St. Louis Blues plays its last game with a regular season on Tuesday, and they hope that the home competition against Utah Hockey Club will not be the last meaningful until the fall.
Blues (43-30-8, 94 points) control their fate. Defeating Utah (38-30-13, 89 points) in regulation would unlock one of the two Western Conference Wild locations. St. Louis could also manage no matter how it goes Tuesday night, but an overtime gain or loss or loss of regulation would require help outside.
Just ten days ago, Blues celebrated a layer record with the 12-game winning line that valued them to a playoffs. Since then, St. Louis lost three straight (0-2-1), with the latest defeat coming Saturday in Seattle. Blues had a 3-2 lead but gave up the binding target halfway through the third period and fell 4-3 after the Kraken demanded shootout in the seventh round.
On Monday, St. said The Louis players that they hoped to play Game 82 at home would work in their favor.
“We had backs against the wall that came out from (4 nations face off) break and went on a nice run there,” said Blues goalkeeper Jordan Binnington. “Now our backs are on the wall where we have a chance to cope. Only 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 put out a 12-3-1 record with a .907 Savings percentage and a 2.31 goal-for average. He was 15-19-4 with a .897 Savings percentage and a 2.89 GAA before the hiatus of the four nations.
When it comes to St. The Louis crime has the center Robert Thomas been on toes. He has an 11-game point streak (four goals, 19 assists), and he leads the team with 79 points (21, 58) despite missing 12 matches during the fall after breaking their right ankle. Thomas is two assists from matching his career best in total, sat last season.
Utah will end just outside a playoffs during his first season after the club moved from Arizona. The team is led by a native of St. The Louis area, Clayton Keller, who could ruin the chance after the season for the team he grew up and watched.
On Monday, Keller played in his 600th NHL game and scored two goals and noted two assists in Utah’s 7-3 road victory over the Nashville Predators. He has four goals and five assists in his last five games.
Keller and his teammates have been peppering the goal over the past week and done 22 times while they went 3-0-1. The center credited its blue -line mates to help take the crime to the next level.
“We have become a little more called offensive,” he said. “I think we struggled there a bit, but we watched some video and just wanted to be more predictable in the (offensive) zone and have our (defender) slip more to the middle. They have done a good job of getting pucks to the net, and we just seem more connected and together.”
Blues are likely to meet Karel Vejmelka in goal for Utah. The Netminder had a line of 23 consecutive start-up-the longest regular season run by an NHL goal of ten years-to-Matt Villanta got the victory Monday evening. Vejmelka went 13-6-4 with a .902 savings percentage and a 2.45 gaa during its row.
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