Center Kevin Hayes has 8 points in 18 games.
After a slow start to the 2023-24 season, the St. Louis Blues are playing better hockey and have a winning record as they approach the quarter pole.
The Blues began the season by going 3-4-1. But in the last 10 games, they are 7-3, which puts their record at 10-7-1. They have gotten stellar playing by goalie Jordan Binnington. He has a 2.79 GAA and a .912 save percentage. These are welcome numbers; they cement him as their number 1 goalie of the now and of the future. That’s a good thing because he’s under contract for 3 more seasons. And backup Joel Hofer has also played well, with more playing time than I would have expected. He’s played in 7 games, while Binnington has 13 games. That comes out to a 54-28 split.
The forward corps has been slow to get going. The top scorer is center Robert Thomas – he has 18 points in 18 games (a point-per-game pace). But Jordan Kyrou has just 4 goals on the season. He is being paid like a top line winger, so the production needs to improve. There are 22 players in the NHL that have 10 goals already. None of them are on the Blues.
Jake Neighbours has been a nice surprise. He has 4 goals on the year (but just 1 assist). Kasperi Kapanen has 3 goals and Jakub Vrana has just 2. It is not a surprise to see the Blues offense regress a little bit without O’Reilly and Tarasenko. But they should be getting more, up and down the lines.
The Blues are not top-heavy on their forward lines, like Toronto. Rather, they have depth through all 4 lines, and players that can score on each line. But they don’t have the likes of Auston Matthews or Matthew Tkachuk or Artemi Panarin. They never finish badly enough to pick high enough in the draft to get a player like that. Although, this last draft’s pick Dalibor Dvorsky could eventually be a very highly regarded player.
In the meantime, the Blues must get more scoring from their top 9 forwards, especially Kyrou, Vrana and Kapanen.
Open Ice Notes 