The New York Islanders are in St. Louis aiming for their fifth win in a row against a team reeling from five losses in a row. Trap game, you say?
The Blues won their first three games of the season before receiving varying levels of thumpings by Winnipeg, Nashville, Montreal and L.A. They faced a few key injuries up front — Brandon Saad (upper body) is still out, but Pavel Buchnevich (residual Stench of Ranger) returned a couple of games ago. On the backline, skilled but injury-prone Scott Perunovich is out long term again.
They’ve already gotten the “we’re not changing the coach” and “you better not make me make moves” speech from GM Doug Armstrong, whose track record is admittedly pretty good despite the occasional decision to, say, give four years and a modified NTC to Marco Scandella.