ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Blues start their 2025-26 season with a 5-0 home loss Thursday to the Minnesota Wild.
The Blues outshot the Wild, 27-21, but couldn’t generate many high-pressure scoring chances. The Wild, meanwhile, capitalized on several untimely Blues penalties and turnovers.
The loss snaps a 15-game winning streak at home (including playoffs). It’s the Blues first loss on home ice since Feb. 22 of last season.
Head coach Jim Montgomery said, “It’s a long season. It’s a journey. It’s a grind. You’re going to have nights where unfortunately the score ends up like tonight at times.”
Montgomery said he liked the energy up until the Wild took a 3-0 just past the midway point of the second period, scoring a momentum-swinging tally shortly after a face-off to start a power play. “I didn’t like our game after that. Once it went 3-0, I didn’t like the energy on our bench or the energy on our ice. The game kind of got away from us.”
Captain Brayden Schenn said, “We did some good things, and we did some things we need to clean up. Offensively, got to get harder in front of the opposition’s goalie. Defensively, we got to work on closing plays a little faster. It’s a long season. You can’t dwell on it. We got to turn the page.”
Defenseman Justin Faulk said, “I don’t think it’s going to change how we approach our day-to-day. We lost the game. We’re going to move on. We’re trying to build for a full season here. We have work to do. We would have work to do if we came out of here with a win. There’s a lot to learn and a lot of things we have to find in our game.”
Ryan Hartman, Matt Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek and Marco Rossi all scored for the Wild. Hartman scored the game’s first and fourth goals.
The Blues struggled in the faceoff circle, only winning 46% of their draws. They also finished with more giveaways, 14-9, a telling sign of turnovers and lost puck battles. On a positive note, the physicality was strong with the Blues outhitting the Wild, 40-19.
Up next, the Blues head to Canada for two road games, taking on the Calgary Flames on Saturday and Vancouver Canucks on Monday.