Game #11 preview, Blue Jackets try to beat post-Halloween Blues

The Blue Jackets are back in action tonight, at home against the St Louis Blues for their 11th game of the season. They will look to take advantage of two restful days off, with the hope of building upon their current three game winning streak.

The Jackets strung off two straight wins on the road, against the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres; before an exciting 6-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs at home on Wednesday night.

The schedule played to their favor this year, allowing them two days off for Halloween; which looks like it was used for team building. Hopefully this helps galvanize this already tight-knit group even further.

Tonight, they will host a St Louis Blues team that should be in a very foul mood. They have lost six straight games, most recently dropping a 4-3 decision in a shootout against Vancouver on Thursday night.

The Opponent

No team in the NHL has allowed more goals against than St Louis to start this season. They've allowed 48 goals, while only scoring 32 themselves. They are tied with Calgary for a league-worst -16 differential through 11 games.

It is not hard to see what is holding this team back. Defensively, they are actually pretty stingy, allowing just 24.7 shots per game. This is tied for the second lowest in the entire NHL.

Their goaltending has just not been good enough. They have a league-worst team save percentage of .840%. Team Canada's 4 Nations starting goaltender (and Blues starter) Jordan Binnington has stopped just 86% of the shots he's faced so far this season.

I would expect Binnington to get the nod in goal tonight, since the team did not play last night.

Up front, this is a seldom mentioned, yet very talented team. Jordan Kyrou (4g, 4a, 8pts) leads them in scoring, while Jake Neighbours (6g) leads them in goals. He's tied with two others at 7 points, while they are still waiting for some of their more talented players to find their offensive game.

It's a similar story on the back-end. They have a good mix of reliable veterans that we know very well, and a sprinkling of physical youngsters playing defense.

Overall, I'm interested to see how the Blues looks tonight. Nothing will cure a team's struggles like an early November visit to Nationwide. It's just our luck. We have seen it plenty of times before.

The Good Guys

The Blue Jackets have strung together a pretty good stretch of hockey over the last couple of weeks. They are 5-1-0 since that ugly loss to the Colorado Avalanche back on October 16th.

Kirill Marchenko and Dmitri Voronkov lead the way in scoring, each with 5 goals and 10 points. Zach Werenski (3-5-8), Charlie Coyle (1-7-8), and Boone Jenner (2-4-6) round out the top-5.

Werenski's game has come quite a ways with the addition of Denton Mateychuk on the top pairing. Denton's game has really improved early this season, and his defensive zone reliability has opened up more offense from #8. Look for that pairing to factor in tonight.

I wouldn't expect any lineup changes for the Jackets from Wednesday, at least not to start. But, if the Blues limit their chances early, I would not be surprised to see some shuffling done within the forward lines.

In goal, Jet Greaves will get the start as the goaltending rotation continues:

Three Keys to Success

1. Rattle the cage early. Believe it or not, there is one goaltender who plays the game with more emotion than our beloved Elvis Merzlikins. Jordan Binnington is a guy that can be rattled, so if he is in goal, the Jackets should get in his face early and make his life miserable tonight.

2. Do not let them off the mat. This team has not won a game since October 18th, a full two weeks ago. Don't let them gain any confidence at Nationwide tonight.

3. Need a second. A second line, that is. The Jackets are led in scoring by two players from the first line. The third line combined for 11 points on Wednesday. The fourth line scored 3 of the team's 4 goals on Tuesday. They are going to need some contributions from that Fantilli line at some point.

Puck drop is at 7:00PM tonight in Columbus. You can catch the game via all of the usual methods (ESPN+, FDSN-OH, NHL Radio). We will be posting live reactions via X, give us a follow!