GDT #41: Blues vs Bruins | 7:00 pm CT | BSMW, 101 ESPN

[theohall]

BLUES The St. Louis Blues earned their third win in the last four games on Thursday night, cruising past the New York Rangers for a 5-2 home win.

Jordan Binnington and Jordan Kyrou were the stars of the show, the former earning his third straight win and the latter a hat trick - his first at Enterprise Center. Binnington's 40-save effort was his third highest total of the season, outdueling New York's All-Star goaltender Igor Shesterkin.

"It was good," said Binnington. "It was a clean game, fun going against a good offensive team over there and it was a good working night for sure."

In addition to the hat trick and the goaltending showcase, the Blues' power play snapped a cold streak for two critical man-advantage goals. First was Jordan Kyrou's second goal of the night to give the Blues a 2-1 lead, followed by a nice shot by Brandon Saad which proved to be the game winner. It was the Blues' third game of the season featuring multiple power-play goals, capitalizing on a shake-up from Head Coach Drew Bannister.

The Blues continue their slate against Eastern Conference contenders on Saturday, hosting Boston for their fourth consecutive game against the current Top 4 seeds in the conference. Monday's opponent, Philadelphia, is currently seventh in the East. Including last week's win over Vancouver, the Blues will have played six straight games against teams currently in the playoff picture (2-1-0 thus far).

The Blues host the Bruins in a rematch of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final with a record of 21-18-1, worth 43 points and fifth in the Central Division.

BRUINS The Boston Bruins, celebrating their 100th season, are hoping to avenge their disappointing finish in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs. After setting the NHL record with 135 points in the regular season last year, the Bruins fell to Florida in the First Round of the Playoffs despite holding a 3-1 series lead.

The Bruins are off to as strong a start as they could ask for, once again battling for the top spot in the League standings despite the retirements of longtime Bruins Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci over the summer. Brad Marchand was named Captain in Bergeron's departure, currently second on the Bruins with 37 points in his 15th season in Boston.

Despite a strong start and a recent 4-1-0 stretch, the Bruins have lost their last three games - all in overtime or shootout. Most recently came an overtime loss in Vegas, in which the first goal of the game did not come until the third period. Vegas' Jack Eichel scored first, with Boston's Matt Grzelcyk forcing overtime with less than six minutes to go in regulation. Alex Pietrangelo eventually scored the overtime winner, less than one minute into the extra period.

Saturday's matchup concludes a four-game road trip for the Bruins, who return to TD Garden for five straight games afterwards. The Blues can expect a strong effort from a Boston team hoping to avoid a winless trip.

The Bruins visit the Blues with a record of 24-8-9, worth 57 points and first in the Atlantic Division.

HEAD TO HEAD The Blues went 0-1-1 against the Bruins last season, losing 3-4 in a shootout at home, and falling 3-1 in Boston. The Blues are 2-2-2 in their last six games against Boston and have earned points in four straight home matchups (2-0-2).

PLAYERS TO WATCH
BLUES Jordan Kyrou, who collected his third career hat trick in the win over the Rangers on Thursday night. Kyrou is up to 12 goals, 18 assists and 30 points on the season - third on the Blues in all three categories.

BRUINS David Pastrnak, leading the Bruins and sharing fifth in the NHL with 57 points this season. Pastrnak has seven points in his last five games, following up a career-best 113 points last season.

BLUE NOTES
The first 12,000 fans to arrive at Enterprise Center for Saturday's game will receive the 2023-24 Blues Yearbook

The Blues are 9-5-0 against the Eastern Conference this season, currently in a stretch of seven straight games against Eastern Conference opponents (2-1-0 so far)

The Blues power play is 7-for-34 (20.6%) since Drew Bannister's first game as interim head coach on Dec. 14, which shares 12th in the NHL. Before Bannister took over, the Blues' power play was 7-for-83 (8.4%), which ranked 31st in the NHL

Colton Parayko surpassed Bobby Plager on Thursday night for sole possession of the third most games played by a defenseman in Blues history (617). Parayko now only trails Barret Jackman (803) and Alex Pietrangelo (758) atop the franchise all-time leaderboard

Robert Thomas - selected to the 2024 NHL All-Star Game - is one of just seven forwards in the NHL this season with at least 43 points and a plus-15 rating. Thomas as well as Florida's Sam Reinhart and Aleksander Barkov are the only forwards on that list to have also logged at least 68 shorthanded minutes this season

Thomas is currently on pace to surpass Ryan O'Reilly's 2018-19 Selke Trophy-winning point total, plus/minus rating and blocked shots - O'Reilly won the Selke that season as the forward who demonstrates the most skill in the defensive component of the game

[theohall]

Watching the games, it seems like Bannister is far more engaged in talking with the players and assistant coaches during the game than we saw from Berube. Not trying to knock Berube, it's just a different style which seems to be suiting this team, thus far. Berube was more of a let the assistants handle stuff in game, unless the team needed yelling at.

[glen a richter]

Maybe I’m assessing wrong but the team does appear marginally better under Bannister. Not better enough to remove the interim tag unless they go off on a run and end up winning the Cup….

I’m curious who the next coach will be.

[theohall]

Brind'amour still has not been extended and the Carolina owner is already trying to cut costs on their upcoming arena renovation. If he's cutting costs there, what are the odds he actually pays Brind'amour what he can command as a "free agent" coach.

[theohall]

Horrible non-call in OT, but the Blues were lucky to be tied at all after regulation with the way they played the final 2 periods with Faulk playing injured and Montgomery working his line juggling magic.

[flyingnote38]

Horrible non-call in OT, but the Blues were lucky to be tied at all after regulation with the way they played the final 2 periods with Faulk playing injured and Montgomery working his line juggling magic.

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