COLUMN: Blues showing they have left last season behind

A year ago to the day, the St. Louis Blues will take the ice in Winnipeg to battle the Jets at 7:45 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 24.

Why is that significant?

Well on Oct. 24, 2022 the blues suffered a 4-0 loss at the hands of the Jets in Winnipeg which was the beginning of an eight game losing streak that exposed a multitude of problems for the Blues.

For the majority of the 2022-23 season it was the same story for St. Louis: Lose handily and then it snowballs into three and four losses at a time.

Last Thursday the Blues took a 6-2 beating from the Arizona Coyotes which surely left many fans thinking “Here we go again.”

It’s no secret that the 2023-24 roster is a different one and one aspect of that is with new captain Brayden Schenn.

Following Thursday’s loss to Arizona, Schenn was clear with what his group’s mindset is.

“We’re done talking about last season,” Schenn said. “We’ll come to the rink tomorrow and know that we have to clean up a lot of things.”

Sure, that sounds great but I’m sure a lot of people still had their doubts.

Schenn and the Blues put those doubts to rest for now with an impressive 4-2 win over Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Brandon Saad, a Pittsburgh native, started the scoring for the Blues in the first period beating Tristan Jarry to make it 1-0.

“You always have a little bit of extra jump," Saad said. "You have a lot of friends and family watching. It’s always exciting to play against your hometown team. It’s always nice to play against them, and then to get a win tops it off.”

It was clear after the loss to Arizona that the Blues knew exactly which areas of their game they wanted to clean up.

“The last game wasn’t our best game,” Saad said. “We wanted to come out with some pace and some chances tonight.”

Saad would add another goal in the third to give the Blues a 4-1 lead on their way to a 4-2 win.

Blues coach Craig Berube praised Schenn’s leadership abilities following the loss and the impact he has had despite not having a point this season.

“He’s been around a long time and he’s been a good player in this league for a long time,” Berube said. “We played a poor game at home here and the whole thing was to get a good response tonight and we got that.”

Schenn and the Blues kickoff a four-game road trip on Tuesday in Winnipeg before traveling to Calgary to play the Flames on Thursday and traveling to Vancouver to battle the Canucks on Friday. The road trip concludes when St. Louis pays a visit to Denver, Colorado for a tilt with the Avalanche.