After the Winter Classic, the St. Louis Blues did not lose any speed or stamina in their extended time away from the ice. In the first game of 2025, they started the year with an absolute banger, shutting out the Ottawa Senators, 4-0.
Here are three takeaways.
Shutout Hockey
Goaltender Jordan Binnington continued his stellar play as of late, in a 60-minute shutdown of the Senators. He faced off against some tenacious offensive powerhouses, and he stopped all 20 shots he faced. This game was also the first game since he became the second goalie in Blues history to appear in 300 games at the Winter Classic.
Binnington was incredible in the net and made this shutout look like a walk in the park. He snuffed any legitimate danger with ease and tracked the puck flawlessly all night long.
Throw Your Hats
This one was special, because not only were we treated to a shutout, but also a hat-trick as well. Brandon Saad, who has been on a drought to score, netted the third hat-trick of his storied career. He did so, with a natural hat-trick, with three straight after captain Brayden Schenn opened the scoring.
Saad has not been scoring a whole this season, but when he semms to get one on the board, he is a lock for at least one more. On three occasions this season, when he scored a goal, it ended as a multi-goal game for #20.
Solid fourth-line play
Without Oskar Sundqvist, the fourth line consisted of Alexandre Texiere, ALexy Toropchenko, and Nathan Walker. This line was the second-best line of the game, outside of really Saad completely taking over the game with his hat-trick.
This fourth line saw 7:32 of ice time together, and they made the most impact on the game. With a 78.6% CorsiFor rating for the match-up, they helped keep the puck going the right way. They also accounted for 11 shot attempts while only allowing three attempts to go toward Binnington. They were efficient when the Blues needed them the most.