Puck Watching

The Blues went 139:38 without a goal, lost 2-0 to Montreal despite 46 shots, and then Jim Montgomery blew up his forward lines. Two games later they have beaten Boston 4-1 and rallied past Detroit 5-4, scoring nine goals on 33 shots. Luke and Nick break down whether the lines did it or the luck turned.Justin Barron is the story on the back end. He has 7 points in his last 5 games, including a goal and an assist in Detroit, and tied that game 4-4 in the third. But four of those points came in one night, and he has no power-play points yet. Is he a real offensive piece?Then Joel Hofer: 31 saves on 32 shots against a hot Bruins team, including 14 in the third period. We also talk about the one thing bothering us, his puck handling, which led to a goal against in both wins.Plus Jacob Fowler's 46-save shutout for Montreal, the panic from fans that helped push the line changes, and Kaskimaki's first NHL goal, which came 18 seconds after Barron tied it.Also in this episode:Roster moves and injuries, including ParaykoThe Nikishin saga ending in CarolinaThe week ahead: Rangers, Devils, PredatorsProud member of The Hockey Podcast Network 🎧 Follow Puck Watching so you don't miss a drop. ⭐ Rate us 5 stars on Apple or Spotify. 📲 Instagram @puckwatchingstl · X @PuckWatchingSTL · YouTube /@puckwatchingstl Proud member of The Hockey Podcast Network. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

YouTube descriptionThe Blues are 5-5-1. They beat Vegas 6-2, then got shut out 4-0 by Carolina. Luke and Nick break down which team is the real one.Plus: Justin Barron, claimed off waivers a month ago, just had the first 4-point night by a Blues defenseman since Philip Broberg in March 2025.On today's episode:🏒 Vegas and Winnipeg vs. Minnesota, Nashville and Carolina: two Blues teams, one roster🏒 Justin Barron’s 4-point night and where it ranks in Blues history🏒 Mason McTavish: 10 points in 11 games and 6 goals🏒 Holloway and Snuggerud are scoring. Where is Robert Thomas?🏒 Kaskimaki, Suter and Stenberg: the fourth line that won’t quit🏒 Roster moves: Peterson down, Quinton Burns up🏒 Power play, Toropchenko’s return, and the week ahead: Montreal, Boston, Detroit🏒 Hot takes and predictions 🎧 Follow Puck Watching so you don't miss a drop. ⭐ Rate us 5 stars on Apple or Spotify. 📲 Instagram @puckwatchingstl · X @PuckWatchingSTL · YouTube /@puckwatchingstl Proud member of The Hockey Podcast Network. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Mason McTavish has 7 points in six games and leads the Blues. The Ducks scratched him in the playoffs last spring. Now the line he centers, with Connor McMichael and Jonatan Berggren, is the best thing the Blues have going. Luke and Nick break down what’s real through six games.Then the problem. The power play is 2-for-14, tied for 25th in the NHL, while the penalty kill is 17-for-19 and tied for 7th. Montgomery told us special teams have to be top 10 combined. We do the math on how far off they are.Also in this episode:The top line wakes up: six points against Columbus after two in the first four gamesDylan Peterson’s NHL debut and the fight in OttawaA potential Pius Suter & Buchnevich switch??Whether the Blues can finally win October🎧 Follow Puck Watching so you don’t miss a drop.⭐ Rate us 5 stars on Apple or Spotify. It takes eleven seconds and it’s the biggest thing you can do for a small show.📲 Instagram @puckwatchingstl · X @PuckWatchingSTL · YouTube /@puckwatchingstlProud member of The Hockey Podcast Network. 🎧 Follow Puck Watching so you don't miss a drop. ⭐ Rate us 5 stars on Apple or Spotify. 📲 Instagram @puckwatchingstl · X @PuckWatchingSTL · YouTube /@puckwatchingstl Proud member of The Hockey Podcast Network. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Blues' preseason is over, and it wasn't pretty. They went 1-3 and scored 5 goals on 122 shots. The power play went 0-for-18. None of the projected top-six forwards scored. Luke and Nick dig into what's wrong with the offense and whether any of it should worry you before opening night in Dallas.Then the headline: the Adam Jiricek era begins. Jim Montgomery compared the 20-year-old to Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes, and he was sent to Springfield anyway. Two days later he was back, after Logan Mailloux got hurt fighting for a teammate in Chicago. We talk about what Jiricek showed in camp, where he fits on the blue line, and whether he should stay up all year.And the name that keeps coming up: Alexander Nikishin. Carolina's 6-foot-3 defenseman asked for a trade, skipped Hurricanes camp, and is reportedly asking for about $9 million a year. With the power play stuck at zero and the blue line banged up, is he the answer for St. Louis? And is he worth that price? 