The St. Louis Blues are Off to a Fast Start This Season

Despite playing their first three games of the 2024/25 NHL season away from the Enterprise Center, the St. Louis Blues have more than made the most of it after picking up wins in two of those games in somewhat dramatic fashion.

First, they overcame a second-period deficit to win 3-2 Tuesday against the Seattle Kraken and, just last night, reversed a 4-1 third-period deficit against rookie star Macklin Celebrini and the San Jose Sharks, picking up a 5-4 overtime win at the SAP Center.

The Blues experimented with their goaltending corps in both games, with the starter Jordan Binnington manning the cage for the Seattle showdown and backup Joel Hofer in goal for last night's Sharks contest. Binnington made 30 saves on 32 shots faced, while Hofer managed 25 saves on 29 shots faced. The game against Seattle was a bit quiet, to say the least, as no one scored until early into the second period, 27 seconds in, to be exact, with the Kraken's Vince Dunn breaking the 0-0 deadlock.

Seattle made it 2-0 a couple of minutes later via Eeli Tolvanen at the 2:20 mark. That advantage wouldn't last, however, as St. Louis got on the board and knocked in three straight unanswered goals from Jordan Kyrou at 13:42 on a Blues power play, followed by Philip Broberg's first NHL goal at 15:17, and finally Kyrou's second of the night just 20 seconds later. And just like the first period, the third was just as quiet for both teams.

Like the Seattle contest, the Sharks drew first blood, courtesy of Macklin Celebrini at the 7:01 mark of Period 1 for his first NHL goal before the Blues knotted things up (for the time being, at least) at 8:51 with the help of Pavel Buchnevich.

San Jose re-took the lead at 17:14 with new pickup Tyler Toffoli's first of the season. It'd be all Sharks in the second period, goals from Fabian Zetterlund at 8:26 on a Sharks PP and Barclay Goodrow's first in a Sharks sweater on a shorthanded effort quickly and seemingly putting this game out of reach for the Blues. But the tables were about to be turned in the third period.

First, two St. Louis efforts from new summer signings got the Blues back within one. Radek Faksa and Ryan Suter both notched their first goals wearing the Blue Note sweater. Veteran defenseman Justin Faulk tied the game with just 42 seconds left in regulation, setting the stage for some classic three-on-three overtime, where captain Brayden Schenn tapped in the game-winner 45 seconds into the extra five minutes to spoil a hyped NHL debut for Celebrini and the Sharks.

St. Louis would drop a highly competitve contest at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas 4-3, howecer the resilient effort showed a lot of competitive spirit that should bode well in the future against highly talented teams.

After last night, the Blues head back home for their home opener against Central rivals Minnesota on October 15th with a 7:30 pm start time. That contest is also the start of a four-game homestand for the Blues, as following the Minnesota match come games against the Islanders on October 17th, the Hurricanes on October 19th, and the Winnipeg Jets on October 22nd.