BLUES An offseason of change leads the St. Louis Blues to Saturday's season opener in Denver, where they will meet the same team that eliminated them from the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season.
The Blues will have a significantly altered-roster - Jaden Schwartz, Vince Dunn, Mike Hoffman, Sammy Blais and Zach Sanford all played against Colorado last season in the playoffs but are no longer wearing the Blue Note. Newcomers Brandon Saad, Pavel Buchnevich, James Neal and 2020 first-round pick Jake Neighbours will give the Blues a new look for the new season.
St. Louis enters the 2021-22 season with a lot to prove as the team is now two years removed from their first Stanley Cup championship. But with the depth that GM Doug Armstrong acquired in the offseason - along with the experience of the veteran players who remain from that championship roster and Head Coach Craig Berube behind the bench - expectations remain high.
AVALANCHE The Colorado Avalanche will play in their second game of the season when they host St. Louis on Saturday.
Jack Johnson, Gabriel Landeskog, Bowen Byram and Nazem Kadri scored for the Avalanche in a 4-2 win in their season-opener against the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night.
The Avalanche have a tweaked roster, too - Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen still lead a talented group of forwards but the team will need to fill the absences of Saad, who signed with the Blues, and Joonas Donskoi, who was selected by the Seattle Kraken in the NHL Expansion Draft.
Colorado also has a new man between the pipes. Darcy Kuemper was acquired in July in a trade with the Arizona Coyotes to replace Philipp Grubauer, who signed a six-year contract with Seattle.
Regardless of the changes, like the Blues, the Avalanche figure to be a powerhouse contender in the Western Conference.
