The St. Louis Blues are backsliding all the way down the standings, and there is seemingly no end in sight, and now, the injuries are starting to pile up.
The St. Louis Blues are going to be without both Brayden Schenn and now Patrick Maroon after both were placed on IR. As if the on-ice struggles were not enough, now some of the Blues most prominent players, at least theoretically, will be out of the lineup.
This is the first game of four in three days, all against west coast opponents. After Vegas, the Blues will head to San Jose tomorrow and head back home for one game against the Los Angeles Kings.
Vegas Golden Knights (7th Place In Pacific)
Record: 8-10-1
Last 10: 4-6-0
Season Series: STL Leads 1-0
Point Leaders: Jonathan Marchessault (15), William Karlsson (14)
Well, after a run to the Stanley Cup Finals in their inaugural season, the Golden Knights have seemingly played like we all thought they would last year in their first year as a franchise.
The Blues are two points worse than the Golden Knights, and if they want to make up the difference and get two more points again against Vegas, then they will need to get past Marc Andre Fleury and his new golden pads.
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To replace some of the injured Blues, the team recalled Sammy Blais from AHL San Antonio. It’s not surprising that Blais is the first player recalled. He has had experience playing limited minutes at the NHL level.
Jordan Kyrou, I’m sure, was also considered for the temporary promotion, but for the same reasons he was sent down, he wouldn’t be able to get the same opportunities that he is getting at the minor league level.
Robert Thomas has been one of the Blues best players over the past three games. Since Schenn’s injury, Thomas has received more minutes and has played well enough for us to start considering a position change so he can continue to get top line minutes.
It’s incredibly likely that we see both Chad Johnson and Jake Allen over the next few days unless Allen goes out and pitches a shutout tonight in Vegas. Allen played exceptionally well against the Blackhawks on Wednesday and outside of an own-goal by (you guessed it) Jay Bouwmeester, he shut down the Hawks.
The title of this piece is “Blues Roll The Dice” in reality, I should have said that Mike Yeo is about to roll the dice in Vegas if he continues to make the same decisions over and over again. It is beyond me why Bouwmeester is A, still in the lineup and B, on the PK.
There must be a significant difference between what Yeo sees on the bench, and what I see on my television regarding some of the Blues play so far this year. However, if he and the Blues don’t turn this around soon, Yeo might be able to stay in Vegas for the foreseeable future.