BLUES The St. Louis Blues delivered a strong bounce-back performance on Saturday, playing hard to a 4-2 win over the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins at Enterprise Center.
In addition to Jordan Binnington's third stellar outing in a row this season, Kasperi Kapanen and Brandon Saad - two players with varying Pittsburgh ties - shined. Saad, a Pittsburgh native, scored his first and second goals of the season to help drive the win; and Kapanen, who was placed on waivers by the Penguins last season, added two assists.
"Last game (against Arizona) we didn't have our best game, and we wanted to come out with some pace and some chances tonight," said Saad. "I think we did a good job of moving the puck and creating some chances."
The Blues will look to keep up the momentum as they kick off a four-game road trip on Tuesday in Winnipeg. The trip continues with a back-to-back set on Thursday and Friday (Calgary and Vancouver) before returning to the States to face the Avalanche next week.
Tuesday's game against the Jets will mark game No. 1,000 for Doug Armstrong as the Blues GM. The longest-tenured general manager in team history, Armstrong will be the first to reach 1,000 games as a Blue and just the 23rd to reach the milestone with any one franchise in NHL history.
The Blues face the Jets with a record of 2-1-1, worth five points at a .625 points percentage heading into the first long road trip of the year.
JETS The Winnipeg Jets are looking to run back a majority of their roster this season after a First Round loss to Vegas, including contract extensions for longtime Jets Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck. They also traded forward Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Kings, coming off of back-to-back 25-plus goal seasons in Winnipeg.
Though three of their first five games have been at home, the Jets are coming off of a 3-2 overtime win in Edmonton on Saturday night. Connor McDavid sustained an upper-body injury for the Oilers, and Scheifele buried his fourth goal of the season to take the win.
Hellebuyck, whose contract extension keeps him in Winnipeg through the 2030-31 season, was the starter in goal for both of Winnipeg's wins thus far. The 30-year-old goaltender is Winnipeg's franchise record holder in career games played (449), wins (240) and shutouts (32).
The Jets are expected to be without Head Coach Rick Bowness for Tuesday's game after it was announced that he would be taking a leave of absence for personal and family reasons. Associate Coach Scott Arniel will be serving as interim head coach in the meantime.
Winnipeg will host the Blues - their first Central Division opponent of the year - with a record of 2-3-0, worth four points at a .400 points percentage.
HEAD TO HEAD The Blues went 1-3-0 against the Jets last season, the win being a 3-0 shutout in their most recent matchup on March 19. The season series between the divisonal rivals continues on Nov. 7 in St. Louis and Feb. 27 in Winnipeg.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
BLUES Robert Thomas, who recorded his second and third assists of the year on Saturday against Pittsburgh. Thomas leads the Blues in assists this year, with 107 since the start of 2021-22 to lead the club by a wide margin and share No. 23 among all NHL players.
JETS Josh Morrissey, who burst onto the scene last year to the tune of 60 assists, 76 points and a Top 5 finish in Norris Trophy voting. Morrissey is already building on his strong 2022-23 season, tallying six points in five games thus far.
BLUE NOTES
All 32 clubs will play at staggered start times on Tuesday night for the NHL's Frozen Frenzy, featuring a live, whip-around, look-in studio show on ESPN highlighting the best plays, hits, goals and moments of the night.
The Blues have not allowed a power-play goal in four of their last five matchups with the Jets, going 16-for-17 (94.1%) on the penalty kill over that span.
With Doug Armstrong set to reach 1,000 games as Blues GM, only three other teams (excluding Seattle and Vegas) have had only two different GMs in power since the start of the 1997-98 season. With 32 wins this season, Armstrong would become the 11th GM in NHL history to reach 800 career regular season wins.
Jordan Binnington's 1.26 goals-against average and .959 save percentage both rank in the Top 5 among all NHL goaltenders thus far, including No. 2 among goalies with at least three starts.
Scott Arniel will try to keep the Winnipeg Jets on track Tuesday night when he fills in for head coach Rick Bowness against the visiting St. Louis Blues.
Bowness stepped away from the team after his wife Judy Bowness was hospitalized after having a seizure Sunday. Arniel, the team's associate coach, will serve as the interim head coach while Bowness is out.
"It's a very serious, tough time for them right now," Arniel said. "We'll just wait, go day-to-day with this, see how she progresses and see how Rick's doing. Everybody's certainly feeling it . . . it really hits everybody hard."
Arniel's challenge is to get his team focused on the Blues.
"The big thing about our group, is it's about making sure we don't let Rick down here, that we go out and play (Tuesday) like we need to play for him and do everything we can to get him two points," Arniel said.
After allowing 19 goals in their first four games, the Jets yielded 40 shots in a 3-2 overtime victory over the Oilers on Saturday at Edmonton.
Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck was spectacular against the Oilers, after struggling in his first three games while posting a .843 save percentage and a 4.38 goals-against average,.
"He kept us in it countless times," Jets center Mark Scheifele said. "He's a fantastic goalie and you know, the backbone of this team for a reason. He proved that (Saturday)."
The Jets fell behind the Oilers 2-0 while allowing two breakaways and five high-danger scoring chances. With Hellebuyck's help, they finally settled into the game.
"I really liked a lot of the things we did from the 10-minute mark of the first on, so huge win for us," Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey said. "It's nice to get a little validation, see a win in the win column when we feel we've been playing well. Now it's nice to get a result.
"That's one. Now we have to build on it."
The Blues, who begin a four-game road trip Tuesday, earned points in three of their first four games while going 2-1-1. They bounced back from an ugly 6-2 loss against the Arizona Coyotes to defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 on Saturday.
Goaltender Jordan Binnington posted a 1.26 GAA and a .959 save percentage in his first three starts.
"He's making big saves, giving us confidence up front," Blues forward Brandon Saad said.
Winger Pavel Buchnevich remains sidelined for the Blues. He practiced in a non-contact sweater on Monday with Saad remaining in his slot on the top line with Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou.
Saad scored twice against the Penguins and put six shots on goal while playing with that unit.
"He's tricky," Blues defenseman Colton Parayko said. "Sneaky speed, I want to say. That's the biggest thing. It's just effortless the way he strides, but he's fast. It doesn't seem like he's going fast, but he's moving really fast."
The Jets are also missing top-line winger Gabe Vilardi, who is sidelined for several weeks with a sprained knee. Forward Adam Lowry missed practice Monday, but Arniel said it was just a maintenance day for him.
