Closing in on playoff berth, Blues take on Kraken

The St. Louis Blues look to snap a two-game skid and move their Stanley Cup playoff hopes closer to reality when they visit the struggling Seattle Kraken on Saturday night.

The Blues (43-30-7, 93 points) hold the Western Conference’s second wild-card position, but their push to punch a ticket to the second season has been stalled by a pair of losses following a franchise record-setting 12-game winning streak.

Entering Friday, St. Louis held a five-point lead over the Calgary Flames, who were set to host the Minnesota Wild on Friday night.

After opening their three-game road trip with a 3-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, the Blues suffered a stunning 4-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday.

The back-and-forth affair was decided by an Oilers goal with 21 seconds remaining in regulation.

“It’s frustrating. We had a lot of looks, I had a lot of looks and I’ll be thinking about those,” said forward Robert Thomas, who has collected 22 points (four goals, 18 assists) on a 10-game point streak. “We’re a good third-period team, we’re always in it, we keep fighting and we gave ourselves a chance to win the game or get a point. It’s unfortunate, the way it ended.”

Thomas is not alone in rolling offensively. Pavel Buchnevich has scored in four consecutive games and racked up six points (four goals, two assists) in a four-game run.

As tough as it has been to swallow those defeats, the Blues — who finish the regular season on Tuesday at home against the Utah Hockey Club — still control their playoff fate.

“We’ve shown throughout here ever since 4 Nations (Face-Off) that we’re a team that’s just going to keep coming,” coach Jim Montgomery said. “And I love that about our group.”

Meanwhile, the Kraken return home for the final two games of a disappointing campaign.

Seattle (34-40-6, 74 points) has lost two straight and is back on the West Coast after a 2-1 defeat Thursday at Vegas.

The Kraken, long ago eliminated from playoff contention, rebounded from a 7-1 beatdown against Utah two days before, but it still was not enough to end their road portion of their schedule on a positive note.

“It was a really good start to the game, had a bunch of good shifts from all lines and getting much better from our group,” said Kraken coach Dan Bylsma. “A bounce back from the whole team, but (goaltender) Joey (Daccord), in particular, obviously gave us a bounce-back game. He was really good and really solid, and it was an effort the team needed.”

Seattle, which will finish the season on Tuesday when the Los Angeles Kings visit, will miss the playoffs for the second consecutive season. More disappointing is how the team, despite making off-season free-agent acquisitions such as forward Chandler Stephenson and defenseman Brandon Montour, was essentially out of the playoff mix one month into the season.

The goal in the final two games is to create positive energy to build on for next season.

“The last month we have been looking pretty good,” said Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson. “We want to finish strong, not only for ourselves but for the fans. Now we have two home games to do that, so Saturday is definitely a big game for us.”

–Field Level Media