The St. Louis Blues are rolling at the right time but face a daunting task to keep their winning streak going.
St. Louis has won eight straight, but to get nine in a row it will have to beat a Colorado Avalanche squad that has not lost at home in more than two months. Colorado (45-25-3, 93 points) has won 11 in a row in Denver, where it will host the Blues on Saturday afternoon.
St. Louis (39-28-7, 85 points) is 5-1-1 in its last seven road games, so playing on an opponent’s ice isn’t intimidating, especially with a postseason berth within reach. The Blues were 25-26-5 when play resumed following the 4 Nations Face-Off hiatus but have gone 14-2-2 since then.
The surge has put them in the second wild card, ahead of Vancouver and just two points behind Minnesota for the first wild card.
Robert Thomas leads St. Louis in points (66) and assists (47) and is third in goals with 19. Dylan Holloway has 62 points (26 goals, 36 assists), tied with Jordan Kyrou, who’s scored a team-leading 31 goals to go along with 31 assists.
As well as the Blues have been playing, it hasn’t always been smooth. They needed to rally to beat lowly Nashville on Thursday night, but even struggling to get the win was a learning moment for them.
“I think that’s how we grow,” said Holloway, who had two goals in St. Louis’ 3-2 win. “It’s definitely crucial to know that we can do that.”
They quickly pivot to a team that has won four in a row overall and hasn’t lost at home since Jan. 22. The Avalanche have the NHL’s current overall scoring leader in Nathan MacKinnon, who has 108 points (29 goals, 79 assists) and the top-scoring defenseman in Cale Makar with 84 points (27 goals, 57 assists).
Artturi Lehkonen is third on the team in scoring with 43 points (27 goals, 16 assists) and Valeri Nichushkin is fourth in goals with 19 despite playing just 35 games this season.
Since coming to Colorado in the Mikko Rantanen trade, Martin Necas has 10 goals and 15 assists in 24 games.
Like the Blues, Colorado has been on a roll since returning from the 4 Nations break. The Avalanche dropped their first two games when the season resumed but is 12-1-1 since, and 10-1-1 in the month of March.
Adding centers Brock Nelson and Charlie Coyle as well as defenseman Ryan Lindgren at the trade deadline has strengthened the lineup and given coach Jared Bednar the ability to experiment with different line combinations.
“I think things are just clicking right now,” Makar said after registering two assists in a 4-0 win over Los Angeles on Thursday night. “Everybody’s seeming to find a groove as a line and it’s starting to show, which is good. We’ve just got to keep rolling, make sure we’re doing the right things down the stretch here and continue hopefully into the playoffs.”
–Field Level Media
