The St. Louis Blues play their last regular-season game on Tuesday, and they are hoping the home contest against the Utah Hockey Club won’t be the last meaningful one until autumn.
The Blues (43-30-8, 94 points) control their destiny. Defeating Utah (38-30-13, 89 points) in regulation would lock up one of the two Western Conference wild-card spots. St. Louis also could clinch regardless of how it fares Tuesday night, but an overtime win or loss or a regulation loss would require outside help.
Just 10 days ago, the Blues were celebrating a team-record 12-game winning streak that vaulted them into a playoff position. Since then, St. Louis has lost three straight (0-2-1), with the most recent defeat coming Saturday in Seattle. The Blues had a 3-2 lead but gave up the tying goal midway through the third period and fell 4-3 after the Kraken claimed the shootout in the seventh round.
On Monday, the St. Louis players said they hoped playing Game 82 at home would work in their favor.
“We had backs against the wall coming out of the (4 Nations Face-Off) break and went on a nice run there,” Blues goalie Jordan Binnington said. “Now our backs are on the wall where we have a chance to clinch. Just that energy and excitement is something that I think will lead to a good strong game.”
Binnington was the netminder for the Canadian team that won the midseason all-star tournament. Since returning from the break, he has posted a 12-3-1 record with a .907 save percentage and a 2.31 goals-against average. He was 15-19-4 with an .897 save percentage and a 2.89 GAA before the 4 Nations hiatus.
As for the St. Louis offense, center Robert Thomas has been on a tear. He has an 11-game point streak (four goals, 19 assists), and he leads the team with 79 points (21, 58) despite missing 12 games in the fall after fracturing his right ankle. Thomas is two assists away from matching his career-best total, set last season.
Utah will finish just outside of a playoff spot in its first season after the club relocated from Arizona. The team is led by a St. Louis-area native, Clayton Keller, who could spoil the postseason chances of the team he grew up watching.
On Monday, Keller played in his 600th NHL game and scored two goals and notched two assists in Utah’s 7-3 road win over the Nashville Predators. He has four goals and five assists in his past five games.
Keller and his teammates have been peppering the goal over the past week, scoring 22 times while going 3-0-1. The center credited his blue-line teammates for helping take the offense to the next level.
“We’ve been a little more dialed in offensively,” he said. “I think we struggled there for a bit, but we watched some video and wanted to just be more predictable in the (offensive) zone and have our (defensemen) slide more to the middle. They’ve done a great job getting pucks to the net, and we just seem more connected and together.”
The Blues will likely face Karel Vejmelka in goal for Utah. The netminder had a streak of 23 consecutive starts — the longest regular-season run by an NHL goal in 10 years — until Matt Villalta got the win Monday night. Vejmelka went 13-6-4 with a .902 save percentage and a 2.45 GAA during his streak.
–Field Level Media
