Revisiting the Most Recent Blues & Jets Playoff Matchup

The Winnipeg Jets have a 2-0 series lead in their first-round matchup against the St. Louis Blues. The last time they played each other, the Blues took the Jets down 4-2 and went on to win the Stanley Cup. That said, here’s a look at the differences and similarities between this series and the one in 2019.

Blues’ 2019 Roster Had More to Work With

The Blues have a completely new roster for the 2025 Playoffs, and are facing a new Jets roster. The only players left from that 2019 championship team are Robert Thomas, Jordan Binnington, Brayden Schenn, Oskar Sundqvist, and Colton Parayko. Since then, they have lost crucial pieces, such as Vladimir Tarasenko, Alex Pietrangelo, Vince Dunn, Ryan O’Reilly, and Jaden Schwartz.

O’Reilly and Pietrangelo were especially key against the Jets in 2019. In that series, O’Reilly had four points in six games, and Pietrangelo had six points. On the defensive side, Pietrangelo, Parayko, Robert Bortuzzo, and Joel Edmundson played incredible shutdown defense and combined for a total of 40 blocked shots, which was half of the Blues’ 84 blocked shots in that series.

In 2019, the Jets had Connor Hellebuyck, Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele, Adam Lowry, Josh Morrissey, and Nikolaj Ehlers, who are still on the roster, but they also had Bryan Little, Blake Wheeler, Jacob Trouba, Patrik Laine, and Dustin Byfuglien, who made them a top-ten team in the league that season. Wheeler tied his career high of 91 points during the 2018-19 season, Laine scored 30 goals, and Scheifele hit a new career high of 84 points at that time, so most of their top forwards were definitely in tune ahead of the series.

The team has since added Neal Pionk, Gabe Vilardi, Cole Perfetti, and Vladislav Namestnikov, who have given the Blues a lot more to worry about in this playoff series, mainly because they have lost a lot of shot-blocking support, and that role is left in the hands of Parayko.

Blues Have a New Head Coach

The Blues now have Jim Montgomery, who is a very different coach from Craig Berube, who was behind the bench in 2019. Berube had a grittier system, meaning the power forwards or two-way forwards were his go-to players, such as O’Reilly, Schenn, and Jaden Schwartz, who made up the top three in points for the Blues that entire series.

Montgomery’s system is more focused on offense, and he pushes his offensively talented stars, such as Kyrou, Thomas, Buchnevich, and Jimmy Snuggerud, to the max. Those players have had more offensive presence, but Thomas should be the primary focus because of how well he can make plays on the fly and create chances on special teams. He was under Berube in the 2019 Jets vs. Blues first round series and finished it with one point, and it may have been because he didn’t get to flourish offensively due to Berube’s more physical and defensive system.

The Jets have Scott Arniel as head coach. He was also hired in the first two months of the 2024-25 season and has turned his roster into an offensive machine. In 2019, Paul Maurice was behind Winnipeg’s bench. Maurice made the Jets a more physical team with a more team-like approach, rather than relying on certain pieces to perform on special teams. Under Maurice, there was a high shot volume, but Berube’s Blues out-gritted them, shutting them down with their shot blockers.

Goaltending Stayed the Same on Both Sides

Both teams have the same goalies as they did in 2019. Binnington continues to be the starter for the Blues in this playoff series. Through two games, he’s put up a .827 save percentage (SV%) and 3.10 goals-against average (GAA), which is very different from Hellebuyck’s .897 SV% and 2.00 GAA. In 2019, both goaltenders finished the series with a SV% over .900 and a GAA over 2.00.

During the 2018-19 season, Binnington finished on a nine-game win streak, which ranked him among the NHL’s all-time top 10 wins by a rookie goaltender. He also played in his first NHL Playoffs. Hellebuyck, on the other hand, was playing in his second career playoff run after putting up a 44-win season in 2017-18 to rank 11th all-time. No matter how much experience Hellebuyck had over Binnington, it wasn’t enough for him to hold off the Blues, and Binnington emerged as the top goaltender of the 2019 Playoffs.