Despite battling injuries all season, the Vegas Golden Knights still lead the race for the second Western Conference wild-card playoff spot.
They will try to increase that margin Monday when they visit the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center.
The Golden Knights (38-25-7) currently sit just inside the current bracket with 83 points in 70 games. The Blues (38-30-3) are the first team outside the bracket with 79 points in 71 games.
Vegas has won five of its past seven games while St. Louis has won six of its past seven.
“The playoffs aren’t too far away, so we want to get on a roll here,” Vegas defenseman Ben Hutton said. “We want to make sure we’re all feeling good about our game in making the playoffs, so that’s the key.”
The Golden Knights rallied for a 4-2 victory over the Columbus Blues Jackets on Saturday before embarking on their critical four-game road trip, which will continue with stops in Nashville, Winnipeg and Minnesota.
“It’s just good to get some points at home,” said Golden Knights center Jack Eichel, who scored twice in the game. “Defensively, our game is trending in the right direction. For the most part, I liked our defensive game. We were limiting the other team’s chances.
“We did some good things in the offensive zone as well. The first period wasn’t our best, but through the second and third, we were able to generate some offensive chances.”
The Golden Knights have been playing without injured forwards Mark Stone (upper body) and Tomas Hertl (knee). Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo has been sidelined by illness, and Vegas suffered another injury hit when goaltender Adin Hill exited Saturday’s game with an undisclosed issue.
Logan Thompson came on in relief for him. “(Hill) came to the bench and said he wasn’t feeling 100 percent. So we made the switch,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Other than that, he’s getting his tests.”
The Blues are coming off a 5-4 overtime victory at Minnesota. The Wild are two points behind St. Louis in the playoff chase.
“Going into the game, our record’s right there with them in the standings, and we’re fighting for that last wild-card spot, so it was a big game for us,” said Blues winger Jordan Kyrou, who scored a hat trick in the game to give him four goals and two assists in his past two games.
The Blues have an uphill battle to get into the playoffs, but they still have some leaders from their 2019 Stanley Cup-winning team.
“They know how to win at the end of the year,” interim Blues coach Drew Bannister said. “So I’m not surprised by the way we responded, by the way we played here in the last five, six games.
“I know moving forward here over the last 11 games that the guys are going to come. I know the odds don’t dictate that we can win this, get ourselves in a playoff position, but I wouldn’t bet (against) these guys. They just know how to win, and there’s too much character in that dressing room.”
The Blues won 2-1 in overtime at Vegas on Dec. 4 with Jordan Binnington making 33 saves. Then the Golden Knights prevailed 6-3 two nights later in St. Louis with Thompson making 26 saves in the back half of a home-and-home sequence.
–Field Level Media
