The St. Louis Blues and Calgary Flames are set to do battle on Wednesday. This is the first of two games up north, with a visit to Vancouver on Saturday. These next two games are basically battles for draft position.
Both Calgary and Vancouver hold the best odds for the second and first-overall selections in hand right now, respectively. The Blues are fifth-best, at 8.5%. But, with head coach Jim Montgomery's mantra of playing competitive hockey right now despite whatever draft implications arise from winning games, expect a full effort from the Blues in these games. The same cannot be said for both Calgary and Vancouver.
Looking at this first tilt against the Flames, there are three key players to watch for from the Blue Note side. These players will have big impacts on the game, as they have been hot as of late in this recent stretch of successful hockey.
Let's take a look.
Jimmy Snuggerud
The third star of the week for the entirety of the NHL, Jimmy Snuggerud, is continuing to show his true potential. He has been a lightning rod on this team during their best stretch of hockey on the season, and there is plenty of time for the rest of the season to prove himself.
Robert Thomas
After all of the trade talk has died down and the dust has settled on him being a Blue for life, for now, Robert Thomas has been fantastic since the deadline. Prior to the loss against Winnipeg, No. 18 was on a nine-game point streak that included six goals and eight assists for 14 points. Can he get back on track here against Calgary?
Logan Mailloux
Logan Mailloux has been getting a lot more playing time recently, and that is because he earned it. He has been great at both ends of the ice, and subsequently, is lobbying for a spot on the top defensive pairing with Philip Broberg. After having a very rough start and middle of the season, he is turning things around slowly at the end of it.
It is starting to look like General Manager Doug Armstrong won the trade with Zack Bolduc and Montreal, after all.