ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues opened their preseason schedule on Saturday with a split-squad 3-2 win over the Arizona Coyotes at Enterprise Center.
The two teams played a second game Saturday night at a neutral site in Wichita, Kan. at INTRUST Bank Arena, home of the Wichita Thunder of the ECHL.
Jordan Kyrou led the way with a goal and an assist. Pavel Buchnevich and Oskar Sundqvist each scored, and Jakub Vrana, Robert Thomas, Scott Perunovich and Colton Parayko each had an assist, while Joel Hofer and Vadim Zherenko backstopped the pucks in goal.
Hofer stopped all six pucks he faced playing the first period, and Zherenko played the final 40 minutes and stopped 20 of 22 shots.
It was a mixed bag of emotions for Blues coach Craig Berube, who saw a lot of good things from individuals and some inconsistent moments, but that comes with playing their first game in months.
Here are my takeaways from today's game:
* Bitten bites -- Forward Samuel Bitten showcased himself well early in the game when he dropped the gloves with Coyotes defenseman Montana Onyebuchi 2:30 into the game.
My feeling is that Bitten, who has played in the Czech League the past two seasons, was sticking up for Sundqvist after Sundqvist was roughed up a bit when he went hand to the net jabbing at a rebound in front of Arizona goalie Matt Villalta.
* Perunovich packs punch -- The focus for Perunovich, unfortunately, have been the rash of injuries to begin his NHL career.
But the 25-year-old defenseman played a rock-solid game on Saturday, finishing with 25:15 time on ice, second to only Parayko's 27:24.
"It went good, I felt pretty good," Perunovich said. "The team was moving. It's nice being out there with Parayko. He makes it a lot easier. He talks out on the ice and kind of helps me through it, especially early on. It was a good start for the team."
* Sundqvist picks up where he left off -- It's almost as if the versatile Sundqvist never left.
The forward that coach Craig Berube said on Friday " drives the bus" was on top of his game, finishing with 15:39 TOI and winning 50 percent of his face-offs (7 of 14).
His goal was a typical Sundqvist goal, driving the net and redirecting Vrana's feed from the outside of the right circle.
The Blues brought Sundqvist back on a one-year, $750,000 contract. Sundqvist spent four-plus seasons in St. Louis (2017-2022) before being traded to the Detroit Red Wings.
"He's in every play," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "He's just there and he's getting in the way, sticks and bodies, kind of all over the place. That's what he does.
"He's comfortable here. He knows what we think of him and he knows what he needs to provide us. There's no gray area with him. This is what he does and this is what we need from him, and we get that. It's predictable. I like that, predictability. We all want predictable players, but that's not the way it works. There's players, skilled players that are a little unpredictable at times, but Sunny's a very predictable player."
* Kalynuk impresses -- The Blues signed Wyatt Kalynuk to a one-year, two-way contract on July 1 to help fill the void in defensive depth, and the former Chicago Blackhawk, New York Ranger and Vancouver Canuck really showed well for himself on Saturday.
Kalynuk played 17:01 and despite being a minus-1 and being in the box when the Coyotes scored a power-play goal to cut the St. Louis lead to 3-2, he had a team-high five shots on goal and three hits to go with a takeaway.
Kalynuk didn't have a plethora of hits in the game, but I noticed each one. They seemed to have some zip on them and adequately separated players from the puck. Technique was good. I also like his willingness to not hesitate and funnel pucks towards the net, something that seemed to be an issue for Blues defenseman.
It was a well-played opener for the 26-year-old.
* 'Z' shines -- Blues goalie Vadim Zherenko followed up his impressive outing against the Minnesota Wild's prospects at the 2023 Tom Kurvers with another solid outing, playing the final two periods in relief of starter Joel Hofer.
Zherenko allowed just two third-period goals on 22 shots, and his best save came in the second period with the Blues leading 1-0 when he went from his right to left and kick out the right pad robbing Colin Theisen.
