Good morning Blues fans! The Note got things done yesterday afternoon and while the margins are still paper thin, at least there is a bit of breathing room at the moment.
The St. Louis Blues came into yesterday’s clash with the Nashville Predators with a lot on their plate. Win and you put yourself in the driver’s seat to finish third in the Central Division.
Beat Nashville and get some other favorable results and you put yourself ahead of Calgary too if things turn south regarding being a wild card. Gain a victory and you keep the slim hopes of being the second seed in the Central alive as well.
Unfortunately, that last part is all but gone. Minnesota jumped on top of the Colorado Avalanche and never looked back with a 5-2 win.
So, with four games remaining for the Blues and three for the Wild, things are all but decided as far as moving up. There are only eight possible points on the table for St. Louis, so they would need Minnesota to lose out and the Blues would need to win out.
There is also the vague possibility of tying on points and then it would come down to Regulation-Overtime Wins. Assuming the Blues won out and Minnesota lost, the Blues would have the tie-breaker but those are all big ifs.
Right now, the positive thing is the Blues showed that Colorado was just one bad game for them. It was not the Sword of Damocles perilously hanging over their heads as some worried.
St. Louis came out and scored almost immediately. Within the first six minutes the Blues had the lead from Vladimir Tarasenko‘s goal.
It was Tarasenko’s third in four games. He’s on a streak right now similar to how he ended last season by reaching the 40 goal plateau and could do it again (fingers crossed).
The Blues did allow a goal about five minutes later, but the refs all but handed it to Nashville. Several terrible calls throughout the game gave the Predators some five on three powerplays and this time they cashed in.
On the positive side, it took a Herculean effort to score. Jake Allen made several huge saves before the goal finally counted.
Allen continued to make steady saves after that and earned praise from his coach afterward.
Yeo on Jake Allen: "He made a lot of real difficult saves look easy, and they clearly weren't." #stlblues
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) April 2, 2017
The other positives continue to be the next man up mentality. Mental toughness has not always been a staple of this team, but they are showing it lately with a rash of injuries.
Still, nobody is looking to Tarasenko and begging on bended knee for Vlady to save us. Everyone else is stepping up and doing their part. I mean Joel Edmundson scored on a two-on-one break away for crying out loud.
This team might not be as talented or feel as special as last year’s but there is something about them. They’ve made the strongest of us break down in disgust only to make us proud with the way they have rebounded.
How they finish is up to them. They have put themselves in a heck of a spot though and most would not have believed it if we could tell our past selves how it might end up.
Here are your St. Louis Blues Morning Links to get your day started off right.
The Blues had reason to be pleased with their performances as they took down a solid divisional opponent. Hear from the key players and the coach in the postgame performances. (Blues)
For at least a couple seasons, some fans have wondered what happened to Petteri Lindbohm. The team seemed so high on him and then he was relegated to the minors due to team depth and injury. He got involved right away when given another late season opportunity yesterday. (STLToday)
Another Blues prospect got his first professional goal yesterday just a day after Tage Thompson got his. The Wolves also withstood a furious push to gain an important result as the season winds down. (Wolves)
The Eastern Conference playoff picture just got a lot clearer. While the New York Islanders were not mathematically eliminated, they took a huge blow by losing their best player for the remainder of the regular season. (NHL)
Speaking of injury, a freak occurrence happened in the Philadelphia net the other day, which we discussed in yesterday’s links. Fortunately, the worst was averted and things seem to be all clear for now. (ESPN)
Have a great day Blues fans!