BLUES The St. Louis Blues delivered a strong bounce-back performance on Saturday, playing hard to a 4-2 win over the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins at Enterprise Center.
In addition to Jordan Binnington's third stellar outing in a row this season, Kasperi Kapanen and Brandon Saad - two players with varying Pittsburgh ties - shined. Saad, a Pittsburgh native, scored his first and second goals of the season to help drive the win; and Kapanen, who was placed on waivers by the Penguins last season, added two assists.
"Last game (against Arizona) we didn't have our best game, and we wanted to come out with some pace and some chances tonight," said Saad. "I think we did a good job of moving the puck and creating some chances."
The Blues will look to keep up the momentum as they kick off a four-game road trip on Tuesday in Winnipeg. The trip continues with a back-to-back set on Thursday and Friday (Calgary and Vancouver) before returning to the States to face the Avalanche next week.
Tuesday's game against the Jets will mark game No. 1,000 for Doug Armstrong as the Blues GM. The longest-tenured general manager in team history, Armstrong will be the first to reach 1,000 games as a Blue and just the 23rd to reach the milestone with any one franchise in NHL history.
The Blues face the Jets with a record of 2-1-1, worth five points at a .625 points percentage heading into the first long road trip of the year.