Avalanche at Blues Preview: Control your destiny

The Blues may not have played on Monday night, but that’s fine. Thanks to a win by tonight’s opponent over the Arizona Coyotes, the Blues are a point up on the Yotes with two games in hand. Anaheim’s 4-0 drubbing of the Sharks also helped add a bit of space there - San Jose’s four points back right now and on a two game losing streak.

The Blues are in charge of where they want to finish this season. They’re seven behind Minnesota, but can catch up to them with wins - they still have five games remaining against the Wild. Catching up to Colorado, well... let’s just say that the Avalanche have 62 points and leave it at that.

The Avs and the Golden Knights will more than likely finish in the top two positions in the West Division, order TBD. The Blues and Wild also face an order TBD situation. Drawing either the Avalanche or the Golden Knights in the playoffs will be tough, but the Blues aren’t to playoff seeding yet. They have to make it in first - and the road goes through the Avalanche tonight.

Thanks to his team’s three game win streak, Blues general manager Doug Armstrong stood pat at the trade deadline, so there should be no surprises for the Avalanche tonight. The Avs acquired goalie Devan Dubnyk from San Jose, and brought back former Blues draft pick Carl Soderberg from the Blackhawks. Both were solid depth signings, but the Blues still should know exactly what to expect out of Colorado.

The Blues are 1-3 against the Avalanche this season, but the last two games have been one goal affairs. They can keep pace with the best in the West, but they need to do a little bit more tonight if they want Colorado’s three game win streak to be the streak that ends.

Tonight’s game is a NBCSN broadcast with a little earlier start time of 6:30. Plan accordingly.