Preview: Blues at Avalanche

BLUES AT AVALANCHE

The St. Louis Blues look to sweep their season-opening road trip to Denver when they meet the Colorado Avalanche on Friday at 8 p.m. CT.
St. Louis earned a convincing win in the season opener on Wednesday night, scoring four unanswered goals after falling behind 1-0 early in the game.
"Excited to play a hockey game," goalie Jordan Binnington said after Wednesday's win. "We came out strong as a team. Couple penalties, but we did a good job. The boys stepped up, and we found a way to get it done. We played right until the end."
"It was a good team night," forward Robert Thomas, who added two assists, said. "Everyone played well, everyone played the right way. Good that we got the win."
Mike Hoffman, who missed Opening Night while he waited for his work visa to be approved, will be in the lineup Friday
.

KEY TO THE GAME

The Blues succeeded in keeping Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon off the scoreboard on Wednesday, and keeping his line in check is always a big key to finding success against the Avalanche.
"It's everybody that's out there," Blues Head Coach Craig Berube said. "Their mindset when playing against the MacKinnon line is to understand puck management, checking, all the little things. (Ryan) O'Reilly's line did a great job along with (Torey) Krug and (Colton) Parayko, along with (Marco) Scandella and (Justin) Faulk, who were out there against MacKinnon, too. They all did a great job. They understand when you're playing against a great player like that, you have to make sure you're doing great things with the puck and you really have to check hard. You need all five guys on the ice to check, because he's just too good of a player."

THE SERIES SO FAR

Jan. 13: Blues 4, Avalanche 1
Without Hoffman on the second line, Oskar Sundqvist was promoted and delivered immediately, netting two goals in a 4-1 win on Opening Night. Jordan Kyrou and Kyle Clifford also scored in the victory. Jordan Binnington made 26 saves in his first win of the season.

BLUE NOTES

Clifford became the first Blue to score in his debut with the team since Brayden Schenn did it on Oct. 4, 2017… Torey Krug posted two hits and blocked three shots in his debut… Wednesday's win snapped a four-game winning streak in home openers for the Avalanche... Sammy Blais was assessed a two-game suspension for his hit against Colorado defenseman Devon Toews in Wednesday's opener.