Hello again St. Louis!

The Jets and Blues meet up one more time – this time in Winnipeg – 24 hours removed from a strong goaltending battle won by the Blues.

This back to back / home and home set is the first of it’s kind for the Winnipeg Jets franchise since their move to Winnipeg from Atlanta which is kind of remarkable when you consider how close Winnipeg and Minnesota are.

We could see a lot more chippy play from both clubs as they will no doubt be sick of each other by the end of tonight.

Last night the Jets played the best game we’ve seen them play in quite some time – at the very least in the last five games anyway – only to be shut down by Carter Hutton who put up a brick wall in the Blues net making 48 saves for the 2-0 shutout win. The thought of the Jets playing as well as they did at least took some of the sting out of the fact that the loss was the Jets fifth (albeit one of them being an OT loss) in their last six games.

Winnipeg is still in ok shape standings wise despite the slump, they remain third in the Central, three points up on the Dallas Stars with a game in hand, but it would behoove the Jets to get back to some winning ways and last night was a step in the right direction. They are 4-4-2 in their last ten, but treading water isn’t going to get it done in this division.

As for the Blues, the offense didn’t bust out like they had hoped, but their power play which had been struggling at least arrived in the form of two goals on five power play chances. The Blues seemed to have had a “back to basics” approach to the man advantage that worked out for them on Saturday night as they were more active in taking shots than they had been in previous games.

This is the start of a four game road trip for the Blues that will take them through Western Canada. As for the Jets, after tonight they go back on the road for three more with stops in Nashville, Boston and Brooklyn.

There is no possible way the Blues goaltending can come up with that kind of performance for a second straight night… Is there? It’s doubtful there is a second straight 48 shot performance coming from the Jets either, but if they put out the kind of effort tonight like they did last night, those more often than not will be wins. Jets win 4-2.