🎧 Follow Puck Watching so you don't miss a drop. ⭐ Rate us 5 stars on Apple or Spotify. 📲 Instagram @puckwatchingstl · X @PuckWatchingSTL · YouTube /@puckwatchingstl Proud member of The Hockey Podcast Network. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Blues finished last season as the hottest team in hockey and watched the playoffs from home. Luke and Nick break down what's changed.We start with the top line. Thomas, Holloway and Snuggerud put up 92 points in 25 games after the Olympic break, and Montgomery hasn't touched the combination in camp. How high does it go?Then the money line: Mason McTavish and Connor McMichael cost two first-rounders and Jordan Kyrou, and they're skating with Pavel Buchnevich. We get into the third line, which might be the shakiest group on the roster, and a fourth line with a real heavyweight in Ross Johnston — the first time St. Louis has had that look since Ryan Reaves.On the back end: Broberg–Mailloux, Lindstein–Parayko and Fowler–Carlo, plus how this group stops beating itself in the D-zone. The power play was 26th and the penalty kill was 25th, and Monty told us on this show they have to be top 10 combined — so what do Vinny Prospal and Greg Cronin actually change?Plus: is Hofer the No. 1 all the way, what does Binnington have to prove in a walk year, Snuggerud's contract year, and where the Blues land in a Central that runs through Colorado, Dallas and Minnesota. We each make our picks at the end. 🎧 Follow Puck Watching so you don't miss a drop. ⭐ Rate us 5 stars on Apple or Spotify. 📲 Instagram @puckwatchingstl · X @PuckWatchingSTL · YouTube /@puckwatchingstl Proud member of The Hockey Podcast Network. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jim Montgomery has been a Blue three times: an undrafted rookie in 1993-94, an assistant on Craig Berube's staff, and now the man running the bench. Days before training camp opens, he sat down with Luke and Nick.He explains why Robert Thomas was "the easy choice" to become the 25th captain in franchise history. He takes apart the slow starts that have cost the Blues two seasons in a row, and tells us what camp looks like because of them. He talks about what the new additions of Mason McTavish and Connor McMichael give a second scoring line, how much Dylan Holloway's health decides the season, and which defensive pair he wants together from day one.Plus the one everybody has asked about since last season — what actually happened in Chicago when Hofer took his time getting to the net.0:00 Welcome, Jim Montgomery1:16 Robert Thomas, the 25th captain in franchise history6:44 A younger roster and a new identity9:41 Why the Blues keep starting slow11:58 The battle for the bottom six14:21 Fourth-line physicality16:32 McTavish, McMichael, and "Mikey and Mac T"18:33 A top-heavy offense20:10 Injuries, and what Dylan Holloway changes22:45 The defense pairs25:00 Special teams, Greg Cronin and Vinny Prospal27:36 Hofer, Binnington, and two top-10 goalies29:53 The Chicago goalie switch, explained33:03 The Central Division35:43 A brutal October start37:16 What he took from Carolina and Vegas40:13 Rapid fire: St. Louis food and golf 🎧 Follow Puck Watching so you don't miss a drop. ⭐ Rate us 5 stars on Apple or Spotify. 📲 Instagram @puckwatchingstl · X @PuckWatchingSTL · YouTube /@puckwatchingstl Proud member of The Hockey Podcast Network. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Kevin Shattenkirk played 14 seasons across six NHL organizations, including 425 games in a Blues sweater, good for fifth all-time in scoring among Blues defensemen. He won a Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay in the 2020 bubble. Now he's a Divisional Player Representative for the NHLPA.Luke and Nick talk with Shattenkirk about his playing career: the 2011 trade that brought him to St. Louis, life under Ken Hitchcock, the 2016 Western Conference Final run, and what it felt like watching two former teams win Cups without him. Then the conversation goes somewhere almost nobody covering the Blues beat gets to: inside the NHLPA and the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, which takes effect September 16.