The St. Louis Blues broke gravitational pull of .500 and climbed back into the Western Conference playoff chase with a 9-2-2 surge.
They got their offense into high gear while beating the Minnesota Wild 5-1 on the road Saturday and routing the Anaheim Ducks 7-2 at home Sunday. Jordan Kyrou had three goals and three assists over the weekend.
The Blues (33-28-7, 73 points) will try to sustain that roll on the road Tuesday against the host Nashville Predators (25-33-8, 58 points).
“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 game, real 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 put ourselves in. We’re not there, we’ve got to keep going.”
Vancouver has 73 points in 67 games — one fewer game than the Blues have played. That game in hand has the Canucks in the lead for the final wild-card playoff spot.
The Calgary Flames and Utah Hockey Club are just two points behind Canucks and Blues in the four-team battle for the final spot.
After playing Nashville, the Blues will have a four-game homestand which begins with a game against Vancouver.
“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,” Blues captain Brayden Schenn said. “Teams have games in hand. At the end of the day, you need a strong week here.”
The Predators like where their goaltending and team defense stand as they enter the stretch run of the regular season. But they will look to generate more offense when they big a three-game homestand against the Blues.
Nashville held its last four opponents to two goals or fewer. But the Predators scored just seven goals while going 2-1-1 during that span.
“I think it comes down to making a few plays with the puck to score,” Nashville defenseman Brady Skjei said after the Predators fell 1-0 to the Kings in overtime Saturday in Los Angeles. “Our D-zone has been pretty good and just got to work on getting pucks through neutral zone and then making some plays offensively.”
“Defensemen getting shots through and just creating a little traffic in front and those arteries usually how you score in this league. Got to work a little bit more on that.”
Winger Filip Forsberg leads the Predators with 59 points, but he has just four goals and two assists in his last 12 games. Jonathan Marchessault has just one goal and two assists in his last 11 games.
On the other hand, Steven Stamkos has five goals and four assists over six games after going without a point in his previous 13 games.
The Predators lost the previous meeting between these teams 7-4 on Dec. 27 in St. Louis. Goaltender Juuse Saros allowed five goals on 16 shots before getting pulled from the game in the second period.
Robert Thomas scored twice for the Blues in that game and Cam Fowler had a goal and two assists.
–Field Level Media
