The St. Louis Blues enter their penultimate game of the 2024-25 season still unclear yet whether their season will extend beyond Tuesday or not.
Things became quite clear on Saturday after the Calgary Flames once again decided they aren’t going any where in this Western Conference wild card race after a 4-2 win against the Minnesota Wild on Friday.
So the scenario is that the Blues (43-30-7), who face the Seattle Kraken (34-40-6) in their final road game of the season, the place where they opened the season Oct. 8 and won 3-2, are tied with the Wild with identical records and identical points (93). Each has played 80 games and each plays on Saturday.
The Wild currently hold the tiebreaker edge on the Blues with regulation wins (33-31) and if the season were to end on Saturday, would hold the first wild card while the Blues hold the second.
Meanwhile, the Flames (38-27-14) have three games remaining, a game in hand on each the Blues and Wild, could play spoiler in this if they continue to win their games.
While the Blues are playing the Kraken, the Wild will be facing the Vancouver Canucks at the same time; the Flames host the San Jose Sharks on Sunday and finish their season Thursday, two days after the Blues and Wild conclude theirs.
If the Blues win out, and the Wild slip up anywhere, they could get the first wild card and face the Vegas Golden Knights. Whoever finishes in the second wild card will get the Winnipeg Jets, who ended the Blues’ franchise-record 12-game winning streak on Monday.
The Blues have followed up that 12-game winning streak with two straight losses, including Wednesday’s 4-3 defeat to the Edmonton Oilers when Edmonton scored with 20.7 seconds remaining in regulation to steal what could be at least one precious point for St. Louis, which has to regroup and forge on trying to secure that first playoff spot since 2021-22.
– – –
One bit of good news on the injury front for the Blues is defenseman Colton Parayko, who has been out since March 5 after injuring his left knee and needing a scope.
Hearing that Tuesday’s season finale, at home against Utah Hockey Club, if all goes well and there aren’t any sudden setbacks, is when Parayko will get back into the lineup.
However, the Blues announced that defenseman Philip Broberg returned to St. Louis due to a personal matter and will be unavailable for this game, and Matthew Kessel will jump into the lineup.
Aan updated lineup will be available in pregame warmups.
– – –
Blues Projected Lineup:
Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Jordan Kyrou
Jake Neighbours-Brayden Schenn-Jimmy Snuggerud
Mathieu Joseph-Oskar Sundqvist-Zack Bolduc
Alexey Toropchenko-Radek Faksa-Nathan Walker
Cam Fowler-Nick Leddy
Ryan Suter-Justin Faulk
Tyler Tucker-Matthew Kessel
Jordan Binnington will start in goal; Joel Hofer will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Philip Broberg (personal) and Dalibor Dvorsky. Colton Parayko (knee), Dylan Holloway (lower body) and Alexandre Texier (upper body) are out. Torey Krug (ankle) is out for the season.
– – –
Kraken Projected Lineup:
Jaden Schwartz-Chandler Stephenson-Jordan Eberle
Jared McCann-Shane Wright-Andre Burakovsky
Eeli Tolvanen-Matty Beniers-Kaapo Kakko
Michael Eyssimont-John Hayden-Ryan Winterton
Vince Dunn-Adam Larsson
Ryker Evans-Brandon Montour
Josh Mahura-Jamie Oleksiak
Philipp Grubauer will start in goal; Joey Daccord will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Cale Fleury and Tye Kartye. The Kraken report no injuries.
Read the full article here
