just teenagers. They're not immune to growing pains, no matter how silly or serious the challenges may be.

For instance, Moritz Seider, a highly touted defenseman who fancies himself a fashionable guy, shared a fun story about a packing snafu. Back home in Germany, the 18-year-old wondered whether he should bring dress clothes for the interview portion of the combine, but ultimately packed only casual wear.

But since every other prospect was dressed to the nines, it ended up being a decision that followed Seider everywhere he went in Buffalo, and one that became a fun, slightly awkward conversation piece with NHL executives and scouts. Seider, who met with all 31 teams, rocked a business-casual look with sneakers in his interviews. "I'm famous for that, maybe," the 6-foot-4, 207-pound blue-liner said with a grin, eliciting laughs from a small group of reporters.

A few hours earlier, Egor Afanasyev of the USHL's Muskegon Lumberjacks settled into a chair in the media section and fielded questions about his journey to the NHL draft. He was rather chatty after posting a combine-best score of 62 in the dreaded VO2 max test.

It turns out the native of Tver, Russia, knew very little English when he and his mother first arrived in the United States three years ago for private school and junior hockey. He was an outsider who struggled to fit in. "First three months, I kind of hated it," said Afanasyev, who comes from a Russian military family. "I wanted to communicate, talk to guys like we were friends, but I just couldn't."

Imagine that. Barely a teenager, you move across the world for all the right reasons, but can't muster anything resembling a proper conversation for a few months. With the benefit of hindsight, though, Afanasyev shakes it off, saying the situation was a necessary sacrifice. Kids these days.

Psychologist runs the show for Habs

Trevor Timmins always offers a unique perspective from Buffalo. Every year at the combine, the Montreal Canadiens director of amateur scouting will hold court with the media, shining a light on the organization's draft prep.

Here are a few things Timmins shared Saturday, which help paint a picture of what happens behind closed doors during these one-on-many player interviews:

• While many Habs scouts and executives, including GM Marc Bergevin, participate in player interviews, it's a sports psychologist who leads the conversation.

• The psychologist is meant to provide a "non-biased approach" to the process, having not scouted or spoken to the players beforehand. They are also equipped with results from personality tests sent out by the Habs throughout the year.

• The psychologist will base some of the questions posed to players off individual green flags (good) and red flags (bad), which are extrapolated from the personality tests.

• This year, the Habs chatted with a total of 85 players, trying their best to identify "growth potential" in the kids staring back at them. And since they hold the 15th pick in the first round and don't see a realistic scenario of moving into the top 10, the Canadiens felt no need to interview a guy like Jack Hughes, the cream of the crop.

• According to forward prospect John Farinacci of Dexter prep school in Massachusetts, the Montreal group was unafraid to ask out-of-the-box questions. He told NHL.com that one revolved around a snake: "There's a 50/50 chance of a 20-foot python who hasn't eaten in five months is in the hallway. There's five of us in this room. Which one's going out there?"

The green flag/red flag approach is incorporated into the evaluation of fitness testing, too, Timmins said. For example, if a player does well in the long jump, he'll earn a green flag because the Habs have found that particular test correlates with quick feet on the ice.

"The data is interpreted by our sports science department, and we look at their feedback to see if it supports what we've identified on the ice and what we have evaluated in each of these prospects," Timmins said of the entire process.

The more you know.

John Matisz is theScore's National Hockey Writer.

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Torey Krug had a game for the history books Saturday night.

The Boston Bruins defenseman scored a goal and added three assists in a 7-2 thumping of the St. Louis Blues in Game 3, establishing a franchise record for points in a Stanley Cup Final game.

Krug and teammate Patrice Bergeron both matched the previous record of three prior to Krug's fourth point of the night.

Milan Lucic collected two goals and an assist for the Bruins in Game 1 of the Cup Final in 2013.

Krug set up Bergeron's goal that opened the scoring in the first period, collected another primary assist on David Pastrnak's marker early in the second, scored the goal that chased Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington later in the frame, and fed Marcus Johansson for a one-timer that made it 7-2 late in the third.

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Craig Berube knew the Boston Bruins' lethal power play would eventually make his St. Louis Blues pay in Game 3, considering the opportunities his club has given its opponents so far in the Stanley Cup Final.

The Blues head coach acknowledged that the Bruins benefited from some deflections in a 7-2 victory Saturday night, but knows his club's penalty kill needs to be better.

"We do have to limit the penalties, for sure," Berube told reporters postgame. "We know they have a dangerous power play. We've been flirting with danger here the whole series and it burned us (Saturday). But in saying that, we've got to do a better job killing (the penalties). We didn't, and that's why they won the hockey game."

The Bruins went 4-for-4 with the man advantage in Game 3, after going 1-for-5 in a Game 1 victory and 1-for-5 again in an overtime loss in Game 2.

St. Louis had five power plays on Saturday night but scored on only one of them. The Blues had five opportunities combined over the first two games of the series.

The Bruins took a 2-1 series lead with the win. Game 4 is scheduled for Monday night.

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