Blues Game Day Preview: Matinee Showdown with Islanders – The Hockey Writers – St Louis Blues
There’s still one weekend left until Thanksgiving. Everyone thinks about what they are grateful for. The St. Louis Blues are hoping to have a few wins to be thankful for before sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner. Their road trip continues with a game against the New York Islanders on Saturday afternoon.
Blues vs Islanders Preview
The Blues and Islanders meet for the first time this season. Last season, the two teams split the season series, with each team winning at home. In fact, teams have split the season series every season since the Islanders swept the series in 2018-19. Additionally, the Islanders lead the all-time series 59-43-20-3.
time: 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time
television: FanDuel Sports Midwest (Blues), MSG Sportsnet (Islanders)
Blues recent games
The Blues have a record of 6 wins, 9 losses and 6 losses this season, with 18 points. The team has lost four straight, with three of the last four games lost in overtime or penalty kicks. Their first two games of this road trip featured reduced overtime. Their ugly trend resumed Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers. Justin Faulk scored twice to give the Blues a 2-0 lead. However, the Blues were unable to hold on to their lead, and the Flyers won 3-2 in overtime.
If there was a bright side to this game, it was that Jake Nepos returned from injury and provided an assist. In addition, Joel Hofer has a strong goal scoring ability, and Pavel Buchnevich also played a stable game, hoping to get out of the slump.
Projected lineup (subject to change)
- Jack Neighbor – Robert Thomas – Jimmy Snagrude
- Brayden Schenn – Dalibor Dworski – Pavel Buchnevich
- Dylan Holloway – Pius Suter – Jordan Kyrou
- Alexey Tolopchenko – Oscar Sundqvist – Nathan Walker
- Philip Bromberg – Colton Pareko
- Cam Fowler – Justin Faulk
- Tyler Tucker – Matthew Kessel
- Jordan Binnington
team leader
Thomas scored 13 points for the Blues. Three teams are tied with the team leading in goals. Faulk, Kyrou and Neighbors all have six goals this season. Thomas leads the team with 10 assists. Tucker leads the way with 32 assists in penalty minutes. Finally, the player with the highest plus-minus among skaters at plus-1 is Hunter Skinner, who was recently sacked.
In terms of goals, Binnington continues to lead the major goalkeeping statistics. He has four wins, a goals against average (GAA) of 3.30 and a save percentage (SV%) of 0.872.
Islanders recent games
The Islanders have a record of 12 wins, 7 draws and 2 losses this season, scoring 26 points. They entered Saturday’s game on a two-game winning streak. They defeated the Detroit Red Wings 5-0 on the road in their last game. Ilya Sorokin notched his second shutout of the season, stopping all 29 of Detroit’s shots. Winger Maksim Shabanov led the Islanders offense with two goals and an assist.
Interestingly, the Islanders did all of this without rookie Matthew Schaefer on the scorecards. However, he posted a +3 in this game.
Projected lineup (subject to change)
- Emile Heinemann – Bo Horvat – Kyle Palmieri
- Jonathan Drouin – Matthew Barzal – Simon Holmstrom
- Anders Lee – Jean-Gabriel Pageau – Antoine Duclair
- Casey Cizikas – Callum Ritchie – Maxim Shabanov
- Matthew Shaffer as Ryan Plock
- Adam Peleher – Tony DeAngelo
- Adam Boqvist – Scott Mayfield
- Ilya Sorokin
team leader
Horvat led the Islanders with 25 points. Horvat leads the team with 14 goals and 11 assists. Mayfield led the way with 47 points in penalty time. Horvat leads another category with a +14 rating.
Between pipes, Sorokin leads the Isles with seven wins, 2.71 GAA and .905 SV%.
bruce storyline
There are a lot of things we can discuss about the Blues. Many factors contributed to their difficult season. However, recent trends aren’t making things any easier.
The Blues have gone three games without a striker scoring. Their last goal from a forward came in the third period of last Friday’s game from Thomas. Since then, the Blues have scored five goals. The defense scored three goals, one on a power-play shot from Dvorski and another in the Toronto Maple Leafs’ own net (credited to Walker).
It’s great to see a defense generate offense. However, that wasn’t the only way the Blues scored. The Blues need their forwards to step up in evenly matched games. This isn’t the only trend hurting the Blues, and it might not even be the most important, but it’s something the Blues need to turn around to get back on track.
islanders storyline
The biggest story for the Islanders this season is Schafer. The 18-year-old No. 1 overall pick has taken the league by storm. He has 15 points in 21 games, including seven goals. Schaefer has the second-most goals among defensemen in the NHL season so far. Additionally, he has the most goals among rookies.
RELATED: Matthew Schaefer – 2025 NHL Draft Prospect Profile
However, the Ontario native has not been on the scorecards in any of his last three starts. Regardless, the Islanders have been playing well, but they want their rookie star to continue to shine.
