The St. Louis Blues’ top center, Robert Thomas, is getting closer to returning from his broken ankle.
He joined the Blues on their recent road trip through Buffalo, Boston, and Carolina, where he continued to skate. The Blues have been working hard to avoid a major slump while Thomas and three injured defensemen have been out of the lineup.
The Blues will continue that challenge when they face the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night.
During their trip, St. Louis lost 4-3 in overtime to the Sabres last Thursday, won 3-2 in overtime against the Bruins on Saturday, and then lost 4-1 to the Hurricanes on Sunday.
Despite missing Thomas and defensemen Philip Broberg, Nick Leddy, and Pierre-Olivier Joseph, who are all injured, the Blues outshot the Hurricanes 30-24 and played well for most of the game.
“I thought we outplayed them,” said Blues winger Jack Neighbours. “I thought we deserved better, whether it was to get it to overtime or just be in the game at the end. I think the difference, at the end of the day, is they scored on their chances and we didn’t.”
The Blues also made some costly turnovers that gave the Hurricanes good chances to score.
“I think it’s just a couple little errors that we need to fix, but I didn’t hate our effort,” said Blues forward Dylan Holloway. “I thought a back-to-back, it didn’t feel like a 4-1 game to me. Sometimes, your effort doesn’t show, I guess, in the score.”
The Minnesota Wild have also been 1-1-1 in their last three games. They slowed down a bit after winning nine of their previous 11 games, partly due to injuries to key players like forwards Joel Eriksson Ek and Mats Zuccarello, and defenseman Jonas Brodin.
The Wild managed to adjust to those injuries by focusing on defense in their Saturday game against the Dallas Stars, but still lost 2-1.
“You got to put your work boots on and go,” said forward Marcus Foligno. “So we kept it close, and we had a fighting chance at the end. And you never want to be satisfied with losing. But there’s some things in this game where, as a team, we didn’t open up with a track meet or anything like that where we got uncharacteristic and didn’t listen to the coach, didn’t listen to our systems.”
Wild head coach John Hynes believes the team’s strong third period against Dallas will help them moving forward.
“You come out in the third period, you’re not turning pucks over,” said Hynes. “You don’t get away from it. You put them under duress… I look at the style of game, the mindset, the discipline, things like that. You’re going to win more of those opportunities. I like where we’re headed, for sure.”
The Wild expect to have Eriksson Ek (lower-body injury) and Brodin (upper-body injury) back in the lineup for Tuesday’s game. Both players practiced on Monday.
The Blues are likely to start Jordan Binnington in goal after Joel Hofer played in Sunday’s loss. The Wild are expected to go with Filip Gustavsson in goal against the Blues and then switch to Marc-Andre Fleury for one of their upcoming games against Edmonton or Calgary.
