Revisiting the recent Blues and Jets playoff showdown – Hockey writer – St. Louis Bruce
The Winnipeg Jets led 2-0 in the first round showdown with St. Louis Blues. The last time they played against each other, the Blues defeated the Jets 4-2 and went on to win the Stanley Cup. That said, this is the difference and similarity between the series and the 2019 series.
Bruce's 2019 lineup has more to work with
The Blues have a brand new roster in the 2025 playoffs and are facing a new Jets. The only players left by the 2019 champion team are Robert Thomas, Jordan Binnington, Brayden Schenn, Oskar Sundqvist and Colton Parayko. Since then, they have lost key works such as Vladimir Tarasenko, Alex Pietrangelo, Vince Dunn, Ryan O'Reilly and Jaden Schwartz.
O'Reilly and Pietrangelo are particularly important against the Jets in 2019. In the series, O'Reilly scored four points in six games and Pietrangelo scored six points. On the defensive side, Pietrangelo, Parayko, Robert Bortuzzo and Joel Edmundson made incredible shutdown defenses and made a total of 40 blocks, which is half the Blues’ 84 blocks in the series.
Related: 4 gains from Jets 2-1 defeating Blues
In 2019, the Jets had Connor Hellebuyck, Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele, Adam Lowry, Adam Lowry, Josh Morrissey and Nikolaj Ehlers, who are still on the roster, but they also had Bryan Little, Blyan Little, Blake Wheeler, Blake Wheeler, Jacob Trouba, Jacob Trouba, Patrik Laine and Dustien byfuglien byfuglien byfuglien, who are a complementary person, he is a complementary person. Wheeler's career high in the 2018-19 season, with Ryan hitting 30 goals, when Scheifele's career high scored 84 points, so most of their forwards are sure to lead the series.
Since then, the team has added Neal Pionk, Gabe Vilardi, Cole Perfetti and Vladislav Namestnikov, who have given more blues in this playoff series, mainly because they lost a lot of shooting support and the character stayed in Parayko's hands.
Bruce has a new head coach
Bruce now has Jim Montgomery, who is completely different from Craig Berube, who was behind the bench in 2019. Berube's system is more firm, meaning his power forward or two-way forward is his first choice, such as O'Reilly, Schenn and Jaden Schwartz, who made up three-thirds of the entire series.
Montgomery's system is more focused on offense, and he pushes his offensive talented stars like Kyrou, Thomas, Buchnevich and Jimmy Snuggerud. These players are more offensive, but Thomas should be the main focus as he can play at any time and create opportunities in special teams. He led Berube in the 2019 Jets vs. Bruce first-round series and finished the game with one point, probably because he didn't thrive in the offense as Berube's body and defensive system is more physical and defensive.
The Jets have Scott Arniel as head coach. He was also hired in the first two months of the 2024-25 season and turned his roster into an offensive machine. Paul Maurice fell behind Winnipeg’s bench in 2019. Maurice makes the Jets a more physical team in a more team-like way, rather than relying on some players to perform special teams. Under Maurice, there was a high shot volume, but Berube's Blues surpassed them and shut them off with the shooter.
The goalkeeper remains unchanged on both sides
The goalkeepers on both teams are the same as in 2019. Binnington remains the starter for the Blues in the playoff series. In both games, he proposed a .827 percentage savings (SV%) and a 3.10 target average (GAA), which is very different from Hellebuyck's .897 SV% and 2.00 GAA. In 2019, two goalkeepers completed the series with a SV% of 0.900 and a GAA of 2.00.
Binnington finished with a nine-game winning streak in the 2018-19 season, which put him in the NHL’s top 10 wins of all time. He also played in his first NHL playoffs. On the other hand, Hellebuyck has been ranked 11th since his 44-win season in 2017-18, playing in his second professional playoff game. Regardless of how much experience Hellebuyck has at Binnington, that's not enough to delay the Blues, who became the top goalkeeper in the 2019 playoffs.
Today, Hellebuyck has an advantage. He has achieved another record 47 wins in 2024-25, ranking third in NHL history.
No signs of series duplication
Although some players are still playing against the Jets, the results have changed. The Blues now have two games in the series, rather than two leads as they did in 2019. Jets had the advantage of Home-Ice in the series, but Winnipeg played both games when the series moved to St. Louis. As the Blues prepare to play Game 3 at home, they will try to flip the script and tie the 2-2 tie series.
