When the St. Louis Blues look for Lucky 13 on Monday against the Winnipeg Jets to begin a three-game roads trip, it could come with a great reward.
The Blues (43-28-7), who established a franchise record with their 12th straight win on Saturday in a 5-4 win against the Colorado Avalanche, are in search of their 13th straight win against the Central Division-leading Jets (52-21-4) at 6:30 p.m. (FDSNMW, NHLN, Prime-Canada, ESPN 101.1-FM) and if they win in regulation, coupled with a Calgary Flames regulation loss to the San Jose Sharks, the Blues would clinch a playoff berth for the first time since 2022-23.
It’s quite the remarkable feat in front of the Blues, who came out of the 4 Nations Face-Off break eight points behind the Vancouver Canucks for the second wild card from the Western Conference. But they currently sit in the first wild card, two points ahead of the Minnesota Wild and in line to face the Vegas Golden Knights in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs should they start today. The Wild, who currently hold the second wild card, would face the Jets should the standings hold up.
“Staying in the moment, worrying about our next game and getting prepared for it, our day to day habits have been excellent,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “Not discussing where we are in the standings and not talking about who’s injured. They haven’t talked about any of them [Colton Parayko, Dylan Holloway] as a group together.”
The Blues trip will then move on against the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday and wrap up where it all began on Oct. 8, against the Seattle Kraken on Saturday before their regular season ends April 15 against Utah Hockey Club.
“That’s been a key to this whole operation.” goalie Jordan Binnington said of living in the moment. “Just keeping our focus on what’s in our control. That’s winning hockey games and getting points and building our game to playoff time.”
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* The teams will wrap up their season series tonight. Winnipeg has won two of the three, winning 3-2 on Oct. 22 in St. Louis and 4-3 in a shootout Feb. 22 at Enterprise Center. The Blues won 4-1 at Canada Life Centre on Dec. 2, so each of the three games has been won by the road team.
* Blues center Robert Thomas is riding an eight-game point streak (three goals, 14 assists) but he also has seven points (three goals, four assists) in three games against the Jets this season.
* Blues defenseman Cam Fowler has six points (one goal, five assists) in a three-game point streak and nine points (two goals, seven assists) the past six games.
* Blues forward Zack Bolduc has 12 goals in 22 games since the 4 Nations break; he had just six goals in 46 games previously.
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Blues Projected Lineup:
Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Jimmy Snuggerud
Jake Neighbours-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou
Mathieu Joseph-Oskar Sundqvist-Zack Bolduc
Alexey Toropchenko-Radek Faksa-Nathan Walker
Cam Fowler-Nick Leddy
Philip Broberg-Justin Faulk
Ryan Suter-Tyler Tucker
Joel Hofer will start in goal; Jordan Binnington will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Matthew Kessel and Dalibor Dvorsky. Colton Parayko (knee), Dylan Holloway (lower body) and Alexandre Texier (upper body) are all out. Torey Krug (ankle) is out for the season.
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Jets Projected Lineup:
Kyle Connor-Mark Scheifele-Alex Iafallo
Nikolaj Ehlers-Vladislav Namestnikov-Cole Perfetti
Nino Niederreiter-Adam Lowry-Mason Appleton
Brandon Tanev-Morgan Barron-Jaret Anderson-Dolan
Josh Morrissey-Dylan DeMelo
Dylan Samburg-Luke Schenn
Logan Stanley-Haydn Fleury
Connor Hellebuyck will start in goal; Eric Comrie will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Ville Heinola and David Gustafsson. Neal Pionk (lower body), Gabriel Vilardi (upper body) and Rasmus Kupari (concussion) are out. Colin Miller (illness) and Ehlers (foot) each is a game time decision.
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