GDT #11: Blues vs Jets 7:00 CT Bally Sports, 101ESPN

[theohall]

BLUES The St. Louis Blues have generated some positive momentum as they began their four-game homestand this weekend, racking up goals and taking decisive wins over New Jersey and Montreal.

Eight different Blues lit the lamp over the weekend, paving the way for a 4-1 win over the high-scoring Devils and a 6-3 win over the Canadiens.

"We weren't happy with the road trip, obviously," said Robert Thomas after Saturday's game. "We had a good chance, tonight and last night, to really put ourselves in a good position moving forward - really happy with the whole team effort."

Thomas, Brayden Schenn, Jordan Kyrou and Kevin Hayes each collected three points in the back-to-back wins, including the first goals of the season for Hayes and Schenn.

There is still room to improve on the power play, as the Blues went 0-for-4 across the wins to bring their season rate to 1-for-27 (3.7%). After averaging 23.2% over the last two seasons, however, the Blues should have confidence that the goals will come back - just as they did in 5-on-5 play this weekend.

The four-game homestand continues with a pair of Central Division matchups, first against Winnipeg on Tuesday and then against Arizona on Thursday.

They'll face the Jets with a record of 5-4-1, worth 11 points and fourth in the Central Division as of Monday afternoon.

JETS Since hosting the Blues on Oct. 24, the Winnipeg Jets have played four out of their five games on the road and will make it five out of six when they visit St. Louis on Tuesday night. They've played to a stable 2-1-2 in that span, the wins coming in Detroit and Arizona.

The Jets are coming off a 5-3 win at Arizona's Mullett Arena on Saturday night, highlighted by Nino Niederreiter's third career hat trick. Acquired by the Jets in a trade with Nashville last season, Niederreiter is up to 11 goals and 11 assists in 33 games with Winnipeg.

An area that the Jets are looking to improve is one the Blues may hope to take advantage of - their penalty kill currently ranks No. 29 in the NHL at 69.2%. They have allowed a power-play goal in all but one of their games (Oct. 26 at Detroit), including giving the Blues their lone power-play goal in their last matchup.

After Niederreiter's hat trick in the win over the Coyotes, he now shares the team lead at nine points with three other skaters - Kyle Connor, Mason Appleton and Mark Scheifele.

Tuesday's matchup in St. Louis will be the last of this long run of road games for the Jets, who return to Winnipeg for five straight at home following the game.

They visit the Blues with a record of 5-4-2, worth 12 points and third place in the Central Division.

HEAD TO HEAD The Blues fell 4-2 in Winnipeg on Oct. 24, bringing them to 2-6-1 in their last nine games vs. the Jets (1-1-1 at Enterprise Center). The last matchup in the season series comes on Feb. 27 in Winnipeg.

PLAYERS TO WATCH
BLUES Brayden Schenn, who posted three points on Saturday vs. Montreal, including his first goal of the season. Schenn finished 2nd on the Blues last season with a career-high 44 assists, including one against the Jets.

JETS Kyle Connor, leading the Jets with six goals so far this season. Connor finished with a goal against the Blues in their last matchup, his 10th in 21 career games vs. St. Louis.

BLUE NOTES
Jordan Kyrou's first assist on Saturday vs. Montreal marked the 200th point of his NHL career. He also recorded a career-high nine shots on goal, the most by any Blue in a single game since Brayden Schenn's 11 vs. Chicago on Dec. 29, 2022.

Craig Berube is currently two wins shy of 200 as Blues Head Coach. He would become the third head coach in franchise history to reach the milestone, currently with a record of 198-122-44 with the club. The Blues' 440 points since Berube's first game as head coach on Nov. 21, 2018 ranks No. 9 in the NHL.

The Blues are 4-1-0 at Enterprise Center this season, sharing the third-most home wins in the NHL. Since March 19, 2023, Jordan Binnington has posted a home record of 6-0-1 with a 2.23 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage.

The Blues are one of four teams in the League to allow two or fewer power-play goals since Oct. 21, going 17-for-19 (89.5%) and scoring two shorthanded goals in that span.

On Friday night, Kevin Hayes became the fourth Blues player in the last 10 years to score his first two goals with the franchise in the same contest, following Calle Rosen on April 17, 2022, Marco Scandella on Feb. 27, 2021 and Colton Parayko on Oct. 13, 2015.

[theohall]

Simple... Blues have talked about "protecting the slot" and collapsing to protect the net. The Jets actually did it while still generating offense, because the Blues didn't "protect the slot" and collapse to protect the net. Binnington made 2 gaffs on top of that lack of effort - which, IMO, was what Binnington did last season when he tried to do more than necessary with the team playing crappy in front of him. Kyrou might as well have been the invisible man in this one. PK was awful in this one. But the PP... 3.7%??? Blues really need an offensive minded coach not named Steve Ott. Looks like his message has gotten stale, since he's been the PP coach whenever Montgomery wasn't an assistant, and he's no Jim Montgomery.

We'll see what happens vs the Coyotes on Thursday, since the Blues seem to have given up putting forth any effort vs the Coyotes since playing them 7 times in a row in 20-21.