Blues notebook: Skate’s on the other foot for Saad

Brandon Saad inflicted some pain on the Blues last postseason, scoring three goals for Colorado in the Avalanche’s four-game sweep of St. Louis in the first round.

Now he hopes to do the same against the Avalanche as a member of the Blues.

“It’s obviously fun to score and win,” Saad said. “That was good. But it’s a new year, it’s a new team and we’re looking forward to the challenge.”

It’s normal, practically a tradition, for a player to have dinner with a few members of his old team when coming into town. But for Saad, that custom doesn’t carry over to the playoffs.

“In the playoffs, I don’t think you see it too much,” Saad said. “I think it’s more regular season, but playoffs is more team dinners — hanging around your teammates, watching hockey. At least that’s my plan. I’m not sure what other guys do.”

Besides, it’s not as if Saad set down roots with Colorado. He was with the team just one season before signing a free-agent deal with the Blues last offseason.

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“You kind of move on pretty quickly,” Saad said. “It’s not like I was there a long time. But it was a fun year. A lot of success. You get to know the guys and establish relationships. But it’s a hockey series. We’re gonna face it like any other team and focus on ourselves.”

Interestingly, in preparing for this year’s series against Colorado, coach Craig Berube said he noticed Saad on film, particularly in Colorado’s second-round series against Vegas.

“He was the one player that was exposing Vegas with his speed and driving that puck hard to the net,” Berube said. “He did a really good job of it. That’s the stuff he does for us, too. He has the ability with his speed — he can take pucks to the hard areas and create opportunities, not only for himself, but for other people.”

During the regular season, Saad had 49 points on 24 goals and 25 assists. It marked his sixth season of 20-plus goals. His point total (49) was his highest since the 2016-17 season when he was with Columbus, and just four points off his career high.

“He’s a solid player all-around,” Berube said. “He plays good defense for us, and does penalty-killing. He’s an all-situational guy for us.”

njury update

Defenseman Marco Scandella, who has battled a lower-body injury dating back to the end of the regular season, took part in Monday’s practice at Centene Community Ice Center before the team left for Denver. But he isn’t expected to be ready for the opening game of the Colorado series.

“He was just out there in practice today,” Berube said. “I don’t know when he’ll be ready. I really don’t.”

During line rushes Monday at Centene, Scandella was not among the top three defensemen pairings.

Scandella played in only two of the six games against Minnesota, aggravating the injury in the first period of Game 4 and not returning for the rest of the series.

The Blues’ other injured defensemen, Torey Krug, did not practice Monday and may miss the entire series with what appears to be a knee injury.

“He’ll come out (to Denver) just for rehab purposes and things like that,” Berube said of Krug, before the team left St. Louis.

Krug averaged more than 20 minutes of ice time in the first two games against the Wild, but left in the first period of Game 3 due to the injury and missed the rest of the series.

Santini recalled

The Blues added an extra body to their D-corps Monday, recalling Steven Santini from Springfield of the American Hockey League. He will join the team in time for Tuesday’s series opener with the Avs.

The 27-year-old native of Bronxville, N.Y., played three minutes, eight seconds — or five shifts — in Game 4 of the Blues’ first-round series against Minnesota and was on the ice long enough to be plus-1. He was a healthy scratch for Game 5 and then sent back to Springfield.

That’s the only game he has played for the Blues this season; he appeared in two playoff games against Colorado last season, when the Blues had a run of injury and COVID issues.

He had a goal and an assist Sunday in Springfield’s 7-6 victory over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, clinching the best-of-5 playoff series, three games to none.

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