Kings at Blues game preview: Perfect start

By a weird quirk of the schedule, the Blues’ Saturday night home opponent is also their Monday night home opponent. If that reminds you of last year’s Covid-19 baseball series style scheduling, it’s ok, but it’s not happening this year to limit travel or anything like that. It’s just how the scheduling fell.

The Kings more than likely would’ve preferred it not fall that way. Saturday night was a 7-3 romping win that saw David Perron put up his sixth career hat trick and Jake Neighbours add his first NHL goal and second point. Lost in the excitement of Perron’s hat trick was Torey Krug’s three assist evening, one for each of Perron’s goals. That’s a duo that fans may want to keep an eye on, especially as Krug looks to bounce back from a bumpy first season in St. Louis.

Overall, the defense could be tighter - they allowed three goals and 35 shots on net Saturday evening. Jordan Binnington’s been solid this season but allowing that many SOG per game is still playing with fire. He’s got wins in 13 regular season games in a row, which is an incredible stat, and a win tonight will give the Blues their first franchise 5-0 start in history. They’ve scored 22 goals in their first four games led by some explosive offense - the top three lines are all dangerous. Even with Brandon Saad still probably out tonight thanks to Covid-19 protocols, the Blues shouldn’t see any drop-off in pressure. The difficult choice for coach Craig Berube will be who to take out of the lineup for the return of Pavel Buchnevich. Odds are good that Kyle Clifford, who had an assist against his old team on Saturday, will be the odd man out.

Right now, the Blues are leading the league in offense (5.5 goals per game) and are just one of two undefeated Western Conference teams (the other being the Edmonton Oilers). Every win streak has to end sometime, but tonight is a good chance to go a perfect five for five and bank two more points before the Colorado Avalanche come to town on Thursday night.