Blues open season with tough slate against Cup favorite Avalanche

Team will begin 56-game regular season tonight in Denver

By LOU KORAC
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Ready or not (presumably ready), the Blues will be on your TV sets Wednesday night.

For the first time since being unceremoniously bounced from the first round of the Western Conference playoffs in six games by the Vancouver Canucks, the Blues open the 2020-21 season in a new division, in a 56-game format but against a formidable, and well-known foe, the Colorado Avalanche (9:30 p.m.; NBCSN, ESPN 101.1-FM).

(St. Louis Blues/Scott Rovak)

Coach Craig Berube and the Blues begin the 2020-21 season tonight in

Colorado against the Avalanche.

The Blues, who finished first in the conference last season through 71 games of the regular season that was shut down due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, don't come into this season as the defending Stanley Cup champions but are viewed as a Cup contender.

They face the Avalanche, who are an overwhelming favorite to win not only the West Division but win the Stanley Cup, for the first of eight meetings.

The Blues and Minnesota Wild, normally permanent residents in the Central Division, were cast out west as part of the one-year realignment that formed an all-Canadian division due to COVID-19.

The Blues and Avalanche will be the last of five games to drop the puck on opening night, and the Blues are anxious to get the puck dropped after a shorter-than-usual, abbreviated 10-day camp.

"They looked great today," Blues coach Craig Berube said after practice Tuesday at Centene Community Ice Center. "I thought they were moving out there today. It was fast. They did a lot of good things out there today, but that's practice. We've got to go out and we've got to play games and hey, we'll see what happens tomorrow. They're ready. They want to play games."

The Blues have a much different look than the one that left the Edmonton bubble. Gone are veteran stalwarts Alexander Steen (retired), Jay Bouwmeester (retired), Alex Pietrangelo (departed via free agency to the Vegas Golden Knights) and Jake Allen (traded to the Montreal Canadiens).

Ryan O'Reilly was named the new captain, replacing Pietrangelo, to go along with a veteran leadership group including Vladimir Tarasenko, who will open the season on long-term injured reserve following left shoulder surgery, Brayden Schenn and Colton Parayko.

Defenseman Torey Krug was signed to a long-term contract (seven-year, $45.5 million) to offset the loss of Pietrangelo, and Mike Hoffman (one-year, $4 million) was signed to give more scoring and balance to an offense that was third on the power play a season ago, and Kyle Clifford (two-year, $2 million) was signed to add snarl, abrasiveness to the fourth line in the absence of Steen and more importantly, his Cup experience after winning with the Los Angeles Kings in 2012 and 2014.

"I think it's going to be great," Hoffman said. "We've got guys out there that know what they're doing, they can move the puck around, make plays, they can put the puck in the net. There's hard-working guys, guys that can retrieve pucks. I think it's going to be a great fit and looking forward to getting things running with them."

"I think we're all coming in with the mindset that we've got a short camp here and we're going right into games," Clifford said. "The compete level and the intensity and the detail, it's got to get going right away and I thought we've done a pretty good job of that early, just come in ready to play and obviously being paired with Barby and Sunny, you know what you're going to get. I think as a group we know what's expected of our line every night and the detail and pace we've got to play and just put a lot of pressure on the other teams.

"I think in this room, it's kind of that Tom Brady philosophy: what's your most important ring? It's the next one. I get that sense from this group. That's why we're here. We're here to win and we're going to put the team first and roll with that mindset."

Jordan Binnington is the unquestioned No. 1 netminder heading onto the season and will be backed up by Ville Husso, who will make his NHL debut when he gets his first action.

The power play packs an awful wallop, including a first unit that will feature O'Reilly, Krug, Schenn, Hoffman and David Perron, and a second unit that features Parayko, Vince Dunn, Robert Thomas, Tyler Bozak and Jaden Schwartz.

Jordan Kyrou, who missed practice Tuesday due to salary-cap related technicalities, but Berube said he's expected to be available for the opener, has been given the chance to shine in the lineup playing with Bozak and Zach Sanford.

