The St. Louis Blues have been terrific over the past week of games, and their play as a unit has been impressive to watch.
In this edition of Blues Weekly, I’ll go over the recent hot streak, the re-emergence of a star player, a big milestone for Craig Berube, and more.
Blues Have Won Three Straight Games
The Blues are now 8-5-1 after three straight wins over the Arizona Coyotes, Colorado Avalanche, and Tampa Bay Lightning. They are starting to score goals and the brilliance of Jordan Binnington in net has been a complement to that. They’ve outscored opponents by a score of 15-3 in these last three games, including an 8-2 win over the Avalanche and 5-0 over the Lightning. In those two wins, Binnington saved 66 of 68 shots for a save percentage of .971. He’s been fantastic and the Blues have scored a boatload of goals to help him.
Related: Blues’ Robert Thomas Living Up to Top Center Billing
The Blues are now fifth in goals against this season throughout the NHL. Their defensive coverage has improved with the performance of their top four defensemen and the backchecking of their forwards. Staying consistent will matter more than anything, but the Blues look like one of the best teams in the Central Division right now.
Buchnevich Starting to Produce Again
Last week’s edition discussed the slow start for Pavel Buchnevich this season, but he’s really picked it up over the past week. He’s up to nine points in 12 games with six points in the last three games, including a unique hat trick against the Avalanche. In his hat trick against Colorado, Buchnevich had a power play goal and two shorthanded goals. He is yet to score a goal at even-strength, so he’s done all of his damage with two power-play goals and two shorthanded goals on the season.
He’s more valuable to the Blues than any forward not named Robert Thomas. He’s a key shooter on the power play and plays a big role on the penalty kill alongside Thomas. Buchnevich has a plus/minus of plus-7 now. The better he performs, the better this Blues team will be for the rest of the season.
Berube Wins 200th Game As Blues Head Coach
Blues head coach Craig Berube got his 200th win with the franchise after dominating the Avalanche. It’s been a great run for him since he got the job in the middle of the 2018-19 season. He helped lead them to a Stanley Cup victory in that same season and has gotten to the playoffs in four of five seasons behind the bench. He has a record of 201-123-44 as the Blues head coach, including a points percentage of .606.
Berube is the fifth longest-tenured head coach in the NHL, behind Jon Cooper (Tampa Bay Lightning), Mike Sullivan (Pittsburgh Penguins), Jared Bednar (Colorado Avalanche), and Rod Brind’Amour (Carolina Hurricanes). That’s good company to be in with a total of five Cups between those four coaches. He’s third in Blues history in both regular season and playoff wins, behind only Joel Quenneville and Ken Hitchcock in the regular season, then Quenneville and Scotty Bowman in the playoffs. He’s going to go down as one of the best and most impactful head coaches in Blues history.
Blues’ Week Ahead
- Thursday: at San Jose Sharks (2-13-1, 5 points), 9:30 PM
- Saturday: at Los Angeles Kings (8-3-3, 19 points), 9:30 PM
- Sunday: at Anaheim Ducks (9-6-0, 18 points), 7 PM
The Blues are heading out West for a road trip against three Pacific Division teams. The Sharks have been the worst team in the NHL, while the Kings have been solid and the Ducks are on the rise. It’ll be interesting to see if the Blues can continue to ride their momentum into an important road trip.
