As the season began, there was renewed emphasis on the St. Louis Blues getting off to a strong start. Unfortunately, a 3-4-1 start has once again brought questions about whether this team can take the leap forward that was expected, or if this is the same team with broken habits and inconsistencies. Although the start isn't what the team or head coach Jim Montgomery wanted coming into the year, they have a major opportunity to turn things around in their upcoming five-game homestand.
The Blues' next five games at Enterprise Center are against teams with a combined record of 30-11-4, including games against the three best teams in the NHL right now: the Carolina Hurricanes, Vegas Golden Knights, and Boston Bruins. With the Winnipeg Jets and Montreal Canadiens also coming to town, the Blues won't face a sub-.500 team during this stretch. The Blues can change their season's trajectory or fall too far behind in the standings, forcing another miraculous second-half comeback to make the playoffs.
Top-line production
If there was ever a time for Robert Thomas, Dylan Holloway, and Jimmy Snuggerud to get going and string together points, it is over the next five games. Even against some of the league's best teams this early in the season. The line that dominated the second half of last season has produced few points to start this season, even though analytics point to it as a productive line. If the Blues want to win any games in this stretch and turn the season around, it starts with the top line, which needs to drive play and produce points.
The group is snake-bitten on the stat sheet, but they also seem to be pressing and forcing plays to manufacture goals, which is leading to giveaways, turnovers, and goals against. Five home games can hopefully rejuvenate the line and get them back to the fundamentals that made them such a special trio last season: hard work on the forecheck, crisp playmaking, and the ability to make the extra effort to crash and finish at the net.
Finally at home
The Blues faced a similar situation last season, with two four-game homestands at the end of October and the beginning of November. During those stretches, they went 1-2-1 and 1-1-2. During those two stints, the Blues faced the likes of the Chicago Blackhawks, Seattle Kraken, and Calgary Flames, all of which finished near the bottom of the league. This season's homestand has a different makeup, with some of the league's best coming to St. Louis.
With the on-ice play and poor stretches the Blues have shown this season, a long home stretch could spark this team back into the swing of things. With six of their first eight games on the road, the Blues haven't found a groove amid inconsistent travel and practice schedules. That's no excuse for the poor performance, but a stretch of home games and practice could turn the season around. Anything worse than a .500 record in this five-game stretch directly hits the Blues' playoff chances and hopes. Long stretches of home games like this rarely show up on the schedule, so getting points as often as they can is crucial for the Blues to build good habits for the remainder of the season and climb out of the early hole they created for themselves in the standings. Failure to do so will return the same mediocre cycle the team has been in the last several seasons: a slow start, a sellers' deadline, and a too-little-too-late playoff push.
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