"He's had a good camp," Berube said. "I thought he was pretty solid in both scrimmages. He got a couple goals the other night, which was a bonus, but he's doing a lot of good things out there. His wall play is better, he's skating, he's moving when he doesn't have the puck, he's not watching. He's doing a good job. He's had a good camp."

It will be unprecedented territory for not only the Blues but all involved since none of the 31 NHL teams had the luxury of preseason games.

"Well, they're going to be fast," Berube said of the games. "You've got to be on your toes and you've got to be aggressive. You don't want to overthink things in these games. You want to go out and be aggressive, but we want to establish our game. We've got to get pucks down low and work this team down low. We've got to make them defend because if you don't, they've got some very good players that are fast and go the other way. They score goals. We've got to be disciplined. We've got to stay out of the penalty box. It's important that we're disciplined and it's important that we're disciplined in how we want to play the game."

The Blues will open with two games against the Avalanche in Denver and the schedule is set up where the majority of teams will play one team in one location on back-to-back games. Teams will only play games within their own division and the top four teams in each division make the playoffs, much like the old days.

"I think yeah, you had no preseason games to get to maybe hone your game in a little bit more and I think tomorrow you've got to take the approach of being aggressive and being simple," Berube said. "Don't complicate the game, don't extend your shifts, keep them short, play fast, et everybody involved in the game. We need everybody. You could control two things. You can control how hard you work and how hard you can compete out there. We definitely have to outwork that team and we have to out-compete them. That's going to be two big factors that'll determine the outcome of the games."

Prognosticators have picked the Blues as the third-best team in the division behind Colorado and Vegas, and that's OK with the Blues. Nobody expected them to win the Cup in 2019 and they'll take the underdog mentality.

"We're kind of what it's been like for at least the past three years," Schenn said. "We're really deep, we rely on everyone, we rely on all four lines and six D and goalies can get the job done. That's how we're built and that's how we win. 

"We have obviously a lot of very good players, but we don't have an absolute superstar where he's going to go out and get us 110 points one year. We rely on depth, we rely on counting on one another and every guy doing their job each night."

The Blues must now shift their focus to the Avalanche, which added to an already deep and strong lineup with forward Brandon Saad, formerly of the Chicago Blackhawks, and defenseman Devon Toews, formerly of the New York Islanders. Let's not forget about one of the top players in the league, Nathan MacKinnon, along with a cast that includes Gabriel Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen and Cake Makar, along with a host of others.

"They've added Saad and Toews on the back end," Berube said. "Toews is a pretty solid defenseman, played in the Islander organization. He was coached very well obviously with Barry Trotz and how to play defense. He's going to be a good defender for them. Saad's a very good player that's won Cups and he knows how to win. He just adds some experience to that already very good lineup. He's a good two-way forward."

The Blues' greatest motivation this season will come from the fact they were eliminated so quickly last season, on the heels of winning it all.

"Yeah I think we all know that, we all know the bubble was very disappointing," O'Reilly said. "I think we are a different team and guys that were here last year know that we have to be better, and I think that is something that is motivating us. We know the season's going to be uncomfortable in a lot of areas, but we're using that as motivation. We're a very good team and we should have went a lot farther than we did and we're looking at this year to rebound and to come back and prove to the locker room again that we're elite."

(St. Louis Blues/Scott Rovak)

Forward Sammy Blais (right) scores against Villie Husso during a practice

session leading into the regular season. 

For Binnington, who was 30-13-7 with a 2.56 goals-against average .912 save percentage a season ago, the idea isn't to look back, it's to move forward from the buddle.

"If we're looking back. I'm probably looking back at the Cup, the All-Star Game, 30 wins, how far our team has come over just a year and a half," Binnington said. "I'm living in the present moment, just working towards being the best I can be, the best goaltender and person I can be every day and growing and just coming together as a group, it's a lot of fun.

"We're a great hockey club. We've got some good pieces and it's about coming together and just taking it one day at a time. We weren't happy with what went in (inside the bubble), but we feel like we learned from it and we've taken a good approach to it here, we're working hard, we're putting in the time. Guys have come together and here to work, so we're excited."