Hofer pitches 25-save shutout, picks up assist; Snuggerud, Suter each net goal, assist; McTavish scores first goal as a Blue, McMichael gets first St. Louis point; penalty kill 4-for-4 against potent Dallas man advantage; Jiricek good in NHL debut, had potential goal waved off; Toropchenko injured
Going in, the St. Louis Blues knew what they were up against with a season-opening back-to-back against two of the Central Division heavyweights, the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche.
Blues coach Jim Montgomery called this an "opportunity." An opportunity to make a mark against two Stanley Cup favorites out of the Western Conference.
"Opportunity to go into Dallas, show them what we have, how hard we’re going to play against and then fly to Colorado and show the Avalanche," Montgomery said earlier in the week. "It’s an opportunity to make your mark right away.”
Put a check mark next to Friday's season-opener with an emphatic 4-0 win over the Stars at American Airlines Center in Dallas, their first win in this building since Dec. 14, 2021; they had lost seven in a row in Dallas (0-4-3).
The Blues are now 9-0-2 in their past 11 road openers, which ties an NHL record for longest such streak to open a season since the Montreal Canadiens (1963-64 to 1973-74) went 6-0-5.
Many were likely expecting the Blues (1-0-0) go come out of Dallas and Colorado potentially losing two games, but now going in against the Avalanche on Saturday, where Jordan Binnington is expected to get the nod in goal, they have the chance to take four of a possible four points to begin this trip, which concludes Tuesday against the Chicago Blackhawks.
As for the game itself, here are the talking points:
* Joel Hofer -- The Blues tendy got the opening night assignment for the first time in his NHL career and picked up where he left off when he went 12-2-2 down the stretch last season.
Hofer didn't have to make any of those acrobatic, stand-on-his head saves, and that's a testament to the way the Blues defended, but he was composed and didn't give up any juicy rebounds to pick up his ninth NHL shutout.
Oh, and Hofer, who will get his chance at a goalie goal some day, picked up an assist on Pius Suter's empty-net goal at 17:52 of the third period:
Hofer is the second Blues goalie to pick up a shutout on opening night and first since Jaroslav Halak on Jan. 19, 2013:
* Adam Jiricek -- It was an impressive debut for the first-round pick (No. 16) in the 2024 NHL Draft.
He finished the game playing 16:35 and was a plus-1 and had his first NHL goal taken away in the third period when the Stars successfully challenged an offside play, to which Pavel Buchnevich was the guilty culprit.
But this kid looked like he belongs in the league. I know it's only one game, but I've got to say, I can't see this kid going back to the American Hockey League.
Jiricek looked so calm, so composed. I mentioned during the game one of his first puck touches, he gets the puck and moves into the right circle after a cross-ice feed and with my hesitation, whips a shot towards the net. Most young, first-year, first-NHL game players likely defer in that situation. That's confidence with the puck.
And playing alongside Philip Broberg, when in the defensive zone, his positioning and ability to make plays and move pucks out of danger was very encouraging.
There was so much to like from the 20-year-old in his first NHL game; you have to imagine things will continue to get better. It'll be interesting to see how he reacts playing against Nathan MacKinnon and company Saturday, but it's evident Blues fans are very encouraged. I know I was.
* Mason McTavish -- The Blues acquired the 23-year-old and sacrificed two first-round picks for a reason, and McTavish made good on his proclamation of liking to play in and around the net.
His first goal as a Blue, just 1:34 into the game, stands as the game-winner and it came by being around the net:
It was a really smart rush play by Colton Parayko, who got the puck to the net, followed his shot and was able to slide the puck to McTavish for the finish.
McTavish played 14:36 and had six shot attempts (three on goal) with two hits but was only 5-for-15 (33 percent) on face-offs, so you want some better numbers there, but getting that early goal was a good way to start his Blues career.
* Penalty kill perfect -- Dallas was one of the top power plays in the NHL last season but the Blues, who have made it a point to make marked improvements on their special teams (power play wasn't good at 0-for-4), but their PK limited Dallas to four shots on goal in 8:40 of power play time and did a very good job of taking away the middle of the ice.
Wyatt Johnston scored 27 power-play goals last season for Dallas and the Stars like to implement that play where they use his quick-shot ability in the bumper, but the Blues made a point to take that away.
* Alexey Toropchenko -- This was probably the biggest downer of the night, with the Blues' fourth-line checker leaving in the first period with what appeared to be a right shoulder injury.
Toropchenko was going behind his net to make a play and took a bit of a shove from Lian Bichsel and was sandwiched with Tyler Seguin, immediately went down on the ice and needed help off.
It's obvious that Toropchenko, who did not return to the game, will miss some time. How much will be determined in the next day or so, so it will give one of Dillon Dube or Zach Dean to get into the lineup against the Avalanche.
And here's what you notice why the Blues signed Ross Johnston, who went to Bichsel looking to have him answer the bell for shaving Toropchenko in the first place.
* Brandon Carlo -- It was also a debut for another new Blues player, and things were going well for Carlo, who finished with 15:27 of ice time, but he was assessed a five-minute major for kneeing Roope Hintz and a game-misconduct just 2:49 into the third period.
As you can see after the puck is flipped towards the left side boards, Carlo was focused on a shoulder check on Hintz, who made a nice move to the inside to slip by Carlo, but the Blues defenseman's right knee caught Hintz's left knee:
My two cents: there was no intent to injure. Hintz just made a quick pivot to the inside and unfortunately, their knees collided. Hintz wasn't seriously injured after initially being down on the play, so I can't imagine the league will further punish Carlo for what just turned into an unfortunate play.
I can understand why the call on the ice was upheld, but there was a part of me that wondered if they were going to reduce the infraction to a minor, especially since Hintz was back so quickly.
Otherwise, I thought Carlo and Cam Fowler played a solid defensive game.
* Solid, aggressive first period, passive in second bailed out by Dvorsky goal -- The Blues came out with an attack mindset in the first period and carried much of the play and could have conceivably led by more than just the one-goal edge.
They were quicker to pucks, forced the Stars into some puck mistakes with turnovers and were attacking the net aggressively.
The second period, Dallas adjusted and were the better side, but when Dalibor Dvorsky scored this timely goal at 13:05 of the period that made it 2-0, it seemed to suck some life out of Dallas' momentum:
What you like about the goal, though, was Jiricek starting it by rimming the puck in, Suter on his horse to poke the exchange away from Jake Oettinger and Nils Lundkvist. In the process, Oettinger and Hintz got their skates caught together, Oettinger went down, and Broberg made an unselfish play to feed Dvorsky, who had a yawning cage to finish.
And when Jimmy Snuggerud made it 3-0 just 15 seconds before Suter's goal, it put a stamp on what was a solid road win:
Now it's on to Colorado.
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