The St. Louis Blues enter their final game before the holiday break with plenty of momentum. Only an old foe stands in their way to a Merry Christmas.
The St. Louis Blues have plenty of momentum going into their final game prior to the holiday break. The Blues are going into the City of Angels with a five-game win streak in their back pocket.
The teams they have played have been mixed. The Blues knocked off the Vegas Golden Knights, the Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche, Edmonton Oilers and San Jose Sharks.
Just as important, all five wins came in regulation. The Blues spent so much extra energy with overtime wins early in the season, but now they are getting it done in 60 minutes.
Now, they go against the Los Angeles Kings for the second time in 2019-20. The Blues won the meeting in St. Louis 5-2 back on October 24.
Since that time, the teams have gone up and down, with the Blues clearly staying on more of a peak than valley. The Kings are definitely in a valley.
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Los Angeles comes into this game tied for the worst record in the Western Conference. They are currently 15-9-4 for 34 points.
They are tied on points with San Jose and Anaheim, showing things are not all that sunny on the gold coast. Only Anaheim has fewer goals on the season than the Kings 98.
Conversely, the Kings have allowed 120 goals to this point. For comparison, the Blues have scored 114 and allowed 98.
Making things rougher for Los Angeles is they went on a six-game point streak just to get to where they are. They went 4-0-2 before losing to Buffalo in their last game before this home game against the Blues.
Now it is a battle to see who goes into the Christmas break with a full stocking and who gets coal.
The Blues have momentum on their side. In addition to their five-game win streak, they are undefeated in their current streak against conference opponents. The game against the Kings will be the sixth game of 12 all against teams from the Western Conference.
According to the team website, here are the four Blues players on the hottest streaks:
Ryan O’Reilly – three-game point streak (two goals, one assist)
Brayden Schenn – four points in his last two games (two goals, two assists)
Jaden Schwartz – 12 points in his last 11 games (five goals, seven assists)
Alex Pietrangelo – eight points in his last eight games (two goals, six assists)
The biggest problem the Blues will face in this game is their habit of playing down to their opponent. If this was a game against Boston or Washington or the Avs, there would be few worries because St. Louis tends to have their best.
It is the bottom dwellers that give them fits. Whether that is a subconscious thing where the back of their mind tells them they don’t have to give their all or something else is unknown.
What is known is the Blues are on a roll and more than capable of beating the Kings if they give their best.
Jordan Binnington is expected to be back in the net.
According to STLToday, the Blues are likely to go with the exact same lineup as seen in San Jose. That would leave Troy Brouwer, Zach Sanford and Niko Mikkola as the scratches.
Line combinations are not available yet, but one would assume there would be little change with those as well.
The game is on Fox Sports Midwest and Fox Sports Go. Listen to the action on 101 ESPN or the NHL app.
My prediction: Blues win 3-1