NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Now that the St. Louis Blues have caught up to their margin of deficit in the Western Conference wild card race, now is when the work begins.
It all starts on Tuesday when the Blues (33-28-7) face the Nashville Predators (25-33-8) at 7 p.m. at Bridgestone Arena, the first of three meetings in 10 days between the two clubs.
The Blues are rolling to say the least, winning nine of their past 13 games (9-2-2) and outscoring their opponents 53-36 (plus-17) in that stretch. But in playing some of the lower end teams in the league standings and those below them in the standings has seemed to be a challenge for the Blues in recent past. They know this is no time to be taking anyone for granted, especially an opponent that had so much hope riding on this season and one that has grossly underachieved.
“I’m not concerned with Nashville’s, I’m concerned with our mindset and how we’re going to go about beating a very dangerous offensive team that has an elite goaltender,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “When you put up that lineup and you see [Ryan] O’Reilly, you see [Steven] Stamkos, you see [Jonathan] Marchessault, you see [Filip] Forsberg, there’s a lof of guys that have had 50-, 40-, and 30-goal seasons, and we respect the fact of what they’ve done in their whole body of work and we know on any given night of what they can do.
“We’ve had some good meetings just about keeping up with what’s been working and what our identity is and focusing on the task at hand. We’ve got Nashville here, they’re five games over .500 at home. This is a real good home team and we have to be ready to go.”
The job was tough enough, especially with the number of games dwindling and the amount of teams surrounding the playoff chase, but the Blues have caught the deficit faced (eight points) and are tied with the Vancouver Canucks for the final wild card and are two points ahead of each of the Calgary Flames and Utah Hockey Club.
Now the job begins, though.
“To be honest, our mind is just game to game,” Blues defenseman Justin Faulk said. “We’re going to go into Nashville and try to play a real good solid, consistent game. That’s where we’re at right now. We’re not looking ahead. We know what’s at stake and we know what position we’ve put ourselves in, but we’re not there yet; we’ve got to keep going. It’s a good feeling in here right now, but we know it’s got to continue and there’s a lot of work left. But there’s a good foundation that we’ve got to keep building off of. There still needs to be a lot more wins, but I know there’s the confidence in this group to go get it done.”
Making up the eight-point deficit was hard enough. Now they have to continue to apply pressure on those around them by winning games since the Flames (two games) and the Canucks and Utah each has one game in hand.
“We’ve worked hard, we’ve clawed back, but at the end of the day, we have 14 left and you just can’t be happy that you’re in the wild card or teams have games in hand,” Blues captain Brayden Schenn said. “At the end of the day, you just need a strong week here. I thought we did a heck of a job of flying on game day and coming out and starting the way we did and all that type of stuff. We’ve got the confidence right now. Guys are playing hard for one another and when that happens, it’s a mindset where guys are doing whatever it takes for each other right now and that’s how you win hockey games.”
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The Blues have put together a run of 13 straight games in which they’ve allowed an opponents fewer than 30 shots per game, their best stretch since the Stanley Cup-winning season of 2018-19, and are second in the league (Florida Panthers are No. 1 at 23.4 per game) at 23.5 shots against per game.
How have they done it?
“It’s three zones,” Faulk said. “The forecheck is huge defensively. It sets everything up coming through the neutral zone back into the D-zone. It makes the defensive side of the game a lot easier if we can get a good forecheck and we’ve been really focused on that being consistent, getting pucks down below the goal line. It allows us to spend more time in their zone and tire them out and make them change in three-quarter ice. When we get into the D-zone, guys are sacrificing, guys are blocking shots and doing things necessary to limit chances and to limit those shots. It’s selfless hockey and it’s been happening, and we’re going to continue that, I know that.”
Also, the forward lines will remain the same for the 14th straight game, and had Colton Parayko (left knee) not injured himself in a 3-2 shootout win against the Los Angeles Kings on March 5, the defensive pairings likely would have remained the same as well.
“It gets really good chemistry, and you see lines connecting a lot more now,” Montgomery said. “They know where they’re going. On the bench, they’re communicating every shift about what they could have done better, how to create more scoring chances or talking about the D-zone and how the centers are grabbing a hold of their lines. We’ll switch when you hear my voice. You hear that kind of talk. It gets them on the same page. They play a lot faster and the trust is higher.”
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Joel Hofer will get the start tonight, and Jordan Binnington will start Thursday against the Canucks with the Blues playing such a hectic and condensed schedule.
“Just with the schedule and density of our games right now,” Montgomery said. “We’ve just come off a couple of three in four’s; now we’re going into four in six. I’ve said it all along, we have two really good goaltenders, and we get ‘Hofe’ to go so everyone stays fresh and gives us the best opportunity to get points every night. And we get ‘Binner’ to go against Vancouver at home.”
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Blues Projected Lineup:
Jake Neighbours-Robert Thomas-Pavel Buchnevich
Dylan Holloway-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou
Mathieu Joseph-Oskar Sundqvist-Zack Bolduc
Alexey Toropchenko-Radek Faksa-Nathan Walker
Cam Fowler-Nick Leddy
Philip Broberg-Justin Faulk
Ryan Suter-Tyler Tucker
Joel Hofer will start in goal; Jordan Binnington will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Alexandre Texier and Matthew Kessel. Colton Parayko (knee) is out; Torey Krug (ankle) is out for the season.
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Predators Projected Lineup:
Filip Forsberg-Ryan O'Reilly-Steven Stamkos
Michael Bunting-Colton Sissons-Jonathan Marchessault
Luke Evangelista-Fedor Svechkov-Kiefer Bellows
Zachary L'Heureux-Michael McCarron-Cole Smith
Brady Skjei-Nick Blankenburg
Andreas Englund-Marc Del Gaizo
Jordan Oesterle-Justin Barron
Juuse Saros will start in goal; Justus Annunen will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Spencer Stastney and Jakub Vrana. Jeremy Lauzon (lower body), Adam Wilsby (upper body) and Roman Josi (upper body) are out.