Game 5 Preview: Chance to close the Blues out
Photo by Dustin Bradford/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
One more win to get past the second round.
Game 5 of this heated matchup is tonight. It may be the last matchup between these two this season, as the Colorado Avalanche have pushed the St. Louis Blues to the brink of elimination.
Fueled by an inspiring and resilient Game 4 win in St. Louis, the Avs have a chance to make history and finally get past the second round. A win tonight would send them to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2002.
Colorado Avalanche
With a commanding 3-1 lead in the series, the boys in burgundy look to wrap up the series and cross a major hurdle which is getting to the Western Conference Finals and facing either the Edmonton Oilers who have a 3-1 series lead of their own or the Calgary Flames. But first, the business at hand must be taken care of and the St. Louis Blues won’t be an easy out.
At the morning skate, there there wasn’t much news except Devon Toews and Gabe Landeskog were absent for maintenance reasons. Both Alex Newhook and Andre Burakovsky were participants on the second power-play unit due to Toews’ absence so it is difficult to pinpoint which forward will actually dress for the game. Bednar praised Newhook for his effort last contest and he helped generate a goal so he probably gets the nod but we’ll see come game time.
Avalanche coach Jared Bednar, asked if the team must weather the storm playing a desperate Blues team tonight, says: “We’re trying to create a storm of our own.” pic.twitter.com/NexqslKFbN— Kyle Fredrickson (@kylefredrickson) May 25, 2022
Projected Lineup:
Valeri Nichushkin (13) - Nathan MacKinnon (29) - Mikko Rantanen (96)
Gabriel Landeskog (92) - Nazem Kadri (91) - Arturri Lehknonen (62)
Alex Newhook (18) - J.T. Compher (37) - Nicolas Aube-Kubel (16)
Andrew Cogliano (11) - Darren Helm (43) - Logan O’Connor (25)
Devon Toews (7) - Cale Makar (8)
Jack Johnson (3) - Josh Manson (42)
Bowen Byram (4) - Erik Johnson (6)
Darcy Kuemper (35)
St. Louis Blues
Feeling the pressure, the Blues have a mental block to get through. After unsuccessfully hurting Nazem Kadri on Monday night, they hurt themselves and were playing against themselves. They will look to move on from that with their season on the line.
With their season on the brink of elimination they are making a couple of changes to their lineup, Torey Krug took morning skate again but does not appear to be ready to enter the lineup. However, it appears Marco Scandella will return to the lineup and Blues reports indicate they will put Nathan Walker in the lineup and go with 12 forwards and six defensemen for the first time in the series.
Blues head coach Craig Berube also provided a statement before his media availability this morning.
Before today's media availability, Craig Berube made this statement. pic.twitter.com/QATWsf2WWZ— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) May 25, 2022
Projected Lineup:
Brandon Saad (20) — Ryan O’Reilly (90) — David Perron (57)
Pavel Buchnevich (89) — Robert Thomas (18) — Vladimir Tarasenko (91)
Ivan Barbashev (49) — Brayden Schenn (10) — Jordan Kyrou (250
Alexei Toropchenko (65) — Tyler Bozak (21) — Nathan Walker (26)
Nick Leddy (4) — Colton Parayko (55)
Marco Scandella (6) — Justin Faulk (72)
Niko Mikkola (77) — Robert Bortuzzo (41)
Ville Husso (35)
...
Want the trending hockey news in your inbox daily?.
Just add your email, and we'll start sending you the most important hockey news of the day.
