Can we overreact about the St. Louis Blues after just one game?

The St. Louis Blues got a taste of what Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway will bring to the team in last night’s win over the Seattle Kraken. But there was a lot of good that went on yesterday afternoon, so let’s check out what we should and shouldn’t overreact about. 

I can already hear the “it’s just one game” crowd, but was it just one game for head coach Drew Bannister? Bannister had a bland team that was going nowhere handed to him last season, and he made something out of them. It’s a trend that’s at least going north for now. 

What about Jordan Kyrou scoring two goals? Kyrou was one of the more polarizing players on the team, and one game won’t change that. But besides scoring twice, he had three giveaways, and that’s a definite cause for concern. Overall, I’d remain in “wait and see” mode with Kyrou, but right now, everyone will remember the goals over the turnovers. 

I was ultra hard on Jordan Binnington last week, or a week and a half ago, really. But I also thought fans pointed the finger at him for no reason at all other than the fact he couldn’t always keep the Blues in games - not that they deserved to be in games, anyway, at times.

St. Louis Blues fans can overreact a little, but they need to be cautious

Still, Jordan Binnington made the most out of what he had last year, and if the Blues play the way they did in the second frame consistently, a 0.938 save percentage should be a recurring theme. Yeah, you can call that an overreaction, but Binnington, despite some criticisms, is a top-15 goaltender, and that won’t change this year unless he’s directly responsible for the team losing. 

You can say I already overreacted to Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway, two players who never saw full-time status with the Edmonton Oilers. But they were also youngsters on a team full of the game’s best players, so they’re not an easy team to carve out a niche on if you’re hovering between a prospect and a full-time player. 

Broberg finished the game with a goal, two blocked shots, and a hit in 20:23 of ice time, while Holloway saw 16:01 of ice time, logged an assist, and three body checks. Since they’re young players on a retooling team, for now, at least, I’m overreacting. 

Overall, there are some positives we can overreact with while others we’ll need a larger sample size with. But since it’s still early in the year, let’s overreact with a caution label attached.