Сент-Луис Блюз NHL-ийн шинэ улирлын бэлтгэл сургуулилтаа эрчимжүүлж байна

MARYLAND

HEIGHTS, Mo. — It’s very uncommon for the opening of training camp

to showcase so many of the NHL players in one group and so many of

the prospects in the other.

Normally,

players are split up, mixed and matched until camp gets whittled down

to the end and those that are going to make the opening night roster.

But

with training camp this year lasting less than two weeks, and as St. Louis Blues coach Jim Montgomery said, “four preseason games and we

have five

practices,” there is no time for formalities with the regular

season opener just 15 days away and the first preseason game on Saturday against the Dallas Stars.

The

Blues opened camp Thursday at Centene Community Ice Center with two

groups, and it was clear which was more established than the other:

Group A lines/D-pairs #stlblues:

Holloway-Thomas-Snuggerud
McMichael-McTavish-Buchnevich
Neighbours-Dvorsky-Berggren
Johnston-Suter-Toropchenko

Broberg-Mailloux
Lindstein-Parayko
Fowler-Carlo
Tucker-Jiricek

Hofer
Binnington
Proskurin

— Lou Korac (@lkorac10) September 17, 2026

Blues Group B defensive pairs:
Rosén-Burns
Buchinger-Fischer
Ralph-Koromyslov
Gaudet

Goalies:
Romanov
Cranley
Gahagen

— Matthew DeFranks (@MDeFranks) September 17, 2026

The

Blues (37-33-12 last season) are not opening camp on this day looking

to get in a month’s worth of work. They’re banking that players

are all in shape, they’re all in hockey sense and that they’re

all beyond the pond hockey days.

Thursday’s

opening drills were more designed for things they would be doing a

couple weeks into camp, or even on the cusp of the season opening.

“By

the end of our fourth exhibition game, all we have is four games and

we have five practices. The feeling-out process that you used to have

in camp is gone,” Montgomery

said.

“Guys have to be on their toes, they’ve got to be ready, they

have to push each other, and we’re trying to put the lines that we

think might have a chance to start game one together right away.

“Our

objective

today was working on being a much harder team offensively getting to

the blue paint. We scored seven goals in the scrimmage. That I

thought was very successful. I thought we were creating more chaos. I

thought the energy and the pace was pretty good. I thought guys (had)

second and third effort. We started with 1-on-1 battles and right

away, guys were digging in and they were into it and they were

pushing each other to be better. I thought it was a very productive

Day 1.”

And

that’s why Group A pretty much resembled what a lineup will look

like on opening night against the Stars in Dallas on Oct. 2.

“Well

with my thinking, the Thomas line speaks for itself the way they

finished and they scored two goals out there today, so they picked up

kind of where they left off; they looked really good,” Montgomery

said.

“The second line, McTavish for us is a top-six player, McMichael

has played in the middle six his entire career and Buchy has played

pretty much. So let’s put those three together, see what kind of

chemistry we have today. I thought they did some good things

offensively. Defensively, we haven’t touched a thing yet. They got

scored against, but we still haven’t worked on our D-zone coverage

yet because just first day of camp. Third line that we had with the

Dvorsky line, I didn’t really notice, I wasn’t coaching that

team. I didn’t see an impact in the game. Fourth line looked really

good. ‘Torpo’ was flying, ‘Sutes’ is always supporting and

this Johnston, you can see how smart a player he is and very vocal on

the bench.

“A

couple of the D-pair that stood out for me. Fowler and the Carlo pair

were excellent, poise, gaps were really good and I thought Lindstein

and Parayko did a really good job on my bench as well.”

This

wasn’t an off-season where Montgomery and the coaching staff could

plan out this longer, drawn-out training camp. It was more compacted

and challenging to fit many things into a smaller window.

Off and running with the four forward line combinations from Group A #stlbluespic.twitter.com/YKuCmtxtIg

— Lou Korac (@lkorac10) September 17, 2026

“There’s

a combination of things that influence the way it was. It was shoring

up what we didn’t think were strengths that should be strengths,

being hard at the offensive blue paint, being hard at the defensive

blue paint,” Montgomery

said.

“You’ll see that tomorrow. Committing battles in practices and

competition in those areas was important for us to get to those areas

and create the habits that we need. You saw a lot of driving back

posts today, you saw a lot of speed trying to get at the net. That’s

why we were doing all those 3-on-1s, 3-on-2s. And then the other

thing is the shortened … like I said, we’ve got four games, five

practices. That’s nine times on the ice together before we have our

team meeting before we have three practices before we play our first

game at Dallas. So there’s no time to waste. Once we get past this

CBA three-hour rule, we’re going to start having double video

sessions. It’s going to be more like NFL training. Those are things

that we’ve worked on so that we can be prepared in a three-week

camp and a 13-day camp.”

One

noticeable omission: the VO2 fitness testing that, well, nobody cares

to do but know it was always a must.

“The

coaches were really happy,” Montgomery

said laughing.

“Thank God I didn’t have to do the VO2 max this year. You would

like to have fitness testing just because … these athletes are so

well-conditioned now. It’s not an issue now like it was in the 70s

where camp was six weeks long so you can get in shape to start the

season. Now they have their own nutritionists, strength and

conditioning coaches, they have speed and acceleration coaches, so

they’re well-prepared. The thing is mentally, what you like about

having testing is the guys know they’ve got to come and they take

great pride in it, so they want to do well on the test to show

everyone I’m ready to go. We don’t have that option, but the ice

speaks for itself. Didn’t see a lot of guys hovering over sticks.

That was not an easy practice. First day of camp, there’s nerves

that are going because everybody wants to show well. So you usually

can tell just by skating, and you’ll see a bag skate at the end of

practice tomorrow that will kind of try and look for that.”

‘I Want To Be Here … I Love This City’ — Jimmy Snuggerud Wants To Be Part Of Long-Term Future With St. Louis Blues2022 first-round pick didn’t sign maximum eight-year extension by Tuesday’s CBA deadline before new one kicked in that allows max contracts to be seven years, feels process will work itself out when time is rightRyan Reaves, A St. Louis Blues 2005 Draft Pick, Announces Retirement From The NHLFifth-round pick in the 2005 NHL Draft was one of top enforcers in game during his 16-year career, of which first seven years was spent with BluesTen St. Louis Blues Players To Keep An Eye On As 2026-27 Training Camp Opens ThursdayFrom Mason McTavish to Connor McMichael to Robert Thomas to Jordan Binnington to Adam Jiricek, plenty of storylines to unfold with the Blues looking to get back into the Western Conference playoff mix

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