ST. LOUIS BLUES NOTES:
Blues vs. Blue Jackets
• The Blues and Blue Jackets will meet for the 1st of 2 matchups this season (Jan. 30 in St. Louis) • The Blues went 2-0-0 against Columbus last season, winning both games 5-2 • The Blues are 5-1-1 in their last 7 games against Columbus • The Blues are 3-1-1 in their last 5 games in Columbus • The Blues have scored at least 4 goals in 9 of their last 11 games against Columbus, outscoring the Blue Jackets 44 to 37 over those 11 games (7-3-1 record) • The Blues have scored a power play goal in 4 of their last 6 games against Columbus, going 6 for 17 (35.3%) on the power play over those 6 games • The Blues are 5-0-0 against the Eastern Conference this season, 2-0-0 vs Metropolitan Division, and are the only Western Conference team to not lose in any fashion to an Eastern Conference team this season • The Blues are also just 1 of 2 teams in the West to not have a regulation loss against the Eastern Conference this season (Winnipeg, 7-0-2)
Extra Notes
• The Blues are 12-0-0 when scoring first this season, which shares the 3rd most wins in the NHL (1. Vancouver, 14), and the Blues are the only team in the NHL to not have a loss of any kind when scoring first this season • The Blues are 10-2-0 this season when they score at least 3 goals in a game • The Blues are also 11-1-1 this season when allowing 3 or less goals • The Blues have been shorthanded 69 times this season, which shares the least in the NHL with Ottawa • The Blues have scored 6 shorthanded goals this season, which shares the 2nd most in the NHL (1. Philadelphia, 7) • On Nov. 30 vs. Buffalo, the Blues scored 6 goals on just 20 shots, marking just the 5th time in franchise history the Blues have scored 6 or more goals in a game where they had 20 or less shots (5-0-0 in such games) • Both Brayden Schenn and Pavel Buchnevich each scored 3 goals on Nov. 11 at Colorado, becoming the third pair of Blues players to score a hat trick in the same game, following Doug Gilmour and Mark Hunter (Feb. 23, 1986) as well as Kevin LaVallee and Dave Barr (Oct. 20, 1984) • The Blues scored 2 shorthanded goals in the same penalty kill on Nov. 22 at Arizona in a span of 33 seconds (Leddy & Toropchenko), which was the 2nd fastest 2 shorthanded goals in franchise history (1. 26 seconds on Nov. 6, 2019 / Bozak & Barbashev, both empty net goals) • It was also just the 5th time in franchise history the Blues have scored 2 shorthanded goals on the same penalty kill
Blues PK Killing It On The Road
• The Blues are 30 for 34 (88.2%) on the penalty kill on the road this season, which is the 4th best mark in the NHL (1. Dallas, 42 for 46, 91.3%) • The Blues have allowed just 4 power play goals on the road this season, which shares the least in the NHL with Dallas and Los Angeles • The Blues have 5 shorthanded goals on the road this season, which shares 1st in the NHL • The Blues have been shorthanded just 34 times on the road this season, which is the 4th least in the NHL (1. Ottawa, 16) • Pavel Buchnevich is 1 of 5 players in the NHL with 2 or more shorthanded goals on the road this season (1. Konecny, 3 / 2. Johnston/Thompson/Holmstrom, 2) • The Blues had a 70.7% penalty kill on the road last season, which ranks 31st in the NHL, and had just 4 shorthanded road goals all season
COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS NOTES:
OhioHEALTH INJURY REPORT
Tarasov (knee): (28 games)
Roslovic (fractured ankle); Placed on IR (Nov. 13); 4-6 weeks (13 games)
Severson (oblique); Placed on IR Nov. 30 retroactive to Nov. 19; 6 weeks (9 games)
Sillinger (upper body); Placed on IR retroactive to Nov. 26; day-to-day (4 games)
Gudbranson (illness); day-to-day (2 games) Laine (illness); day-to-day (2 games)
Merzlikins (illness); Placed on IR retroactive to Dec. 5; expected to miss a week (1 game)
Boqvist (shoulder strain); Placed on IR retroactive to Dec. 5; 4 weeks (1 game)
TOTAL MAN GAMES LOST: 81
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
Dec. 6 Placed Boqvist (shoulder strain; retroactive to Dec. 5), Merzlikins (illness; retroactive to Dec. 5), Sillinger (upper body; retroactive to Nov. 26) on Injured Reserve, recalled Bemstrom, Blankenburg (emergency) and Greaves (emergency) from Cleveland (AHL) and converted Tarasov’s LTI conditioning assignment to a regular conditioning assignment
Dec. 6 Traded Robinson to Buffalo in exchange for conditional 2025 seventh round pick (orig. Nashville’s)
AGAINST THE BLUES
2023-24 Series: 0-0-0 (0-0-0 vs. STL)
2022-23 Series: 0-2-0 (0-1-0 vs. STL)
All-Time Series: 33-42-3-13 (22-16-2-5 vs. STL)
Last 10 (Overall | Home): 3-6-1 | 6-3-1
All-Time GF/GA: 242/285
All-Time SF/SA: 2,428/2,701
All-Time PP: 62-of-379
All-Time PK: 308-of-395
THE LAST GAME VS. STL: MAR. 11, 2023 – CBJ 2 vs. STL 5
CBJ Goal Scorers: PP – Laine (21), Jenner (20) STL Goal Scorers: Saad (17), Kyrou (27), Blais (4), Kyrou (28), EN – Kyrou (29)
Goalies: CBJ – Hutchinson (19/23; 57:57); STL – Greiss (37/39; 59:27)
CBJ PP: 1/3; PK: 2/2 | Shots: CBJ: 39 / STL: 24
Noteworthy: STL scored 3 of 4 goals in the 1st… CBJ scored a PPG and have now scored a PPG in each of the last 5 games (5-of-12; 41.7 pct.)… Laine notched stretched his goal streak to 4-straight games (4-1-5) and points streak to 5-straight games (4-2-6)… Jenner scored his 20th goal of the campaign, accomplishing the feat for 3rd time in his career (2nd-straight)… Gaudreau tallied his team-leading 11th multi-assist and 15th multi-point game of the campaign (0-2-2) to give him 1-7-8 in his last 10 games.
