St. Louis Blues defenseman Philip Broberg (6) moves the puck away from Chicago Blackhawks forward Frank Nazar on Feb. 8 when the Blues won a 6-5 shootout. (Jeff Curry-Imagn Images) [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/b2c7b0c3-5a76-4b1e-b7fd-ed3efdd4e9d3.jpeg] St. Louis Blues defenseman Philip Broberg (6) moves the puck away from Chicago Blackhawks forward Frank Nazar on Feb. 8 when the Blues won a 6-5 shootout. (Jeff Curry-Imagn Images) ST. LOUIS -- For the St. Louis Blues [http://thn.com/stlouis], now comes the hard part. It's one thing to be the hunter trying to chase down those in front of them for the Western Conference wild card, but now to be the hunted, which the Blues (35-28-7), who host the Chicago Blackhawks [http://thn.com/chicago] (20-40-9) on Saturday at 2 p.m. (FDSNMW, ESPN 101.1-FM), are, being chased by three teams (Vancouver Canucks [http://thn.com/vancouver], Calgary Flames [http://thn.com/calgary], Utah Hockey Club [http://thn.com/utah]) makes the final 12 games that much more interesting. But what it does is not change a thing. "That's a pretty myopic vision right now," Blues coach Jim Montgomery said after a very brief practice Friday. "We have the Blackhawks at (2 p.m.) tomorrow. We're going to get ready for them. "It's going to come down to the last game because there's just not enough games left and not enough point separation to be able to take a breath, and that's great. What we've been doing, it's what we're used to. Our mindset's in the moment. I sound like a broken record, but that's what we have been focused on." That's the message relayed to the players, and they have had it ingrained in them since making this 11-2-2 run. "Yeah 100 percent, that's the message," said forward Dylan Holloway, who scored in the third period to give the Blues a 3-2 lead. "We can't get too high or too low. It was a big win tonight, but we've got more games coming. It's tight. ... It's as tight as it's ever been, and we've just got to keep going." But boy, that will be a task after such an emotional 4-3 overtime win on Thursday at home against the Canucks [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/latest-news/three-takeaways-from-blues-4-3-ot-win-against-canucks-1] when Philip Broberg scored at 3:42 of overtime to put the Blues one point ahead of Vancouver, two ahead of Calgary and four ahead of Utah. The Canucks have a game in hand while the Flames have two games in hand. "They have a tough schedule coming at some point, where they're not going to be able to take a breath," Montgomery said. "Coming up, we're going to have a couple of two days off in between games. That's going to be really beneficial, but until we get there, we've just got to push through and we've done that. Our mental toughness, the way we prepare, the way guys are going out shift after shift playing really good hockey has been very impressive." Nonetheless, there was so much to like for Montgomery in a game that had so many range of emotions, both good and bad. "I just the think the way we played," he said. "We were committed to playing the right way. Vancouver pushed in the second, and then we pushed back in the last eight and a half minutes of the second. The third period, I think it was a combination of nerves and it's not an excuse, but the density of the schedule we made some decisions that I don't think are common for us lately, more common in January. It's just an opportunity for us to reset, recharge the batteries and get ready for another two big games here." The Blues had their team photo day at Enterprise Center on Friday and skated for a shade under 15 minutes. Oskar Sundqvist was the lone absentee from the skate due to a maintenance day, but Montgomery said the forward would be available to play on Saturday. The Blues will be going for their second-ever season series sweep of the Blackhawks; they own a 6-2 win at the 2025 NHL Discover Winter Classic at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Dec. 31 and a wild 6-5 shootout win at Enterprise Center on Feb. 8. The Blues' only season sweep was in 2919-20 when they went 4-0-0. - - - Blues Projected Lineup: Jake Neighbours-Robert Thomas-Zack Bolduc Dylan Holloway-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou Alexandre Texier-Oskar Sundqvist-Mathieu Joseph Alexey Toropchenko-Radek Faksa-Nathan Walker Cam Fowler-Nick Leddy Philip Broberg-Justin Faulk Ryan Suter-Tyler Tucker Joel Hofer is projected to start in goal; Jordan Binnington would be the backup. Healthy scratches include Alexandre Texier and Matthew Kessel. Colton Parayko (knee) remains out. Pavel Buchnevich (illness) is out. Torey Krug (ankle) is out for the season. - - - Blackhawks Projected Lineup: Ilya Mikheyev-Frank Nazar-Connor Bedard Teuvo Teravainen-Jason Dickinson-Nick Foligno Joe Veleno-Ryan Donato-Tyler Bertuzzi Landon Slaggert-Lukas Reichel-Patrick Maroon Alex Vlasic-Wyatt Kaiser Ethan Del Mastro-Connor Murphy Alec Martinez-Artyom Levshunov Arvid Soderblom will start in goal; Spencer Knight will be the backup. Healthy scratches include Philipp Kurashev, TJ Brodie and Louis Crevier. Laurent Brossoit (knee) and Colton Dach (elbow) are out.
