ST. LOUIS BLUES NOTES:
CURRENT INJURIES
Scott Perunovich – Shoulder (Re-evaluated in 6 months, announced on Oct. 4)
Marco Scandella – Right Hip (Re-evaluated in 6 months, announced on Sep. 20)
Ryan O’Reilly – Broken Foot (Re-evaluated in 6 weeks, announced on Jan. 2)
Pavel Buchnevich – Lower-Body (announced on Jan. 24)
2022-23 Total Man Games Lost: 213
Recent Transactions
January
27 – Recalled forward Nikita Alexandrov from the Springfield Thunderbirds
27 – Assigned defenseman Tyler Tucker to the Springfield Thunderbirds (AHL)
26 – Activated defenseman Robert Bortuzzo from IR
24 – Placed forward Pavel Buchnevich on IR
24 – Activated defenseman Torey Krug from IR
24 – Activated forward Vladimir Tarasenko from IR
BLUES VS. AVALANCHE
- The Blues and Avalanche will meet for the 3rd of 4 matchups this season (Final matchup: Feb. 18 in St. Louis)
- The Blues have gone 1-0-1 against Colorado this season (3-2 win on Nov. 14 in Colorado, 2-3 overtime loss on Dec. 11 in St. Louis)
- The Blues are 4-2-1 in their last 7 regular season games against Colorado
- The Blues are 2-1-0 in their last 3 regular season games in Colorado
- Including the 2022 postseason, the Blues have won 3 straight games in Colorado and are 4-1-1 in their last 6 games in Colorado
- The Blues have scored a power play goal in 3 straight regular season games in Colorado, going 3 for 8 (37.5%) on the power play over those 3 games
- With his next win, Jordan Binnington will pass Grant Fuhr for 4th on the Blues all-time franchise list with 109 wins
- Binnington’s next appearance will be the 200th game played of his career
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
1/30 – at Winnipeg
2/11 – vs. Arizona
2/14 – vs. Florida
2/16 – vs. New Jersey
2/18 – vs. Colorado
A LOOK AHEAD
- The Blues will continue their 3-game road trip on Saturday in Colorado before hitting the All-Star break
- After their 3-game road trip, the Blues will play 9 games in February, 7 of which will come at Enterprise Center
- The Blues’ next 3 games will come against Central Division opponents
EXTRA NUGGETS
- The Blues are 20-7-0 this season when scoring first, which shares the 6th most wins in the NHL (1. Boston, 24-0-2)
- The Blues are 1 of 4 teams to record 3 multi-goal third period comeback wins this season (Kings/Islanders/Ducks)
- The Blues have 8 players who have scored at least 10 goals this season, which shares the most in the NHL with Boston
COLORADO AVALANCHE NOTES:
UPCOMING GAMES
Date Opponent Time (MT) TV Radio
Sat, Jan. 28 ST. LOUIS 1 p.m. Hulu / ESPN+ 950 AM
– BYE WEEK / ALL-STAR BREAK –
Tue, Feb. 7 at Pittsburgh 5 p.m. Altitude 92.5 FM
Thu, Feb. 9 at Tampa Bay 5 p.m. ESPN 92.5 FM
Sat, Feb. 11 at Florida 4 p.m. Altitude 92.5 FM
TODAY’S GAME
COLORADO vs. ST. LOUIS
1:08 p.m.
Hulu, ESPN+ / 950 AM
The Colorado Avalanche wraps up a three-game homestand with an afternoon matchup against the St. Louis Blues at Ball Arena … Today’s game is the Avalanche’s final contest before the Bye Week/All-Star Break, as the Avs will not play again until Feb. 7 when they open a three-game road trip … The Avs will go nine days without a game and have seven full days off before resuming practice on Feb. 5 … The club’s next home date will be on Valentine’s Day some 17 days from now
ON THE CALL
ESPN+: Sean McDonough (play-by-play), Ray Ferraro (between benches), Dave Jackson (rules analyst), Leah Hextall (reporter)
Altitude Radio: Conor McGahey
LAST GAME
Jan. 26 – Anaheim 5, Colorado 3 at Ball Arena
The Anaheim Ducks rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Avalanche, 5-3, at Ball Arena … Frank Vatrano had a hat trick for the Ducks, who snapped Colorado’s six-game winning streak and ended a seven-game losing streak to the Avalanche … Mikko Rantanen scored twice for Colorado and Samuel Girard had a goal and one assist.
