BLUES The St. Louis Blues have had four consecutive days off from game action, giving them ample time to recover and prepare for the second of their three-game opening homestand.
It took shootouts to decide each of their first two games, falling in Dallas to start the season and defeating Seattle in Saturday's Home Opener. The Blues have not played consecutive shootouts since April 2019, just before their run to a Stanley Cup championship.
The biggest story in the Blues' initial games has been the play of Jordan Binnington. Stopping 63 out of 65 shots faced, Binnington leads all NHL goaltenders with more than one start with a .969 save percentage and 0.92 goals-against average.
The Blues will look to ignite their offense in front of Binnington soon, however, as they have scored just one goal in each game and are still looking for their first power-play goal. The upper-body injury to Pavel Buchnevich may present a challenge, with Head Coach Craig Berube calling him "day to day" after practice on Tuesday.
The Blues pick up their pace of games with two home games in the next three nights, against the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
They'll host the Coyotes with an early record of 1-0-1, good for three out of a possible four points in the early goings of the season.
COYOTES The Arizona Coyotes - who will have opened their season with four straight road games after Thursday night's tilt - are looking to bounce back from a pair of back-to-back losses.
After an encouraging shootout win over the New Jersey Devils in their Opening Night, the Coyotes fell 2-1 to the Rangers on Monday and were shutout 1-0 by the Islanders' Ilya Sorokin on Wednesday night.
The Coyotes are once again led in scoring by Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz, though rookie Logan Cooley is looking to join the fold this year after being selected No. 3 overall in the 2022 NHL Draft. Cooley played a promising season at the University of Minnesota (alongside Blues prospect Jimmy Snuggerud) and has three points in the first three games of his NHL career.
Schmaltz and Cooley connected to score a game-tying goal in the third period of their shootout win in New Jersey, with Schmaltz also netting the clinching shootout goal.
After facing the Blues at Enterprise Center, the Coyotes return to Mullett Arena for their own Home Opener on Saturday against the Anaheim Ducks.
The Coyotes travel to St. Louis with an early record of 1-2-0 as they aim to turn a corner in their rebuild process.
HEAD TO HEAD The Blues went 1-2-0 against the Coyotes last season, with the win coming at Enterprise Center on Feb. 11. They are 2-1-1 in their last four home games against Arizona, and have scored at least five goals in four of the last seven matchups.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
BLUES Brayden Schenn, looking for his first points as Blues captain. Schenn posted two assists against the Coyotes last year, contributing to his career-high 44 on the season.
COYOTES Clayton Keller, coming off a career-high 86-point season to lead the Coyotes in the early stages of this year. Keller, a St. Louis native, has 24 points in 24 career games against his hometown team.
BLUE NOTES
The Blues will announce the inductees to the St. Louis Blues Hall of Fame's Class of 2024 at Thursday's game. Last season's inaugural induction saw franchise legends including Brett Hull, Al MacInnis, Bernie Federko, Bob and Barclay Plager and others enshrined in team history.
Alexey Toropchenko is expected to dress in his 100th career NHL game on Thursday.
With a point against Arizona, the Blues would earn a point in the first three or more games of the season for the ninth time in franchise history and for the third straight season (franchise record: 5-0-0 to start the 2021-22 season)
Thursday will mark game No. 998 for Doug Armstrong as General Manager of the Blues. Last season, Armstrong became the longest-tenured GM in franchise history and is also now the longest-tenured active GM in the NHL.
The Arizona Coyotes aim to ignite their offense on Thursday when they conclude their season-opening, four-game road trip against the St. Louis Blues.
The Coyotes started the trek on a high note with a 4-3 shootout victory over the New Jersey Devils on Friday. They followed that up by dropping one-goal decisions to the New York Rangers and New York Islanders.
Arizona mustered just six shots on goal through the first two periods Tuesday and finished with 14 overall in a 1-0 setback to the Isles.
"We didn't execute at all," Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said. "We start the game by trying to do too much. Each line has to find their own identity. ... We need to put pucks on the net. We need to be a little bit simpler, we passed on too many opportunities."
Karel Vejmelka made 33 saves versus the Islanders and has turned aside 66 of 70 shots this season.
"He was awesome. He was fantastic," Coyotes forward Jason Zucker said of Vejmelka. "He made some unbelievable saves to keep it 1-0 throughout the game, and we have to help him out a little bit more."
Vejmelka was strong in two of his three encounters against the Blues last season. He stopped all 33 shots he faced in a 5-0 victory on Jan. 26 and finished with 40 saves in a 6-2 win on March 7.
St. Louis' Jordan Binnington surrendered 11 goals on 55 shots in two meetings with Arizona last season. The Stanley Cup-winning goaltender has been less generous in his first two games to start this campaign.
Binnington has turned aside 63 of 65 shots for the Blues, who have split a pair of shootouts to start the season. He went the extra mile in stopping all three shots in the bonus format to lift the Blues to a 2-1 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Saturday.
The Blues' Colton Parayko has drawn rave reviews from both coach Craig Berube -- as tough as that is -- and defensive partner Nick Leddy for his aggressiveness in transition. The 6-foot-6, 228-pound Parayko said he's just trying to add another wrinkle to the team's offense.
"Just a conscious effort to get in the play as much as possible," Parayko said, per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Just give the forwards another option. Just like we talked about earlier, they have done a really good job of coming back for us, and if I can be an extra outlet for them up the ice (that helps)."
The Blues' victory over the Kraken was costly, however, as forward Pavel Buchnevich sustained an upper-body injury in the first period after being shoved into the boards by defenseman Jamie Oleksiak. Berube said Buchnevich is doubtful to play against the Coyotes.
"Right now, he's sore, so he's still not ready to get on the ice," Berube said Tuesday. "Right now, it's day-to-day. It's all about how he feels, soreness and stuff like that. When that subsides, he can go on the ice and then we'll advance from there."
Brandon Saad joined Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou on the top line during Tuesday's practice.
PROJECTED LINEUP
Brandon Saad - Robert Thomas - Jordan Kyrou
Alexey Toropchenko - Brayden Schenn - Kasperi Kapanen
Jakub Vrana - Kevin Hayes - Sammy Blais
Nikita Alexandrov - Oskar Sundqvist - Jake Neighbours
Nick Leddy - Colton Parayko
Torey Krug - Justin Faulk
Marco Scandella - Tyler Tucker
Joel Hofer
