Struggling Jets, Oilers and Predators next up for the Blues

First up is the Monday night game against the Winnipeg Jets, who have lost three of their last four games. They scored just three goals in those defeats.

On Wednesday night the Blues return home for their rematch against the Edmonton Oilers, the team they blanked 2-0 Saturday night. The Men of Oil are 2-3-0 on their six-game homestand which closes with Monday’s tough assignment against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Then the Blues head to Nashville to face the 2-4-1 Predators, who will carry a five-game winless streak into Thursday’s game.

These three games offer an early opportunity for the Blues to build an early edge in the playoff race.

Winnipeg will once again play without top-line winger Nikolai Ehlers, who remains on injured reserve. Mason Appleton has been filling in for him on the line with Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor.

“We’re early in the season. I think we know the type of talent we have in our locker room and the offense we possess here,” Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey said after his team fell to the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-1 Saturday, “And I think there’s no need for that. this early on. We’ve had some nights where we’re playing — and first of all, we’re playing against good teams in our league right now that aren’t giving up much.

“When you’re looking at the way they defended, they defended hard. Their neutral zone especially. We’re still getting used to our system and as we get comfortable, that offense is going to come, and, as I said, we’re not worried about that at all.”

The Oilers faced that sort of defense against the Blues, so they will be looking for ways to unclog the middle of the ice to get their transition game going at Enterprise Center. They got bogged down on their home ice loss against the Note.

“It was just one of those games where you maybe hope for a bounce, but we didn’t even get ourselves into the position to get a bounce,” Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl said. “It was a tough loss.”

The Predators played a more robust game while losing 3-1 to the Philadelphia Flyers Saturday. Now Nashville coach John Hynes hopes to use three practice days to get his team up to speed before facing the Blues.

“Our focus is on continuing to get better,” Hynes said. “And I think that you have to take the situations for what they are. So we haven’t won one here in five games, and I think there’s different reasons for that. And we have an opportunity now, probably at a good time, where it’s an opportunity to reset and get away from it for a day and come back and have some good practices and refocus. And that’s what our focus has to be, is what we can control, and what we can control is what’s going on moving forward.”

Elsewhere on this side of the league, the 0-4-2 Vancouver Canucks already have their fans and their front office up in arms.

The Canucks changed management teams on the fly last season, bringing in Jim Rutherford as president of hockey operations and Patrik Allvin as general manager.

That duo was eager to start retooling the Canucks to their liking, but there was one problem: Inherited coach Bruce Boudreau led Vancouver to an impressive 32-15-10 record after replacing Travis Green.

So the Rutherford regime largely stood pat with the team heading into this season. But now, after the team’s terrible start, change could be afoot.

The Canucks expected to be in the playoff chase this season and they are quickly falling off the pace. The pressure is mounting ahead of Monday’s game against the powerful Carolina Hurricanes.

“When you have injuries, you’ve got to have the next man up and have to be ready to go. I believe if our team has a really strong structure, you can play through those things,” Rutherford said during a broadcast appearance. “When you start talking about injuries, you’re admitting you’re a losing team. I don’t like it. I don’t like using that as an excuse. We all have to be better. We have to use the players we’ve got and we have to play within a stronger structure to make that game easier.”

That was a shot across the bow at Boudreau, who came into this season without a contract for 2023-24. And Boudreau admitted to being at wits’ end with his team after it took a 5-1 powder against the Buffalo Sabers in their home opener.

“I don’t get how a team that hasn’t won a game — and you have a really good second period — aren’t excited about coming out in the third and doing the same thing you did in the second,” Boudreau said. told reporters. “It just looked like there was very little effort. I’m seeing it, you’re seeing it.

“The whole thing that concerned me was the effort level, and that’s what I was talking about. I mean, it wasn’t good enough.”

Disgruntled fans threw Canucks sweaters on the ice after that one, which is the ultimate insult to hockey players.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever been involved with that,” Boudreau said. “And obviously, I hope the players feel the same way I feel about it: it’s just totally embarrassing. It’s something you never want to see. I’ve seen it happen in other arenas and everything, but I never thought it would happen here or on a team that I’m coaching. But if I were the fans, I would have been frustrated, too, because they’re watching what we’re watching.”

Like the Canucks, the Anaheim Ducks played five of their first six games on the road. Like the Canucks, they paid a steep price for that scheduling while going 0-4-1 away from home.

“There are a lot of similarities to these games,” Ducks forward Adam Henrique said. “We’re taking four or five penalties a night and giving up 40 shots. There have been some better stretches, but that’s not enough in this league.”

The Minnesota Wild staggered to a 1-3-1 start. Rookie Marco Rossi has not added the hoped-for offense thus far and power forward Jordan Greenway played less than three minutes this season before suffering yet another upper-body injury.

Wild coach Dean Evason saw signs of progress in his team’s 4-3 overtime loss at Boston. “We competed, we battled back,” he said. “Very resilient again, and we just didn’t get the result, obviously.”

Many teams are looking for a defenseman, so the Hurricanes should have no problem finding a taker for once-promising puck mover Ethan Bear should they decide to turn the page on him. Bear is eating up $2.2 million in salary cap space that could be better utilized for Rod Brind’Amour’s team.

The Los Angeles Kings got back to full strength on defense, which has created some crowding. Other teams are checking in on potential trade targets such as Sean Walker, who has finally recovered from the gruesome knee injury he suffered last year playing against the Blues.

Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun is still a few weeks away from returning from surgical repairs, but that hasn’t stopped trade speculation from percolating. His $4.6 salary cap hit is team-friendly and contenders will keep calling Arizona GM Bill Armstrong until Chychrun finally comes off the market.