SF: 44 SA: 32 PP: 1-2 PK: 2-2
Rantanen scored his team-leading 33rd and 34th goals of the season, tying him for third in the NHL … His first tally of the night was his league-leading 27th goal at even strength … He is now at 199 career goals, one shy of 200 Rantanen scored his eighth game-opening goal of 2022-23, tied with Mark Scheifele for the second most in the NHL this season behind only David Pastrnak (9) The two-goal effort was Rantanen’s 125th career multi-point game, tying Alex Tanguay for ninth in franchise history When Florida took the lead in the third period, it ended a stretch of over 400 minutes in which the Avalanche did not trail (415:06), the longest such streak in the NHL this season Girard’s goal was his fourth of the season, second-most among Avalanche defensemen (Cale Makar 13) … Girard is just one goal shy of tying his career high (5) set in 2020-21 and 2021-22 Makar picked up his 163rd career assist, passing Mario Marois (162) for sixth place among franchise defensemen
CURRENT INJURIES
Bowen Byram – lower body (37 games, Nov. 5 – present)
Darren Helm – lower body (7 games, Jan. 14 – present)
Gabriel Landeskog – lower body (all season, Oct. 12 – present)
Josh Manson – lower body (26 games, Dec. 3 – present)
Valeri Nichushkin – upper body (1 game, Jan. 26 – present)
Total: 275 (3rd in NHL)
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
Jan. 25 – Matt Nieto and Ryan Merkley acquired from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for Jacob MacDonald and Martin
Kaut … Merkley reports to the Colorado Eagles (AHL)
Jan. 24 – Anton Blidh reassigned to the Colorado Eagles (AHL)
TODAY’S OPPONENT – ST. LOUIS BLUES
This afternoon’s meeting is the third of four games between the Avalanche and Blues in 2022-23 and the second and final matchup here in Denver … They will conclude the season series on Feb. 18 in St. Louis … The Avs are 1-1-0 so far against the Blues … These Central Division rivals faced off three times last season, with Colorado winning two of those matchups … They went on to meet in the second round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs, a series the Avalanche won in six games … The Blues and Avalanche have faced off in each of the last two postseasons (both series won by Colorado)
SCHEDULE vs. BLUES
Nov. 14 vs. ST. LOUIS (L, 2-3)
Dec. 11 @ St. Louis (W, 3-2 OT)
Jan. 28 vs. ST. LOUIS
Feb. 18 @ St. Louis
RECORD vs. BLUES
THIS SEASON 2021-22
ALL-TIME SINCE 1995-96 PLAYOFFS
Overall: 1-1-0 Overall: 2-1-0 Overall: 71-68-18 Overall: 57-43-13 Series (record): 3 series (3-0)
Home: 0-1-0 Home: 1-1-0 Home: 44-26-10 Home: 34-17-7 Record Overall: 13-3-0
Road: 1-0-0 Road: 1-0-0 Road: 27-42-8 Road: 23-26-6
ONE MONTH AT A TIME
The Avalanche are 7-5-0 in January, which will be the 25th consecutive month that Colorado has posted a .500 or better record going back to February 2019 … And 23 of those 25 months featured a winning record, as only October 2021 (4-4-0) and October 2022 (4-4-1) did not.
BACK-TO-BACK
The Avalanche have played five of their 13 back-to-back games, going 3-2-0 in the first contest and 3-2-0 in the second … The Avs swept their most recent back-to-back in Vancouver/Seattle from Jan. 20-21 … The Avalanche posted a 15-5-2 (.727) combined record in back-to-back games last season, the second-best mark behind Minnesota (.732, 19-6-3) … The Avs finished 7-3-1 in the first game and 8-2-1 in the second (.773), with only Tampa (10-0-2, .917) posting a better record in the second half of a back-to-back.
