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ST. LOUIS – It’s not exactly make-or-break time for the St. Louis Blues and Vancouver Canucks, but to call Thursday’s game between the two at Enterprise Center (Disney+, HULU, ESPN+, ESPN 101.1-FM) just another regular season game would be a gross understatement.
The Blues (34-28-7) and Canucks (32-25-11) are even in points (75) in the second wild card in the Western Conference, and a regulation win for either side would be a huge advantage, especially for the Canucks, who do have a game in hand and currently hold the position because of that scenario.
So the Blues, who have 13 games remaining, know the implications.
“It’s massive, it’s huge,” said Blues forward Dylan Holloway, who is riding a four-game point streak (two goals, five assists). “The standings are so tight. We’ve got (a game) played more than they do, so Thursday’s game is huge.”
Jordan Kyrou, who has five goals and three assists in a three-game point streak, said, “It’s a huge game for us. Vancouver is right there with us in the standings. We need to be ready to go tonight.”
Indeed.
The Blues have the most points (20) since the 4 Nations Face-Off break resumed and are 10-2-2 the past 14 games, including a 4-1 win against the Nashville Predators on Tuesday, to erase an eight-point deficit and climb their way back into this.
Their confidence level is as high as it’s been all season, and these are the kinds of games they’ll be measured up to when all is said and done.
“I think guys are excited,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “It’s the biggest game of the year because of the time of the year, but we’ve put ourselves in the situation where we’re in sights of Vancouver. They have a little bit of an advantage on us with the game in hand, but it’s a four-point game. Everyone’s excited for puck drop.
“You worry about your identity. You worry about playing to our game. We’ve played a lot of good teams here in the last little while and our commitment to playing the right way without the puck, and especially with the puck has allowed us to defend really well.”
The Canucks have won three of four and outscored their opponents 17-10, and the Blues are 1-1-0 against them in the season series, winning 4-3 in overtime on Dec. 10 and losing 5-2 here on home ice Jan. 27.
“You’ve got to be ready to grind out a low-scoring win,” Montgomery said. “They defend really well, they don’t give up a lot of odd-man rushes. They really protect the most valuable part of the ice, the middle of the ice really well in all three zones, their forecheck is really good. We’ve got to be clean, we’ve got to making sure we’re coming back hard so that we can get out of our zone, so we don’t spend a lot of time there tonight.”
Of course the Blues will have to be wary of Vancouver captain Quinn Hughes at all times. The defenseman leads the team in assists (49), points (65) and is a plus-11.
“You have to be aware of him in all three zones,” Montgomery said. “He’s so slippery, his puck deception, if it’s not the best in the league, it’s among the elite players in the league. Not only the puck deception of where he passes it but where he goes after he passes it. People will say you’ve got to just worry about him in the offensive zone, but in the neutral zone, he’s so dynamic and on breakouts, he’s not a guy you say, ‘Oh, just go hit him because he’s not the biggest defenseman.’ It’s not easy to do. He knows where everybody is and it’s almost like he’s playing chess while a lot of other people are playing checkers.”
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Blues Projected Lineup:
Jake Neighbours-Robert Thomas-Pavel Buchnevich
Dylan Holloway-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou
Mathieu Joseph-Oskar Sundqvist-Zack Bolduc
Alexey Toropchenko-Radek Faksa-Nathan Walker
Cam Fowler-Nick Leddy
Philip Broberg-Justin Faulk
Ryan Suter-Tyler Tucker
Jordan Binnington will start in goal; Joel Hofer will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Alexandre Texier and Matthew Kessel. Colton Parayko (knee) is out. Torey Krug (ankle) is out for the season.
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Canucks Projected Lineup:
Nils Hoglander-Elias Pettersson-Brock Boeser
Jake DeBrusk-Pius Suter-Kiefer Sherwood
Drew O'Connor-Teddy Blueger-Linus Karlsson
Dakota Joshua-Nils Aman-Conor Garland
Quinn Hughes-Tyler Myers
Marcus Pettersson-Filip Hronek
Derek Forbort-Elias Nils Pettersson
Kevin Lankinen will start in goal; Thatcher Demko will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Victor Mancini, Arturs Silovs and Johnathan Lekkermaki. Filip Chytil (upper body) and Noah Juulsen (lower body).
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