As the saying goes, you can’t make the playoffs in October, but you can sure miss them. Or something like that.
The St. Louis Blues recovered from their first alarming night of the season, following up an ugly home loss to the Coyotes by beating the Penguins two nights later. Now they take a modest 2-1-1 record out on the road for their first Western (and plains) Canada trip of the season.
Tuesday, 7:45 CDT: The first stop is at least in the same time zone, as the Blues face the Winnipeg Jets for the first time in 2023-24. The Jets are coming off a 3-2 overtime win over the Oilers, one of few bright spots in their 2-3 start to the season.
Thursday and Friday, Calgary and Vancouver: For whatever reason, these trips so often feature a back-to-back in the Western provinces. This time around they work their way west with the Flames on Thursday night (8:00 p.m. CDT) and the Canucks on Friday (9:00 p.m. CDT). So figure Joel Hofer gets his second start of the season somewhere in there.
The Canucks have started 3-2, modestly beating expectations, while the Flames are 2-3-1, not quite setting off alarms yet but– oh, who are we kidding? It’s Canada, of course the sky is already falling. But on Sunday, the Flames beat the Red Wings badly (6-2), which is always chicken soup for any soul. The night before, the Canucks knocked off the Panters, 5-3.