The St. Louis Blues might rather be somewhere else, with someone else or thinking about something else. However, their profession dictates they must quickly shift their focus back to the ice.
A few days ago, this part of the St. Louis road trip was supposed to have a much different tone. We were hoping they would have won in Anaheim and the players could have a fun trip to the city of Las Vegas with their fathers.
There might have been trips to casinos or to see shows or any number of things. Instead, life likes to throw wrenches into the works every now and then.
The health scare with Jay Bouwmeester during the first period of the game against the Anaheim Ducks was enough to make the hockey world stop for everyone involved with the Blues and even those not affiliated with the team. However, as the saying goes, time waits for no man.
The Blues must find a way to refocus on the game of hockey because, as much as the hockey community rallied behind them, the Vegas Golden Knights are not going to care what the Blues are going through once the puck drops. Vegas is in a fight in their division, where they are only five points from first place but also one point from not even making the playoffs.
From a pure hockey perspective, the Blues can not afford to lose. The Colorado Avalanche are only one point behind St. Louis with a game still in hand.
It is understandable that the team would rather be with their teammate and keeping his spirits high until he can leave the UC Irvine hospital room. However, the best way to respect a hockey player is by playing hockey and winning. While none of us are in Boumeester’s head, I have little doubt that he would rather his team go out, play hard and win rather than sit in a hospital lobby worrying about him.
This is all easier said than done, of course. Even when you tell yourself to focus on a task, the mind has a way of wandering. The Blues will just have to do their best and hope they’ve had enough rest to let them accomplish their goal.
How they stack up
The Blues remain at 73 points since the portion of the game against Anaheim did not count. For those that missed it, the game will be restarted with a full 60 minutes to be played whenever that is rescheduled.
Vegas comes in with a record of 28-22-8 and 64 points. They have lost their last two games and are 4-4-2 in their last 10.
Offense has not been an issue for Vegas, except for consistency at times. They have 182 goals scored, but only a plus-4 goal difference since they have allowed 178 to this point.
The last couple losses were not the best for Vegas either. They lost 6-5 in a shootout against Carolina, showcasing their leaky defense. Then, they got shut out by Minnesota 4-0.
Though the history against Vegas is small, the Blues have had their struggles in T-Mobile arena. In parts of three seasons, St. Louis has only one win there which came in 2018-19.
This season is one where two of the three games will be in Vegas. The last time that happened, the Blues lost both in Vegas and St. Louis has already lost one in the desert this season. That was a 5-4 OT loss back in January.
The Blues win over Vegas came at home by a score of 4-2.
Projected Lineup
Here is the projected lineup from the team website:
Forwards
Sanford – O’Reilly – Perron
Schwartz – Schenn – Steen
Blais – Thomas – Bozak
MacEachern – Barbashev – Kyrou
Defense
Gunnarsson – Pietrangelo
Faulk – Parayko
Dunn – Bortuzzo
Goalie
Binnington
Prediction
There really is no telling how this game will turn out. If everything was “normal” then you could basically say it’s a pick’em.
Being a Blues fan, I might lean toward St. Louis to eek out a win, but St. Louis has had defending problems of their own so you cannot tell what they would have done. That was before the Bouwmeester incident.
That said, this is not a normal situation. No matter how much you try, it is going to be weird without Bouwmeester being there and the team still not fully knowing his health condition, even if the prognosis is very good.
All of us have gone through things in our lives and still gone to work or something of that nature. You went through your day and maybe nobody around you knew anything was wrong, but it was still difficult and often the work may have suffered in some way or another.
With that in mind, I think the Blues are just off their game against a focused Vegas. Blues do their best given the circumstances, but lose 3-2.