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St. Louis Blues at Colorado Avalanche

Sat Oct 37:00 PM MTESPN+Denver, CO
By JR·2 min read
Blues(0-0)
Avalanche(1-0-0)
Saturday 10/037:00 PM

TLDR: Colorado opened its season by hanging 8 on the Kings. St. Louis gets its first look at that offense on Saturday, October 3, 24 hours after opening its own season in Dallas.

SUN OCT 4, 7:00 PMESPN+
Blues
(0-0)
Avalanche
(1-0-0)
W

Colorado opened with an 8-4 rout of Los Angeles behind 2 goals each from MacKinnon and Lehkonen and has 2 days to rest before this one. St. Louis plays its season opener in Dallas the night before, then brings a heavily reworked roster to altitude with rookie Adam Jiricek on a blue line missing Mailloux and Tucker. The board has Colorado as a clear favorite, and the Blues' goalie choice and how much Friday takes out of them are the open questions.

St. Louis Blues
  • Robert Thomas off back-to-back 80-point seasons
  • McTavish and McMichael add new center depth
  • Binnington chasing franchise wins record
  • Second night of back-to-back, at altitude
  • Mailloux and Tucker out, rookie Jiricek pressed in
  • New coach, new roster, few reps together
Colorado Avalanche
  • MacKinnon scored 2 and set the tone in opener
  • 4-goal second period showed scoring depth
  • 2 days of rest against a tired opponent

Saturday's game at Ball Arena is the second stop on a 3-game Central Division road trip that opens St. Louis' season. The Blues start Friday in Dallas, play in Denver the next night and finish in Chicago on October 6, then come home to face San Jose on October 8. Colorado has been home since its opener on Wednesday, so the Avalanche get 2 full days off while the Blues fly in from Dallas and play at altitude. Friday's game against the Stars settles the questions this one can't answer yet: what the new-look Blues look like in a game that counts, and how much they had to spend to get through it.

There's a lot new in St. Louis. Alexander Steen starts as GM with a new coaching staff and a reshaped roster. Jordan Kyrou went to Washington in the deal that brought back Connor McMichael, Mason McTavish came over from Anaheim, and Brandon Carlo, Dillon Dube and Ross Johnston are in as well. Robert Thomas, coming off back-to-back 80-point seasons, is now the captain. Steen summed it up: "There's a lot of new. New coaching staff, new leadership group, new players, myself in this position is new." On paper the pieces work. They have played no regular-season games together, and their second one comes in the toughest building on the trip.

Colorado's opener showed what that building looks like right now. Nathan MacKinnon scored twice and got into a rare fight. Artturi Lehkonen also scored twice, Brock Nelson had a goal and 2 assists, and a 4-goal second period buried Los Angeles. Mackenzie Blackwood made 27 saves, which also means the Kings got plenty of shots in a game the Avs led comfortably. That's the one part of Wednesday that Colorado's coaches will want cleaned up.

St. Louis Blues
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Colorado Avalanche
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10/01WvsKings8-4

The Blues' back end is short before the season starts. Logan Mailloux had hand surgery and Tyler Tucker had a knee scope, so both open on injured reserve. That pushes rookie Adam Jiricek onto the blue line, and St. Louis also claimed Justin Barron off waivers to add depth there. Jiricek facing MacKinnon's line in his first week as an NHL regular, on the second night of a back-to-back, is the matchup to watch. Colorado is missing some depth too, with Logan O'Connor and Zachary L'Heureux both out to start the season. Neither is a top-6 player, so the losses show up in the bottom of the lineup more than on the scoresheet.

In goal, Jordan Binnington is 14 wins away from becoming the first goalie with 200 wins for the Blues. Back-to-backs usually mean a split in net, though, and St. Louis hasn't said who plays which night. That decision, plus whatever Friday in Dallas takes out of the skaters, tells you more about this game than anything on the board does right now. Puck drop is 7:00 PM MT.