ST. LOUIS – Backs against the wall again.
It’s been a theme for the St. Louis Blues here lately, but if you ask them, it’s been a theme all season.
The Blues face elimination and end to their season when they host the Winnipeg Jets in Game 6 of the Western Conference First round at Enterprise Center on Friday (7 p.m.; FDSNMW, MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC, ESPN 101.1-FM).
The Blues are in the position they’re in after a 5-3 loss in Winnipeg in Game 5 and they now trail the best-of-7 series 3-2; each team has held serve on home ice and the Blues must do once again on Friday to extend this to a deciding seventh game on Sunday.
“You have nothing to lose,” Blues center Robert Thomas said. “I think that’s what we’ve been playing with for the last little while, especially on home ice, we’ve been really confident in ourselves (with 14 straight wins). That’s pretty much it. Coming into this series, we knew it was going to go six or seven. That was our mindset from the start. We’re right where we thought we’d be. We’ve got to win two games to move on. We’re pretty excited for this opportunity.”
The Blues have been against it since the 4 Nations Face-Off break when they were eight points back of a wild card and persevered. They needed a win in the final regular season game on home ice to secure a playoff spot and persevered in a 6-1 win against Utah Hockey Club. Now they face the end to their season unless they can persevere once again, but it seems to be something this group thrives in.
“The best predictor of the future is your past and our past suggests we can handle it,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “Just like the playoffs have resembled the regular season since 4 Nations. I remember we beat Minnesota and we had a plane malfunction, had to stay over, we played on a back-to-back, we had to come here, fly in day of the game, beat Anaheim (7-2) and we had a plane malfunction yesterday. We didn’t get here until late. We just roll with the punches.”
The Blues were supposed to fly at 11 a.m. on Thursday and didn’t get out of Winnipeg until roughly 6 p.m. before arriving into St. Louis shortly after 8 p.m.
“Yeah, we’re fine. We’re fine,” Blues captain Brayden Schenn said. “We’ve dealt with it. We had to lay low in Winnipeg for a little bit longer, we grabbed a meal and we flew home. It’s not the end of the world and guys have good attitudes about it and guys will be ready for tonight.”
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The Jets will come into the game without their top line center Mark Scheifele, after he was injured in the first period after taking two checks from Schenn and Radek Faksa with an undisclosed injury and fueled a war of words between Montgomery and Jets coach Scott Arniel.
But they could be getting Nikolaj Ehlers (lower-body injury) back into the lineup for the first time since April 12.
The Blues will not change anything with the Jets missing their best center.
“Obviously he’s a great player, but we were tied with him out last game and they found a way to get the win,” Thomas said. “They’re a great team, they won the Presidents’ Trophy. They have a ton of great players and a good system. Nothing to take for granted. It’s going to be a tough task out there.”
Montgomery also said nothing changes.
“Not really,” he said. “You want to play. Any player that’s missing out on an opportunity to play in the Stanley Cup (playoffs) I have empathy for, whether it’s a Jets player or it’s [Dylan] Holloway or [Tyler] Tucker that aren’t going to get the opportunity to play right now. Because you work all season for this opportunity, so you’d like to see everybody in the lineup. But Stanley Cup playoffs, it’s a war of attrition and early in the series, both teams have had significant injuries. We have to make sure we’re playing to our identity, us, pack-of-wolves mentality is more important than any individual on our own team and for the other team as well. It’s about us.”
Scheifele missed the last 40 minutes of Game 5 and the Blues didn’t take advantage of the opportunity. A lot of that had to do with not getting to their game, which they must do tonight.
“Just focusing on what’s brought us success,” Thomas said. “We’re on home ice. That’s been a strong suit for us lately and got a ton of confidence in front of our fans. I think that’s one way to get there.”
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One lineup change appears set for the Blues is Mathieu Joseph returning for the first time since Game 1 and replacing Alexandre Texier.
“He’s just really tenacious and he creates turnovers, can attack the net really well because of his speed and he gives me another option on PK, another option for a guy who can play center down low,” Montgomery said of Joseph. “Last game, we ended up with two guys in the box and our other two centers are penalty killing. You get handcuffed a little bit as a coach at times.”
Tucker (lower body) did not skate and is out for Game 6, and there’s nothing new to report on Holloway (lower body).
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Blues Projected Lineup:
Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Jimmy Snuggerud
Jake Neighbours-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou
Mathieu Joseph-Oskar Sundqvist-Zack Bolduc
Alexey Toropchenko-Radek Faksa-Nathan Walker
Cam Fowler-Colton Parayko
Philip Broberg-Justin Faulk
Ryan Suter-Nick Leddy
Jordan Binnington will start in goal; Joel Hofer will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Alexandre Texier and Matthew Kessel. Dylan Holloway (lower body) and Tyler Tucker (lower body) are out. Torey Krug (ankle) is out for the season.
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Jets Projected Lineup:
Kyle Connor-Vladislav Namestnikov-Gabriel Vilardi
Nikolaj Ehlers-Adam Lowry-Cole Perfetti
Nino Niederreiter-Morgan Barron-Mason Appleton
Brandon Tanev-Dominic Toninato-Jaret Anderson-Dolan
Josh Morrissey-Dylan DeMelo
Dylan Samberg-Neal Pionk
Logan Stanley-Luke Schenn
Connor Hellebuyck will start in goal; Eric Comrie will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include David Gustafsson, Haydn Fleury, Colin Miller and Ville Heinola. Mark Scheifele (undisclosed) and Rasmus Kupari (concussion) are out.