🎧 Follow Puck Watching so you don't miss a drop.⭐ Rate us 5 stars on Apple or Spotify📲 Instagram @puckwatchingstl · X @PuckWatchingSTL · YouTube /@puckwatchingstlProud member of The Hockey Podcast Network. 🎧 Follow Puck Watching so you don't miss a drop. ⭐ Rate us 5 stars on Apple or Spotify. 📲 Instagram @puckwatchingstl · X @PuckWatchingSTL · YouTube /@puckwatchingstl Proud member of The Hockey Podcast Network. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Last place on January 3rd. Champions on June 12th. Seven years later we still can't explain it, so we stopped trying and made an episode about it instead. No grades, no cap talk — just Luke and Nick back in the 2019 vault, picking out the moments from the Cup run that still get us. A bar in Philadelphia and a song nobody saw coming. A rookie goalie named Binnington. The streak that turned a dead season into a playoff team. Maroon in double OT. The hand pass. Game 7 in Boston, and what the room you watched it in sounded like. Plus the personal ones — [who you watched with, the moment you finally let yourself believe it]. Whether you were at the parade or you found this team afterward, this one's for you. 🎧 Follow Puck Watching so you don't miss a drop. ⭐ Rate us 5 stars on Apple or Spotify — it takes eleven seconds and it's the biggest thing you can do for a small show. Drop your favorite 2019 moment in the review and we'll read it on the next episode. 📲 Instagram @puckwatchingstl · X @PuckWatchingSTL · YouTube /@puckwatchingstl Proud member of The Hockey Podcast Network. 🎧 Follow Puck Watching so you don't miss a drop. ⭐ Rate us 5 stars on Apple or Spotify. 📲 Instagram @puckwatchingstl · X @PuckWatchingSTL · YouTube /@puckwatchingstl Proud member of The Hockey Podcast Network. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Alex Pietrangelo walked for nothing. Tage Thompson became a 40-goal scorer somewhere else. And we still can't talk about the Bolduc trade without raising our voices. Luke and Nick put ten years of St. Louis Blues front-office decisions on trial — eleven moves, no rankings, no mercy — and then run a live snake draft to decide which FIVE were the worst of the worst. The Cup Amnesty Clause is on the table, but does it apply? 🎙️ Puck Watching is a St. Louis Blues podcast hosted by brothers Luke and Nick, part of The Hockey Podcast Network. New episodes weekly. 👇 FOLLOW US Instagram: https://instagram.com/puckwatchingstl X/Twitter: https://x.com/PuckWatchingSTL ⭐ If this one got a reaction out of you, drop us a rating on Apple or Spotify — it's the single biggest thing that helps new Blues fans find the show. And tell us in the comments: which one is YOUR number one? We'll read the best answers next episode. 🎧 Follow Puck Watching so you don't miss a drop. ⭐ Rate us 5 stars on Apple or Spotify. 📲 Instagram @puckwatchingstl · X @PuckWatchingSTL · YouTube /@puckwatchingstl Proud member of The Hockey Podcast Network. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Three years ago, Doug Armstrong pulled the trigger. Today, we're grading everything that's happened since. Nick and Luke break the Blues rebuild into four acts and debate the effects of each one. Act I — The Sell-Off: The O'Reilly and Tarasenko trades that kicked it all off, and the 2023 draft trio (Dvorsky, Stenberg, Lindstein) built in their wake Act II — The Retool: Three coaches in three years, the Broberg/Holloway offer sheet gamble, the Fowler heist, and the 12-game streak that saved 2025 Act III — The 2026 Deadline: Schenn to the Islanders, Faulk to Detroit, two first-round picks coming back Act IV — The New Core: The Kyrou and McTavish blockbusters that rebuilt the roster overnight 🎙️ New episodes every week — rate & review us on Apple/Spotify, it takes 10 seconds and it's the single biggest thing you can do to help the show grow. 📲 Follow along on IG & X: @puckwatchingstl 🎥 Full episodes + clips on YouTube 🎧 Follow Puck Watching so you don't miss a drop. ⭐ Rate us 5 stars on Apple or Spotify. 📲 Instagram @puckwatchingstl · X @PuckWatchingSTL · YouTube /@puckwatchingstl Proud member of The Hockey Podcast Network. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.