2 weeks Ago
Winnipeg Jets fans have long memories. When it comes to the St. Louis Blues in the playoffs, those memories are painful.
You’d better believe the Jets fans I interact with on a day-to-day basis were annoyed when Joel Eriksson Ek scored for Minnesota, giving Winnipeg the Blues to worry about starting Saturday at 5 p.m. Central at Canada Life Centre instead of the Wild.
Whereas Winnipeg dismantled Minnesota in five games back in 2018, the Blues stunned Winnipeg in six games to the tune of “Gloria” in 2019. Advertisement Jets fans spent the season (rightfully) thinking of Winnipeg as a Stanley Cup contender. Instead, Kevin Hayes stopped his own breakaway attempt in Game 3 while Jacob Trouba tried to eat the puck in the buildup to Jaden Schwartz’s last-minute Game 5 winner.
The Blues dominated Game 6, sending Winnipeg home early, on the way to their Stanley Cup win. Now the Blues appear to be following the same script: a midseason coaching change, renewed commitment to defensive structure and a stretch run so dominant that St. Louis put up the best record in the NHL from the 4 Nations break onward.
This might sound dangerously familiar for Jets fans. How is it happening? Which players and what parts of the game do the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Jets need to worry about? To answer those questions and more, let’s turn to Jeremy Rutherford, one of my favourite teammates and mentors. Nobody covers St.
Louis as well as JR does; follow him on X , Bluesky and right here at The Athletic to find out more (if you’re not following him already). What do Jets fans need to know about St. Louis? Ates: I thought the Blues were retooling? For most of the season, it looked like a “one step back now for two steps forward later” type of season.
How did they make the playoffs? Was it Jim Montgomery taking over? Rutherford: Let me put it this way, I didn’t take any vacation time during the 4 Nations Face-Off because I thought I’d be going on vacation this week. I don’t think anyone can say they saw this coming, and that includes Montgomery and GM Doug Armstrong. The Blues were 8 points back of the second wild-card when they returned from the break with only 26 games to go.
Montgomery used the first few practices to work on the forecheck and the penalty kill. The thought was, “Let’s try to make some improvement, and if it doesn’t come together this season, at least we’re building for the future.” Advertisement All the Blues did in those 26 games was go 19-4-3, including a franchise-record 12-game winning streak.
It was good for 41 points and a .788 points percentage, which were both No. 1 in the NHL in that span.
That shows you how dire the situation was — they needed a run like that to make the postseason on the final day of their regular season. Give Montgomery a lot of credit. Captain Brayden Schenn said it best Tuesday: Montgomery’s presence and his care for his players made a huge difference.
But give the players their props, too. They began playing for each other, not just with each other, and when the wins started piling up, the confidence continued growing and growing. Ates: I’m looking at the roster and Jordan Kyrou had 36 goals, Robert Thomas had 81 points, and the Blues have one of the highest-scoring groups of defensemen in the NHL, including Colton Parayko with 16 goals.
Who should Jets fans be most concerned about? Rutherford: Just like in 2019 when these two teams played, the Blues are a sum of their parts. I don’t think they’re as talented as they were six years ago, but the roster construction is the same in the sense that their success comes from across the board. If I had to pick an MVP, I’d give it to Thomas, who finished the regular season on a 12-game point streak in which he had 25 points (4 goals, 21 assists).
With 81 points, he became the first Blue with back-to-back 80-plus point seasons since Brett Hull, and with 60 assists, he’s just the fourth Blue to post multiple 60-assist seasons since Bernie Federko and Adam Oates. Thomas did leave Tuesday’s game against Utah with a lower-body injury, but with the Blues leading 5-1, Montgomery said he was taken out for precautionary reasons. The team didn’t practice Wednesday, so perhaps we’ll get an update Thursday.
Advertisement The MVP conversation, however, has to include Dylan Holloway, Parayko and Jordan Binnington, and Kyrou would get some votes, too. Thomas has perhaps been the most electric, while Holloway and Parayko have been the most consistent. Parayko has been his usual self defensively, but offensively, he’s having a career year with 16 goals and 36 points.
The Blues’ defense ranks third in the league with 46 goals. Ates: Armstrong pulled off quite the heist, getting Philip Broberg and Holloway on offer sheets from Edmonton. It looks like both have been good, but Holloway especially with 26 goals.
I loved Holloway’s playoffs for the Oilers last season, too, but he’s been out with a lower-body injury. What’s his status? Rutherford: It’s easy to say now because Broberg and Holloway have been even better than expected, but in St. Louis, Blues fans still can’t believe the Oilers let them go.
