stlouisblues.com wrote:TEAM SNAPSHOTS
BLUES An offseason of change leads the St. Louis Blues to Saturday's season opener in Denver, where they will meet the same team that eliminated them from the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season.
The Blues will have a significantly altered-roster - Jaden Schwartz, Vince Dunn, Mike Hoffman, Sammy Blais and Zach Sanford all played against Colorado last season in the playoffs but are no longer wearing the Blue Note. Newcomers Brandon Saad, Pavel Buchnevich, James Neal and 2020 first-round pick Jake Neighbours will give the Blues a new look for the new season.
St. Louis enters the 2021-22 season with a lot to prove as the team is now two years removed from their first Stanley Cup championship. But with the depth that GM Doug Armstrong acquired in the offseason - along with the experience of the veteran players who remain from that championship roster and Head Coach Craig Berube behind the bench - expectations remain high.
AVALANCHE The Colorado Avalanche will play in their second game of the season when they host St. Louis on Saturday.
Jack Johnson, Gabriel Landeskog, Bowen Byram and Nazem Kadri scored for the Avalanche in a 4-2 win in their season-opener against the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night.
The Avalanche have a tweaked roster, too - Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen still lead a talented group of forwards but the team will need to fill the absences of Saad, who signed with the Blues, and Joonas Donskoi, who was selected by the Seattle Kraken in the NHL Expansion Draft.
Colorado also has a new man between the pipes. Darcy Kuemper was acquired in July in a trade with the Arizona Coyotes to replace Philipp Grubauer, who signed a six-year contract with Seattle.
Regardless of the changes, like the Blues, the Avalanche figure to be a powerhouse contender in the Western Conference.
WORTH MENTIONING
David Perron did not practice with the team on Friday, the final day of the team's bonding trip in Vail, Colorado. Berube said Perron needed a maintenance day and that his status for Saturday's season opener was uncertain.
Colorado was without MacKinnon and Head Coach Jared Bednar for Wednesday's opener as both tested positive for COVID-19. Former Blues assistant coach Ray Bennett filled in for Bednar on Wednesday. It's not known whether MacKinnon or Bednar will be back for Saturday's matchup with the Blues.
Landeskog will definitely miss Saturday's game as he serves a two-game suspension for his third-period hit against Chicago's Kirby Dach on Wednesday.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
BLUES: Brandon Saad, who joined the Blues as a free agent after signing a five-year contract in the offseason. Saad is a five-time 20-goal scorer and a two-time Stanley Cup champion, winning in 2013 and 2015 with the Chicago Blackhawks. Saad played last season with the Avalanche, posting 15 goals and nine assists (24 points) in 44 regular-season games. In the playoffs, Saad scored seven goals in 10 appearances.
AVALANCHE: Mikko Rantanen, one of Colorado's elite forwards who contributed 30 goals and 36 assists (66 points) in 52 games last season. The 24-year-old former first-round pick has produced at nearly a point-per-game pace in his five full-plus seasons with Colorado, posting 317 points in 334 games.
BLUE NOTES
The Blues, Boston Bruins, Calgary Flames and San Jose Sharks are the only NHL teams that have yet to play a game this season… Jordan Kyrou is expected to play in his 100th career NHL game on Saturday… Perron and Ryan O'Reilly combined for 14 points against the Avalanche last season.
ESPN's continued lack of effort preview wrote:Colorado finished 39-13-4 overall and 22-4-2 at home during the 2020-21 season. The Avalanche scored 3.5 goals per game while allowing opponents to average 2.4 last season.
St. Louis finished 27-20-9 overall with a 15-9-4 record on the road during the 2020-21 season. The Blues were called for 199 penalties last season averaging 3.6 penalties and 8.1 penalty minutes per game.
The matchup Saturday is the first meeting of the season for the two teams.
INJURIES: Avalanche: Nathan MacKinnon: day to day (health protocols).
Blues: None listed.
Sportsnet wrote:One game into the season and the Colorado Avalanche are dealing with more issues than some teams go through in a month.
Nathan MacKinnon (COVID-19) is in limbo, forward Valeri Nichushkin is week-to-week with an upper-body injury and Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog has been suspended for two games.
Colorado at least got a victory in its opener, 4-2, over Chicago, but it came at a price. Already the Avalanche are forced to do some shuffling heading into Saturday night's game in Denver against the St. Louis Blues.
In addition to Nichushkin's injury, forwards Andre Burakovsky and Darren Helm are dinged up but will play against St. Louis. The Avalanche should also have head coach Jared Bednar back behind the bench. He missed Wednesday's game while in COVID-19 protocols but ran practice Friday and is expected to be coaching live Saturday night.
MacKinnon's situation is less clear. He could return but he must have two negative tests or be away from the team for 10 days. He tested positive Tuesday but is asymptomatic, the team said. General manager Joe Sakic said Tuesday that the team is 100 percent vaccinated.
Landeskog was suspended for boarding Chicago forward Kirby Dach late in Wednesday's game, and if MacKinnon can't play the Avalanche will be without two of three players from the top line.
Bednar watched Wednesday's game on TV and liked a few things he saw but said the team needs to clean up some issues.
"We mismanaged the puck a little bit in the second half of the game and it cost us some scoring chances," he said Friday. "The way we play and try to make plays and be dangerous, you're going to have a turnover or two. The six or seven we had last game is too many."
The Blues have yet to play a game this season, a fact that coach Craig Berube said was a scheduling quirk. They will finally have their first meaningful game since May, when Colorado finished off a first-round sweep of their series.
St. Louis, like every team, had offseason changes. Most notably was forward Brandon Saad signing a five-year deal after playing last season with the Avalanche. The Blues also acquired forward Pavel Buchnevich from the New York Rangers and signed veteran James Neal to a one-year deal.
Saad, along with center Ryan O'Reilly, is one of two former Colorado players among the top six forwards. O'Reilly and David Perron combined for 14 points in eight regular season games against the Avalanche last year, but Perron may not play Saturday due to an undisclosed injury.
Perron, who didn't play in the playoff series in May, did not practice Friday.
"It's more maintenance than anything right now," Berube said after Friday's practice. "We'll see (Saturday). That's really all I can give you right now."
Klim Kostin took Perron's place on the top line with Saad and O'Reilly on Friday.
"We're going to see injuries throughout the year," Colton Parayko said before referencing Perron. "A great player, tough void to fill, but it gives guys an opportunity to step up. Hopefully he's feeling better and we can have him (Saturday)."