NOTED (Team Highlights vs. STL)
The teams split five of six season series prior to STL sweeping the series in 2022-23… CBJ have recorded points in 7 of the last 10 games in the series at NWA (6-3-1) dating back to 4/12/13… Winning team has scored 5+ goals in each of the last 4 meetings and 4+ goals in 7 of the past 8 games of the series… CBJ have scored a power play goal in 3-straight home games of the series (3-of-10; 30.0 pct.)… CBJ have also recorded a power play goal in 6 of the last 8 meetings overall since 10/25/18 (7-of-22; 31.8 pct.)… Teams have combined for just 5 shutouts in the all-time series with the most-recent one recorded on 4/5/08 (Legace; 25 saves in 3-0 W at St. Louis)… CBJ’s lone hat trick in the series was recorded by RJ Umberger in a 5-2 win at NWA on 11/30/09… Most goals scored vs. STL: 8 – 2x (MR: 11/12/16)… Most goals allowed vs. STL: 6 – 2x (MR: 4/3/11).
NOTED (Player Highlights vs. STL)
Gaudreau notched his 400th career NHL assist on 10/15/22 at STL… Gudbranson played his 600th career game on 1/24/22 vs. STL… Jenner registered 100th career point (assist) on 11/12/16 vs. STL… Laine notched his seventh career hat trick on 11/24/18 at STL… Roslovic tallied his 1st career NHL assist on 2/9/18 vs. STL.
SCORING NOTABLES vs. STL
• Bean – 0-2-2 in 3 career GP, including an assist in his lone career home game against St. Louis on 3/19/22
• Bemstrom – 1-2-3 in 4 career GP, including points in 2 of his 3 career home contests (1-2-3)
• Gaudreau – 6-19-25 in 23 career GP, registering points in each of his last 3 games overall (1-3-4) and 5 of his last 6 (2-8-10; 3 multipoint efforts) as well as points in each of his last 4 home appearances (2-7-9; 3 multi-point efforts)
• Jenner – 5-3-8 in 15 career GP, including goals in 2 of his last 3 outings Laine – 17-5-22 in 18 career GP with goals in each of his last 4 meetings against the club overall (4-1-5) as well as goals in his last 3 home games (3-1-4) and points in his last 4 home outings (3-3-6)
BLUE JACKETS NOTES
A LOOK AT DECEMBER
The Blue Jackets moved to 4-4-1 in the last nine games following a 7-3 loss at the NY Islanders on Thursday. The team concludes its fifth of 13 back-to-back sets this season on Friday vs. the St. Louis Blues. It’s one of two back-to-backs in the month of December (Dec. 29 vs. Toronto and Dec. 30 at Buffalo). Columbus is in a stretch of nine games in 15 days from Nov. 16-Dec.10. The team is also in a stretch of nine-of-13 games played at home from Nov. 27-Dec. 23. The four road games are all one-game trips (Dec. 3 at Boston, Dec. 7 at NY Islanders, Dec. 14 at Toronto and Dec. 19 at Buffalo). The game at Boston on Dec. 3 kicked off a stretch of playing a team from each division over a span of six days this week, also facing Los Angeles (Pacific) on Tuesday, at the NY Islanders (Metropolitan) on Thursday and vs. St. Louis (Central) on Friday.
JACKETS ON THE KILL
The Blue Jackets denied the Islanders on one of their two power play opportunities on Thursday, allowing a power play goal for just the fifth time in the last 21 games. The club has killed off 49-of-55 opponent power play chances since Oct. 28 (89.1 pct.). CBJ killed off all 22 opponent power play opportunities over nine contests from Oct. 28-Nov.14 with the nine games without allowing a power play goal tied for the second-longest stretch in franchise history (Feb. 21-Mar. 9, 2013) and trailing only the 11 games from Dec. 31, 2018-Jan. 29, 2019. The club ranks fifth in the NHL in penalty kill percentage this season at 86.3 pct. (69-of-80) and lead the league in penalty kill percentage since Oct. 20, killing off 61-of-69 opponent power play chances over the last 25 games (88.4 pct.).
BLOCK IT LIKE IT’S HOT
CBJ have been credited with 311 blocked shots over the past 17 games dating back to Nov. 6. The club ranks second in the NHL in blocked shots (521) and third-T in blocked shots-per-60 minutes (18.42). Defenseman Erik Gudbranson, who has missed the last two games due to illness, leads the team and ranks 10th-T in the league in blocked shots in 2023-24 with 64.
FROM THE BLUE LINE
CBJ blueliners have combined for 5-22-27 in the past 12 games. They have collected 10-54-64 in 28 games this season to rank fourth among NHL defensive units in assists and sixth-T in points, as well as lead the league in assists percentage (41.2 pct.) and points percentage (30.3 pct.) recorded by its defense. Defenseman Ivan Provorov ranks second on the team in assists and time on ice and third (tied) in points with 2-13-15 on 22:50 TOI in 28 contests. Blueliner Damon Severson, who suffered an oblique injury on Nov. 19, has collected 3-5-8 in 19 games, including his third career two-goal game (MR: Jan. 16, 2018 at NYI) on Nov. 16 vs. the Coyotes.
