The St. Louis Blues continue to be like a box of chocolates. You simply never know what you're going to get.
Two games ago, the Blues looked solid in a win against the Chicago Blackhawks. After that, they got embarrassed for the second time in a row against the Nashville Predators.
Now, they welcomed the Winnipeg Jets to town. One season after winning the Presidents' trophy, the Jets have struggled too, but they still have plenty of top talent.
The first period was an interesting one. It was a mixed bag for the Blues, but still pretty good.
St. Louis outshot the Jets 5-1 in the early going, but it still felt like the Jets had the better of the chances. Even so, the Blues managed to get themselves going.
Despite failing to get more than one shot on an early power play, the Blues had a flurry of activity on their next few shifts. They went from two shots to nine in what felt like the blink of an eye. St. Louis finished the period with 11 shots, but got sloppy at the end of the first and allowed a total of six.
Without a goal to their name, the worry shifted to the second period, which has consistently been the Blues' worst all season. Although they had a few bad shifts, especially early, St. Louis had one of their best second periods of the season.
They found a bit more confidence and made smart decisions on zone entries, dump-ins, and when to make line changes. They gave the Jets no big mistakes to take advantage of.
Offensively, it wasn't anything sparkly or shiny, but just smart hockey. Amazingly, the Blues had 12 shots in the second period, which is almost unheard of in 2025.
St. Louis finally broke through with about seven minutes left in the period. The Blues' forecheck took advantage of a weak exchange from Connor Hellebuyck to his defender. Robert Thomas took the loose puck at the bottom of the circle, fed it back through the slot, and Justin Faulk unleashed a wrister to make it 1-0.
St. Louis could have, and should have, increased the lead. Brayden Schenn had a breakaway but got stopped, Pius Suter deked Hellebuyck out of his jock only to slide the puck parallel across the goal line, and the team had a couple of other chances that just would not go or slipped off the stick.
The worry became that those misses would haunt the Blues. Normally they do.
However, the third period was just kind of an odd duck. The Blues only managed three shots on goal, but it rarely felt like they were just trying to hang on and defend the whole time.
Winnipeg had some looks, but even with their nine shots on goal, the Blues only needed one (maybe two) big saves down the stretch. It was a smartly played period by the Blues where they didn't overextend themselves, but also didn't get hemmed in like they were on the penalty kill.
The Jets did help St. Louis out by taking a really dumb penalty with under a minute to go. Suter and Josh Morrissey were already going off for roughing one another, but Logan Stanley came in as the third man and practically tackled Suter. After the scrum settled down, the Blues went on the power play. They didn't allow the Jets to pull the goalie until there were fewer than 10 seconds left and ultimately won by a final of 1-0.
Pro: Faulk
It's been a rough start to the year for Justin Faulk, although he's actually been the Blues' most consistent defender. Most of his problems have stemmed from having a revolving door for his partner.
Regardless of that, he's showcased the offensive ability that made his acquisition such a draw for Doug Armstrong. With his game-winning goal, he has eight goals on the season, which puts him in a tie for the team lead.
Faulk again showcased that steady defensive ability, too. He had a blocked shot and also a hit, which aren't big numbers, but just show that he's getting it done on both ends. Although he was third on the team in ice time, he had the most shifts out of any player, showing that he's one of the more trusted players out there.
Con: Faceoffs
The Blues are normally a pretty good team on the dot. It was a mess in this game.
Winnipeg won nearly 63% of its faceoffs. What complicated things for St. Louis, beyond being forced to defend, was that Jim Montgomery regularly puts two centers on the ice for defensive zone faceoffs.
By losing so many, you had line combinations that weren't meant to stay together. That altered shift times and forced some lineup changes through the game just to get guys some playing time.
It may not have impacted this particular game, but you can't lose more than 2/3 of your faceoffs regularly and hope to win.
Pro: Second Period
Don't let anyone fool you - this was not the greatest second period of all time. The Blues were not lighting the world on fire by any means.
For as awful as they've been in the second period all year, you have to take the good when you get it. They got the job done.
Getting a goal in the second period was icing on the cake. The Blues did enough to at least get a gold star even without that.
The first few minutes were a little rough, and that was compounded by an early penalty taken. The PK did its job and had several clearances to keep the Jets from really getting things moving.
Even with Winnipeg having a push, the Blues finally pushed back for once. The offense was smart, but a little creative and actually a bit unlucky to not get more than the one goal.
Pro: Hofer
People are going to be dumb and make a goalie controversy out of this, but that's not what stuck out about his performance. From a pure goaltending perspective, there were probably fewer than five really good saves out of a total of 24 shots against.
The real reason Hofer impacted this game was his ability to nullify pucks dumped in. I lost count of how many times the Jets tried to rim the puck around the end wall by going high on the glass.
Hofer used his reach, vision, and puck handling to basically stop almost every single one and make sure the Jets' forecheck came to nothing. It had to frustrate Winnipeg to not even attempt any hits because the puck stopped behind the net, and Hofer could distribute it to a defender in a position to defend themselves.
Overview:
This is such a hard game to judge. It's a good win, but are we apprehensive about feeling good about it because it may mean nothing next game, or because the opponent is less than they used to be? Either could be true.
The Jets are just as confusing as the Blues since they still have almost all the top names that helped them to the league's best record in 2024-25. So, when you know the team still has that amount of talent and plenty of those guys have been Blues killers, you say the win is impressive.
However, when you understand that the win vaults the Blues over the Jets, and Winnipeg only has 32 points. Yes, the Jets have games in hand, but the reality is that we have seen how bad the Blues can be, and the Jets are currently behind them in the standings. So, is it really that great a win when you're technically beating a non-playoff team?
The answer is yes if you look at this game as a singularity. This was more reminiscent of old Central Division games and maybe even a small hint at Norris Division games. Winnipeg may have only been in the Norris for a couple of seasons in the '80s, but I digress.
There was physicality overall, and the Blues played with some fire and toughness. The offense wasn't there in terms of goals, but they created chances.
The two new additions, Otto Stenberg and Jonatan Berggren, were quite impressive. I'm not saying they're going to stick the way Dalibor Dvorsky has, but they played with speed, determination, and, most importantly, both went to the front of the net.
Defensively, it was a well-played game. The Blues still backed off a few times, and every game will have the odd mistake here or there, but there were no large gaps where guys just skated in unchecked or easy passing lane back-door tap-ins.
St. Louis managed to defend well without falling into the trap of doing nothing but defending. It was one of those games where you won't say it was perfect, but it was a performance that needs to be repeated as the team goes along.
The Blues can easily crush this high. They play the New York Rangers 24 hours after the puck dropped against the Jets.
The Rangers can be had defensively, too, but it's about how the Blues come out and whether they can attack. We'll see, but for now we take the points and move on.