St. Louis Blues Head North For A Wild Divisional Battle

The St. Louis Blues put their hot streak on the line as they head up north into Wild Country. It is the Blues against the Minnesota Wild in game number 63.

The St. Louis Blues have not been playing half bad lately. Wouldn’t you agree?

As ineffective as the Blues were during their five-game winless streak, the results both on the score sheet and on the ice have been a polar opposite during the last three wins. The Blues have outscored their opponents 7-1 over the last three games and, quite frankly, it should have been more goals.

The goaltenders for New Jersey and Arizona bailed their teams out time after time. Even though St. Louis won 3-0 and 1-0, each game could have easily had four to six goals for St. Louis.

Regardless, the Blues got the wins and that was the most important thing. The Blues had allowed their division rivals to creep up on them.

However, if you consider the Stanley Cup champions a lion, the lions have roared at the sneaky scavengers that they are not yet done with their meal. The question now is whether the Minnesota Wild will prove to be a thorn in the side of the Blues or whether St. Louis will continue their sudden playoff-like form.

How they stack up

The St. Louis Blues are winners of their last three. That gives them 80 points with a record of 35-17-10.

More from Bleedin' Blue

The Central Division is not quite the level of the Pacific, but things continue to change game to game. When the Blues played Dallas, first place was on the line. Now, the Blues are up by four points on Dallas but only one thin point above the Colorado Avalanche who have also won their last three.

Despite their three wins, the Blues are only 4-4-2 in their last 10 games.

For their part, despite a disappointing season, the Minnesota Wild are still in it. They have a record of 29-24-7 and 65 points.

That puts them just four points out of a playoff spot. The problem the Wild face is that they have four teams ahead of them that are also non-playoff teams but very close.

Minnesota has scored 185 goals and given up 198. They have won their last two games beating the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 and the Edmonton Oilers 5-3. Both of those games were on the road, so this evening is the first of a two-game home stand for the Wild.

The Blues have won both games in this series thus far this season. Both came early and were close with a 2-1 win in October and a 4-3 OT win in November.

Projected lineup

This is the projected lineup from the team website:

Forwards

Schwartz – O’Reilly – Schenn
Sanford – Thomas – Perron
Steen – Sundqvist – Kyrou
MacEachern – Barbashev – Blais

Defense

Gunnarsson – Pietrangelo
Scandella – Parayko
Dunn – Faulk

Goalie

Binnington

Prediction

Just seeing the names on the marquee, I would have said this was a Blues win in a walk. You have the top team against the team just three points from the bottom.

However, the Wild have beaten some good teams lately and scored a lot of goals doing so. The Blues have been doing well offensively lately, but are known to randomly go cold, so that is slightly worrying.

With all that in mind, I don’t think the Blues give up on their hot streak just yet. St. Louis squeaks by, keeping this one goal difference thing alive, and win 3-2.

Don’t forget tonight’s game starts earlier at 6:30.

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