As much as it is a long shot for the St. Louis Blues to make the playoffs, they have a golden chance to keep the faith when they continue their road trip Wednesday against the slumping Calgary Flames.
The Blues are coming off a 3-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday, but they have been one of the league’s hottest teams since the Olympic break.
St. Louis has posted a 7-2-1 mark since Feb. 26 to keep its playoff hopes on life support. Going into Tuesday’s play, the closest wild-card spot sits seven points away with 15 games remaining in the regular season.
“The players came back and are focused on having good habits,” said Blues coach Jim Montgomery, whose club had a seven-game point streak snapped in the first outing of a three-game trip. “And they want a little redemption.”
After facing Calgary, the Blues finish their road trip against the only team below the Flames in the overall standings, the Vancouver Canucks, giving them another chance to keep earning points.
Though they suffered a setback in Winnipeg, the Blues can take solace in believing they legitimately deserved to win. After falling behind 2-0 in the first eight minutes, the Blues controlled the clash but could not pull even.
“I think overall, we were the better team,” forward Dalibor Dvorsky said. “We had more time in the (offensive) zone. We’ve just got to get to the net more and have more net hunger. I think our play overall was pretty good. The main part is we’ve just got to get hungrier in front of the net and score some dirty goals.”
The Flames, who are five points behind St. Louis, return to the Saddledome after suffering a 5-2 road loss Monday to the Detroit Red Wings.
Calgary lost four of five on its road trip and surrendered 23 goals along the way.
“It’ll be good to be home, be in front of our fans and regroup,” forward Blake Coleman said.
Despite their position in the standings, the Flames are starting strong in games but continue to be overmatched despite their efforts.
In Detroit, they led 1-0 after the first period but gave up four goals in the second period. Their inability to score has been a recurring problem.
The league’s lowest-scoring team (2.46 goals per game) has not scored any power-play goals in the last five games and only two over the last 11 outings. As a result, any goal scored against them becomes even more valuable.
“We gave up too many odd-man rushes, and I think a little bit of that is a lack of recognition of who you are on the ice against,” Flames coach Ryan Huska said about the Detroit game. “Those are all goals where I feel we hurt ourselves.”
As they gear up for a six-game home stretch, the Flames have managed only five wins in their last 19 games (5-11-3).
“We’ve got to get back at it. I think the challenge for our team is to put 60 minutes together,” Huska said. “We’ve talked about the consistency we have to play with and there are certain things that we cannot do but are doing too often and it’s shooting us in the foot.”