The Blues desperately needed a left-shot defenseman who could play in the second pair and Broberg has been perfect for the role. Holloway has been dynamite, finishing second on the team in goals. But as you mentioned, he’s missed the last five games, and while the Blues are listing him as week to week, Montgomery said recently that he’s not close to returning.
That’s a shame for the Blues because not only are they missing what he brings to the lineup — tenacity being at the top of the list — the club has been forced to mix and match forwards to find the chemistry they had with Holloway in the lineup. Ates: I saw the Blues didn’t do anything at the trade deadline. Come to think of it, I remember Jets fans asking me about Schenn, that’s how sure they were that St.
Louis would sell. Looking back, the Blues did make a trade for Anaheim’s Cam Fowler in December. That acquisition seems to have flown under the radar, but Fowler has put up good numbers.
How’s he been up close — and he is somebody to keep an eye on? Advertisement Rutherford: Armstrong has a knack of making trades at odd times in the season, and it’s done by design. He usually doesn’t have to pay the inordinately high prices that come at the deadline, and that was the case with Fowler. They sent Anaheim a second-round pick in 2027 and prospect Jeremie Biakabutuka for Fowler and a fourth-round pick in ’27.
They also had the Ducks retain some salary on Fowler, giving him a cap hit of $4 million this season and next. I’m not trying to oversell anybody on the 33-year-old veteran defenseman, but he’s been really good. In 51 games and over 900 minutes of five-on-five ice time, he’s been on the ice for 56 goals for and 33 against.
He’s chipped in a lot offensively, too, with nine goals and 36 points. Ates: OK, time for a Binnington question. People here in Canada were wondering how he’d perform at the 4 Nations Face-Off, and he won a lot of us over by winning a gold medal.
Every time I thought he was out of a play, he found a way to make the save. How’s he been since that tournament — and do you think he’s playing well enough to steal the series? Rutherford: The goalie matchup is a focus going into almost every playoff series, but that will certainly be the case with Binnington and Connor Hellebuyck. It’s not lost on anyone that these were the two netminders who played for the gold medal at the 4 Nations tournament, with Binnington coming out on top with Team Canada.
The confidence Binnington gained from his performance seemed to transfer to his regular job with the Blues. Before the tournament, he was 15-19-4 with a 2.89 goals-against average and .
897 save percentage. After it, he was 13-3-1 with a 2.10 GAA and .
910 save percentage. While his numbers are much improved, it bears repeating that the Blues have been playing much better since the break in front of Binnington. He is definitely capable of stealing a series, however.
He lives for these moments. Ates: Is there an X-factor, a player we’re not talking about, who we might be talking about at some point during the series? Rutherford: Yes, and the player to watch is Zack Bolduc, a 22-year-old winger who was the Blues’ first-round pick (No. 17) in 2021.
He made the team out of camp, but the team took it slow with him, including five healthy scratches under former coach Drew Bannister. In 16 games under Bannister, Bolduc had no goals, five assists and was a plus-2. Advertisement When Montgomery came in, he didn’t have Bolduc in the lineup every night, but you could see Montgomery gain trust in Bolduc and see his skill take off.
In 56 games under Montgomery, he had 19 goals and 12 assists and was a plus-18. He’s got the best shot on the team, and positioned in the bumper spot on the power play, he leads the unit with seven goals. Ates: Finally, plain and simple, how do the Blues beat the Jets? What has to happen? What has to go right? Rutherford: The Jets are a Stanley Cup contender and backed it up with a Presidents’ Trophy.
They are the team to beat, and as a result, they are going to have the pressure on them in this series. So, for starters, the Blues have to do something to make them feel that pressure. Whether it’s taking Game 1 or splitting the first two games at Canada Life Centre, they have to create some doubt in the Jets’ minds.
But to do that, the Blues will have to rise to the occasion in a couple of areas: • They’ll have to find a way to beat Hellebuyck, who is well aware that he needs to follow up another Vezina-worthy season with some playoff success or else it will be deemed another postseason failure. • The young forwards will have to learn how to handle playoff hockey. Bolduc and Jake Neighbours have no postseason experience, and that’s not even to mention that Jimmy Snuggerud has played just seven regular-season games.
The way I see it, the Blues’ best — and perhaps only — path to winning the series is playing the way they did the last couple of months of the season. They don’t have to be perfect, but they need to stick together, get contributions from as many players as possible and, again, create some doubt in the Jets’ minds. (Top photo of Eric Comrie and Jordan Binnington: James Carey Lauder / Imagn Images).
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