Blues News & Rumors: Armstrong, Vrana & More

The St. Louis Blues have concluded their western Canada road trip and will have a four-day break between games until they play divisional opponent, the Colorado Avalance on Wednesday, Nov. 1. The club’s road trip did not go as well as planned with a 1-2 record between the three games while suffering a minus-four goal differential.

Here’s a look at the latest news and rumors surrounding the club.

The Week That Was

Blues Versus Jets

The Blues began their road trip against the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday, Oct. 24. After holding the Jets to only eight shots on goal in the opening frame, Winnipeg quickly found life after David Gustafsson and Mason Appleton scored goals only 18 seconds apart. Of the two second-period goals, Appleton said:

“Those are big momentum shifts. When you score, you want to keep that pressure on and make them feel like they’re on their heels a bit and overthinking things. That’s kind of just a mindset that we have. Same with the last two minutes of each period and first two minutes of each period — those windows are where you can turn hockey games.”

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The Blues held on and responded with a goal by Pavel Buchnevich in the final two minutes of the period to bring the game within one. However, the Jets, again, opened the period with Kyle Connor scoring his fourth goal of the season only 4:10 into the third period. Robert Thomas scored with less than five minutes remaining in the game as the Blues suffered their first loss of the road trip by a final score of 4-2 with Morgan Barron scoring an empty net goal to seal Winnipeg’s victory. Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington stopped 24 of 27 shots on goal.

Blues Versus Flames

Looking to rebound from the loss, Blues goaltender Joel Hofer made 27 saves to secure a team victory and his first shutout of his NHL career. Hofer became the third-youngest goaltender to post a shutout with the Blues behind Yves Belanger (22, 162 days on March 11, 1975) and Jake Allen (22, 219 days on March 14, 2013). The St. Louis squad got to their game early and ultimately found the first goal of the game thanks to a short-handed breakaway goal from forward Kasperi Kapanen.

The team was not done there as defenseman Nick Leddy extended the lead to 2-0 deflecting a shot off Calgary Flames defenseman Nikita Zadorov’s leg to beat goaltender Jacob Markstrom. They completed their victory after Oskar Sundqvist scored to make it 3-0 with an empty-net goal with just over two minutes left to go in the game.

Blues Versus Canucks

The Blues’ hopes of adding another victory to the win column were quickly denied after the Vancouver Canucks pounced on their opponent with every ounce of strength they could muster. The team was sloppy and made mental mistake after mental mistake with an inability to recover after Buchnevich took a hooking penalty against Canucks defenseman Filip Hronek only 17 seconds into the game. The home team poured on a seemingly unending amount of offensive zone pressure and shots against Binnington until Vancouver defenseman Quinn Hughes finally broke through 7:59 into the game. Hughes, the first star of the hockey game, went on to record his third career multigoal game after scoring his second goal 5:48 into the second period.

After being outshot 19-3 in the opening period, they began to fight back over the final 40 minutes of the game outshooting the Canucks 19-6. Their efforts were all thwarted by goaltender Thatcher Demko, securing his first shutout of the season and the fourth of his career.

Here’s a look at where the Blues rank statistically among the rest of the NHL:

Team Record: 3-3-1 (6th in division, 10th in conference)
Goals Scored: 13 (31st in NHL) (Last Week: 29th in NHL) 
Goals Against: 19 (5th in NHL) (Last Week: 6th)
Power Play: 4.8% (32nd) (Last Week: 0% T-32)
Penalty Kill: 80.0% (14th in NHL) (Last Week: 30th)
Faceoff (%): 48.1% (25th in NHL) (Last Week: 29th)

Vrana Healthy Scratch

With one goal and two assists and third on the team in scoring on the young season, Blues head coach Craig Berube opted to bench forward Jakub Vrana ahead of their game against the Flames. Vrana played only 9:12 in the team’s loss to the Jets and did not play the final 13:18 of the third period. Ahead of their game, Berube said: “Last couple games, for me, just not seeing a lot. We need more from him. It’s all on his play on the ice, that’s all. He’s got to be better” (from ‘Game Day: Jakub Vrana a healthy scratch as Blues overhaul lineup in Calgary,’ St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Oct. 26, 2023).

After spending two games on the sidelines, Vrana noted that while he is not happy about the benching, he understands and is ready to work his way back into the lineup.

“The reaction is what matters right now. I’m going to keep working on me and I’m going to keep working on my game. Hopefully I get the chance to be back and show what I can do. We know my game here a little bit. I can skate, I can score, I can create chances. There is other parts of the game that you know we have to do as well. You can’t win games without it. I’ve been on winning teams before and I know what it takes. Defense can create a lot of offense for you that you can build off. I think that’s the main focus right now is to play with the puck, manage the puck, and get to the hard areas and hopefully we can create some offense off it like most of the time you can.”

Armstrong Reaches 1,000 Games As General Manager

On Tuesday, Oct. 24, Blues general manager (GM) Doug Armstrong became the 23rd GM in NHL history to work 1,000 games with a single franchise. Hired in 2010, he is one of three other active GMs in the league with the New York Islanders’ Lou Lamoriello and Edmonton Oilers’ Ken Holland to reach this milestone.

Now listed as the longest-tenured GM in Blues history, Armstrong won the NHL’s General Manager of the Year in 2012-13 and was the runner-up in 2018-19. With him at the helm, the Blues boast a 560-332-107 record, have made the playoffs 10 times in 13 seasons, and secured their first Stanley Cup in 2019.

The Blues will conclude their road trip on Wednesday, Nov. 1 against the Avalanche at 8:30 pm CST. After being shut out in back-to-back games against the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres, it should be a tough Central Division matchup for the Blues.