After a disappointing 3-2 Colorado Avalanche loss happened on Sunday in Denver against the Blues, the teams head east to complete the home-and-home in St. Louis. Colorado will once again have the opportunity to clinch the top seed in the West while St. Louis desperately needs a win to keep their playoff hopes alive.
The home stretch of the regular season hasn’t been as kind to the Avalanche as they’d like but the squad has won their last five road games. This rematch sets up in favor of the Avalanche for that reason plus they’ve been able to serve up revenge for a loss all season.
One lineup question is Val Nichushkin who sat out the Sunday game with an upper-body injury. It’s not considered serious, more just managing bumps and bruises but it’s possible he remains out and Zakhar Bardakov takes his place again.
Artturi Lehkonen — Nathan MacKinnon — Martin Necas
Gabriel Landeskog — Brock Nelson — Valeri Nichushkin
Ross Colton — Nazem Kadri — Logan O’Connor
Parker Kelly — Jack Drury — Joel Kiviranta
Devon Toews — Sam Malinski
Brett Kulak — Josh Manson
Nick Blankenburg — Brent Burns
St. Louis is certainly hoping for a repeat performance from their leading scorer Robert Thomas who crafted a hat trick against the Avalanche on Sunday. With 78 points the Blues are still on the outside looking in position in the Western Conference wild card race but are still taking their recent winning streak as far as they can.
Dylan Holloway — Robert Thomas — Jimmy Snuggerud
Jake Neighbours — Pavel Buchnevich — Jordan Kyrou
Otto Stenberg — Dalibor Dvorsky — Jonatan Berggren
Alexey Toropchenko — Jack Finley — Pius Suter
Philip Broberg — Logan Mailloux
Theo Lindstein — Colton Parayko
Cam Fowler — Justin Holl
Considering Joel Hofer has been backstopping most of the Blues’ recent success it would make sense that he gets the net again in a must-win game. For the Avalanche, after Mackenzie Blackwood didn’t get the win over the weekend, it’s probably Scott Wedgewood’s turn in net for this contest.