The St. Louis Blues return to the scene where their teammate had a cardiac episode. Focusing on hockey will be paramount.
So, tonight, the St. Louis Blues return to the scene of an almost tragic loss earlier this year. No, I do not mean the loss of a game, though the game was not played, but almost the loss of a human being and friend to those that don the sweater.
The Blues return to the Honda Center in Anaheim California, where Jay Bouwmeester had a cardiac episode and where his career might have ended – time will tell on that. Given the fact there are so many other issues going on in sports, particularly in California, it might be hard to focus on the sport of hockey.
Nevertheless, that is exactly what the Blues must do. They have to focus on what is in front of them in the here and now and do their best not to remember what just was.
It sounds simple, but the human mind is a strange thing. None of us can say for sure that you won’t be skating around and remember what part of the ice you were on or what position you sat on the bench when Bouwmeester passed out.
The entire thing might come flooding back like a bad dream. Even warmups might prove to be an awkward thing.
For the Blues, it would be best just to treat the entire night as just another game. While it might be heartwarming, it would be best for St. Louis for there not to be any extra reminders of what happened, such as honoring the first responders or unveiling any get well banners for Bouwmeester.
Or, perhaps those things could happen and not affect the team at all. We are not in their skates, as it were, so it is hard to say. However, if it was me, I would want this game treated like every other one and not have to think about what happened there just a few short weeks ago.
The Blues know their teammate is in good health, relatively, and good spirits. They should be able to focus on the task at hand, which is winning and keeping Colorado at bay. As said, the mind is not often under our own control though.
How they stack up
The Ducks, like all the California teams, are essentially out of the playoff race. They are not mathematically eliminated yet, but if they won all of their remaining games, they would get to 91 points. The current eighth seed would only need 13 points out of their last 12 games to get to the same point total and would likely have tie breakers in their favor, so the Ducks are done.
The Blues know they are all but in, again not clinched, but they would basically have to lose every game to miss. They are not locked into the top seed, however, and that should be an important thing to them even if they say it is not publicly. Colorado has managed to lose to keep the Blues afloat, but they cling to a meager two point lead at the top of the Central Division.
The Blues come into tonight having lost 2-1 to the Florida Panthers and falling to 41-19-10 for 92 points. The Ducks are 29-32-9 for 67 points.
Anaheim is an awful minus-39 in goal difference, having scored 185 and given up 222. The Blues are plus-30, having scored 221 and given up 191.
The Blues have struggled to score the last two games played, but they might have help coming soon. Unfortunately, it will not come in this game as their best scorer did not make the trip to Anaheim.
The Blues are still 8-2-0 in their last 10, despite the loss. Anaheim is 5-3-2 in their last 10 and beaten Colorado, Toronto and Ottawa in three of their last four, so they aren’t pushovers.
Projected lineup
Here is tonight’s projected lineup from the team website:
Forwards
Blais – O’Reilly – Perron
Schwartz – Schenn – Steen
Sanford – Thomas – Kyrou
MacEachern – Sundqvist – Barbashev
Defense
Faulk – Pietrangelo
Scandella – Parayko
Dunn – Bortuzzo
Goalie
Allen
I fully trust in the coach, so this is not a knock in Craig Berube, but I don’t het the lineup these days.
What happened to Carl Gunnarsson? Seemed like he played well and then benched. I’m not as big a fan of Bortz as others.
Forwards are slightly different again too. Oh well. Just have to get the job done.
Prediction
This is a tougher one to call than one might think. There are so many small factors that come into play that nobody can really gauge, like the emotional factor.
If we boil it down to just hockey and the players find a way to do the same, the Blues should win. They’re better in just about all phases, with the exception of their power play, which has stunk the last two games or so.
While I don’t personally advocate sports betting, if you choose to partake, remember that the game will start with the score 1-1, even though they are going to play a full 60 minutes tonight. Ivan Barbashev will finally get credit for the goal he scored in that game too, so his name will be in the score sheet even if he does not actually score this evening.
Overall, I think the Blues do enough to get through this awkward situation with a win. Blues take it 3-2, with the scoring tonight being 2-1 – weird, huh?