Preview: Blues at Wild

[March 07, 2017]  It took a matchup against the worst team in hockey for the St. Louis Blues to halt their five-game slide, but they will be stepping well up in class when they visit the Central Division-leading Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night. The Blues hold a one-point lead for the final playoff in the Western Conference as they conclude a three-game road trip.

St. Louis had scored six goals during its five-game skid before posting a 3-0 shutout over the woeful Colorado Avalanche, but coach Mike Yeo knows there's plenty of area for improvement. "Our play with the puck has to be better," Yeo said at Monday's practice. "You come into this building tomorrow and we won't create offense against a team like this if we don't have that." The Wild's lead atop the division has been cut to one point by white-hot Chicago despite going 9-3-1 in their last 13 games -- with two of the losses coming by 1-0 scores. While the teams have split the first four meetings this season, Minnesota outscored the Blues 8-2 in winning the last two at Xcel Energy Center.

TV: 8 p.m. ET, FSN Midwest (St. Louis), FSN Wisconsin, FSN North (Minnesota)

ABOUT THE BLUES (32-27-5): Goaltender Jake Allen, who took a shot in the throat late in Sunday's shutout and admitted it was tough to talk after the game, was at Monday's optional practice. Rookie defenseman Jordan Schmaltz made his NHL debut at Colorado and overcame some early struggles to finish plus-1 while playing 15 minutes. "He got better as the game went on," Yeo said. "You can see the poise in his game, you can see his puck presence, you can see how he can help us execute."

ABOUT THE WILD (42-15-6): Minnesota finally had its revamped lineup intact with forwards Zach Parise and Jason Pominville returning to the lineup in Sunday's 3-1 victory over Pacific Division-leading San Jose after missing three games apiece with the mumps. The 11-day layoff didn't affect Parise, who scored for the seventh time in 12 games. “I felt like I had a lot of energy,” Parise said. “I didn’t really know which way it was going to go after having, basically, 10 days off.”

OVERTIME

1. Wild D Christian Folin will be sidelined at least three weeks due to an upper-body injury.

2. Blues F Jaden Schwartz has one goal in his last 18 games, but he tallied twice and had an assist in two contests versus the Wild this season.

3. Wild G Devan Dubnyk has more losses (11) against the Blues than any other opponent, although he allowed one goal in each of his last two starts against them.

PREDICTION: Wild 3, Blues 2

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