GDT #3: Blues @ G. Knights | 9:00 pm CT | TNT, 101 ESPN

[theohall]

TEAM SNAPSHOTS
BLUES The St. Louis Blues are off to a good start in the 2020-21 season.

After beating the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 in their season opener on Saturday, the Blues' offense contributed seven goals in a 7-4 win against the Arizona Coyotes on Monday night.

Jordan Kyrou had four points (two goals, two assists), Klim Kostin scored two goals in just 47 seconds, Justin Faulk netted a goal and an assist and Jordan Binnington made 22 saves in Monday's win, which included five goals in a span of 5:07 in the second period - the third fastest in Blues history.

"It was a momentum game," Kyrou said. "We had a lot of momentum in those five to 10 minutes. We got a lot of goals in there, which is huge for us."

The Blues will look to go 3-0 on their season-opening road trip, which continues on Wednesday night in Vegas.

GOLDEN KNIGHTS The Vegas Golden Knights are off to a 1-1-0 start in the 2021-22 season. Vegas won their season opener last Tuesday night against the expansion Seattle Kraken but dropped a 6-2 decision to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday.

Shea Theodore and Chandler Stephenson scored Thursday for the Golden Knights, who surrendered five points to Kings forward Anze Kopitar in the loss.

Vegas is dealing with a handful of injuries in the season's early-going. Max Pacioretty (foot) is week-to-week, Mark Stone (lower-body) is day-to-day to week-to-week, and Alex Tuch (shoulder) is reportedly out until January. In addition, Mattias Janmark is in the League's COVID-19 protocol.

"You take out guys that we rely on for offense every night, and you've got to play with detail," Vegas Head Coach Pete DeBoer said. "You've got to play with foundation. You've got to be prepared to win 2-1, 3-2. We've got to get that back. We haven't had enough of that."

HEAD-TO-HEAD The Blues went 2-4-2 against the Golden Knights last season and posted a 1-2-1 record at T-Mobile Arena.

PLAYERS TO WATCH
BLUES Jordan Kyrou, who leads the team with six points (two goals, four assists) in two games this season. Only three other players in Blues history have posted six points in the first two games of a season (Adam Creighton, Kevin Miller and Brendan Shanahan).

GOLDEN KNIGHTS Robin Lehner, who takes over the full-time role in Vegas after Marc-Andre Fleury was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks. Lehner will be looking to rebound after giving up four goals on 31 shots against the Kings.

BLUE NOTES
Ryan O'Reilly has 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) in 16 career games against Vegas… Faulk has recorded a goal and an assist in both games so far this season… With his next goal, David Perron will tie Red Berenson for 10th all-time in Blues history with 172 goals… The Blues will be without Pavel Buchevich, who received a two-game suspension Tuesday for head-butting Arizona forward Lawson Crouse... A win Wednesday would give the Blues their first-ever three-game road win streak to begin a season and their first 3-0-0 start since 2017-18.

[glen a richter]

Shutout incoming

Blues 5 - Parayko, Kyrou, Tarasenko, Schenn, Thomas
Vegas 0

[gaijin]

Hope you are right. I am pleased the Blues have scored 12 goals in their first 2 games, but also wish they had given up fewer than 7.

One big difference right now is injuries- the Blues are healthy while some key Knights are out. Same thing with the game against Colorado.

[theohall]

Blues PK is more of a problem when it comes to the goals against. vs the Avs - 2 of 3 goals against were scored with an extra attacker (or 2 - PP with goalie pulled). 3 of 4 GAs vs Arizona - 1 PPG against; 1 G against 5 seconds after PP expired, so the guy in the box was irrelevant; 1 G 45 seconds after PP expired and the player didn't go to the bench, but joined the play, and the Blues never cleared the zone. So the Blues have only given up 2 true 5-on-5 goals, one "5-on-5" goal with tired players on the ice after a PK, and another "5-on-5" goal when a penalty had just expired.

If the Blues stay out of the box, they aren't giving up goals. So don't do stupid stuff resulting in stupid penalties.

I don't think the Blues give up more than 2 tonight.

[gaijin]

Great game by both teams. Good end-to-end action. Glad to see Tarasenko get a goal- he was hunting hard that game.

3-0 start to the season on the road! I like it.

[glen a richter]

I love the way they've looked so far but it's definitely a fair point to bring up Colorado and Vegas both being short handed. I want to see how it goes against the same opponents when they're healthy.

Anyway, win the games you have to win and don't get into a hole early on. I absolutely hate--and this happens more in baseball--when people argue that "at least it's still early." Does a game in October all of a sudden count less than a game in April? Keep it rolling, I see no reason why they can't rattle off a decent sized win streak the way they're playing.

[theohall]

Either Mike Rupp or Stu Grimson said the other night, points are points. Build up an early lead over other teams and your team can get away with playing .500 hockey most of the rest of the season, due to league parity, and still be a playoff team. That's paraphrased, but it's a fair point. The issue with teams like Buffalo and New Jersey - they end up going on massive losing streaks. As long as the Blues keep winning and building the lead, it should pay off later. My question - how well do the Blues play at home? Last season was an issue at 12-11-5 - that's losing more than winning. IMO, the new blood and increased forward depth will help. Just don't count on the home opener with both Buchnevich and Saad out. Missing 2 guys on your top 2 lines doesn't help. Neighbours should see more ice time and not get relegated to the 4th line, like in this game, before the 1st period is over. This is an area Berube needs to have more patience. Moving Neal up didn't really change anything. Neal and Clifford for Saad and Buchnevich is a massive downgrade.