The St. Louis Blues have seemingly begun to turn things around over the past week. With a current 7-5-1 record on the young season, they are winning the division and conference matchups that could help position themselves into postseason contenders later in the year.
Let’s take a look at the latest news and rumors from the past week.
The Week That Was
Blues vs Jets
Heading into the division matchup against the Winnipeg Jets, the Blues were 2-1 in their last three games looking to build off of back-to-back victories over the New Jersey Devils and Montreal Canadiens. Their plans did not come to fruition as the club fell to the Jets by a final score of 5-2. The Jets’ forwards Kyle Connor (two goals, one assist), Mark Scheifele (one goal, two assists), and Alex Iafallo (four assists) combined for 10 points. After scoring two unanswered goals, the Blues finally answered 16:55 into the first period on a snapshot goal by Robert Thomas, scoring in his fourth straight game.
Though the Blues would only allow one goal in the second period, the middle frame became a lopsided affair with the Jets outshooting St. Louis 17-6.
“The second period, we needed more,” Blues head coach Craig Berube said. “We needed to come out with a real purpose in the second period and we didn’t do that. To me, that’s the difference in the game. There are opportunities we could have capitalized on, [but] we didn’t. But still though, I’m going to go back to the second period, it’s not good enough.”
The overall effort and offensive results did not change much in the final 20 minutes with the Blues only mustering four shots on goal while allowing Connor to score his second of the game only 62 seconds into the period, giving the Jets an early 4-1 lead. Brayden Schenn cut it to 4-2 at 8:08 with a wrist shot from the left circle, but the Jets’ Cole Perfetti scored into an empty net at 17:32 for the 5-2 final.
Blues vs Coyotes
Two days after their defeat to the Jets, the Blues welcomed the Arizona Coyotes to town. Thanks to Thomas’ goal in his fifth straight game, he and the Blues were able to squeak out a 2-1 victory at the Enterprise Center. A flurry of early shots against the Coyotes resulted in an early 1-0 lead thanks to a gritty goal scored in front of the net by Oskar Sundqvist. However, the Coyotes were able to overcome four first period penalties, including a full two-minute 5-on-3 power play by the Blues without surrendering a goal. Their collective team effort kept their team alive and in the game once more thanks to a power play goal by Lawson Crouse at 15:44.
The Blues reclaimed their lead six minutes into the second period on Thomas’ sixth goal of the season. St. Louis went 0-for-7 on the power play and outshot Arizona 33-20. Backup goaltender Joel Hofer recorded the victory and is currently 3-0-0 in his last three games with a 1.34 goals-against average (GAA) and .950 save percentage (SV%).
Blues vs Avalanche
The Blues continued their stretch of games this week against Central Division opponents, concluding with the Colorado Avalanche. After a poor 4-1 loss on Nov. 1, the Blues were looking for retribution and found it early and often with a landslide 8-2 victory.
With an early 1-0 goal scored by Schenn on a tipped shot from defenseman Torey Krug only 1:08 into the game, the Blues came ready to battle. They scored four unanswered goals to start the game, including two goals by Schenn and a goal by Krug with two seconds left in the first period.
“Our offense has really changed or started to come around since the last time we were here in this building (4-1 loss on Nov. 1),” Schenn said. “We had some meetings and [were] kind of shown League-wide trends of how to score and what really works and what we were doing that wasn’t right. So ever since then, the buy-in has been there, and guys are getting rewarded for it.”
RELATED: Blues: 10 Notable Numbers Through 10 Games
Of his team’s performance, Berube stated: “I think we’ve been playing pretty solid hockey, and tonight we did a good job of scoring some goals and doing some things to score goals. Special teams were really good. Our kill got a couple of [short-handed goals] out of it and scored a couple big power-play goals in the third period. But overall, I thought it was a good team effort. Getting to an early start and scoring early. Our goaltender was really solid, too.”
The club’s 8-2 victory featured two hat tricks by the Blues (Schenn and Pavel Buchnevich). Two of the goals scored by Buchnevich came shorthanded, making him the third player in Blues history to score two shorthanded goals in a single game joining Michal Handzus (Feb. 15, 2000) and Larry Patey (Nov. 2, 1980). The duo also became the third pair of Blues players to score a hat trick in the same game, joining Doug Gilmour and Mark Hunter (Feb. 23, 1986), and Kevin LaVallee and Dave Barr (Oct. 20, 1984).
Here’s a look at where the Blues rank statistically among the rest of the NHL:
- Team Record: 7-5-1 (4th in division, 7th in conference)
- Goals Scored: 36 (27th in NHL) (Last week 31st)
- Goals Against: 35 (7th in NHL) (Last week: 5th)
- Power Play: 7.7% (31st) (Last Week: 4.8%, 32nd)
- Penalty Kill: 75% (23rd) (Last Week: 80%, 14th)
- Faceoff (%): 48.4% (23rd) (Last week: 48.1%, 25th)
Berube Wins 200th Behind Blues Bench
After a one-sided 8-2 victory over the Avalanche, Berube won his 200th game with the Blues as the club’s head coach. The victory marks him as the third coach in the franchise’s history to win 200 games joining former coaches Joel Quenneville (307) and Ken Hitchcock (248).
Since taking over as head coach, Berube and the Blues are 200-123-44. Collectively, the team has recorded 24 playoff victories and one Stanley Cup.
Binnington Trade Rumor
The Blues were in the trade rumor mill over the past week when rumors of goaltender Jordan Binnington were discussed as a possible solution to the Edmonton Oilers’ goaltending problems this season. The news hit earlier in the week as Reid Wilkins mentioned on Inside Sports on 630 CHED that the Oilers were checking in with the Blues and Binnington’s current availability. While there is no indication that St. Louis is interested in making a trade at this time, Binnington is clearly the club’s starting goaltender as rookie netminder Joel Hofer only has 12 career NHL games under his belt.
With four years remaining in his six-year, $36 million contract, Binnington is in the final year of his full no-trade clause. Starting in the 2024-25 season, he will submit an 18-team no-trade list and a 14-team, then 10-team no-trade list in the following two years of his contract, respectively. The 30-year-old is currently 4-4-1 on the season with a 2.52 GAA and a .923 SV%.
The Blues will take to the ice next on Tuesday, Nov. 14 against the Tampa Bay Lightning for their lone game at home before embarking on a four-game road trip to the West Coast.
