Defending Cup champs Blues open season against Caps
The St. Louis Blues will open their season by hosting the Washington Capitals tonight and raising their first Stanley Cup banner.
They are determined not to let the first championship in franchise history be a one-off event.
“I want to be known as a winner,” Blues center Ryan O’Reilly told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I want to win that Cup again, and I don’t think once is good enough. I’ve obviously been through so many seasons that didn’t go well. And then you get a taste of what it’s like and how fun it is.”
The Blues return the bulk of their championship team, losing only winger Pat Maroon to the Tampa Bay Lightning via free agency and swapping defenseman Joel Edmundson to the Carolina Hurricanes for defenseman Justin Faulk.
They got through their preseason without incurring any injuries. Top forward prospect Jordan Kyrou is still recovering from offseason knee surgery and will head to San Antonio of the AHL when he is cleared to play.
Forwards Sammy Blais, Robby Fabbri and Zach Sanford are competing for two open spots in the Blues’ lineup — one on a line with O’Reilly and David Perron and one with the Tyler Bozak/Robert Thomas tandem.
The fourth line of Oskar Sundqvist centering Ivan Barbashev and Alexander Steen returns to set the team’s tempo.
Last year at this time the Capitals raised their own banner after winning the Cup. Now they want to get back into the championship hunt after losing their firstround playoff series to the Carolina Hurricanes in the spring.
The Capitals are dealing with the three-game NHL suspension to scoring-line center Evgeny Kuznetsov for recreational substance abuse.
Defenseman Michal Kempny remains sidelined with a lingering hamstring issue. Defenseman Christian Djoos became salary cap casualty and landed on waivers.
Newcomer Radko Gudas could land next to Dmitry Orlov in the shutdown defensive pairing after arriving from the Philadelphia Flyers in a trade for defenseman Matt Niskanen.
But the core group that won Washington’s first Cup remains intact.
WILD D PATERYN SIDELINED SIX WEEKS >> Minnesota Wild defenseman Greg Pateryn will be sidelined for six weeks after having bilateral core muscle surgery on Tuesday, the team announced. Pateryn missed most of training camp due to the injury.
Pateryn, 29, is in his second season with Minnesota. He had one goal and six assists in 80 games last season.
JETS’ LITTLE IN CONCUSSION PROTOCOL >> Winnipeg Jets center Bryan Little is in the concussion protocol and questionable for Thursday’s season opener at the New York Rangers. The team did not release a timetable for the 31-yearold veteran’s recovery. He tallied 15 goals and 26 assists in 2018-19 and enters his 13th NHL season with 516 points (215 goals, 301 assists) in 836 career games.