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Yesterday, I published the series preview, which I think does a decent job of covering where the Blues are heading into round one. Clearly, they are not the favorites.
Honestly, fate decided to make this series just a little more difficult for the team. Leading scorer David Perron wasn’t on the ice this morning, and the Blues ran these practice lines without him:
#stlblues morning skate lines:
— Lou Korac (@lkorac10) May 17, 2021
Schwartz-O'Reilly-Schenn
Barbashev-Bozak-Tarasenko
Hoffman-Thomas-Kyrou
Clifford-Sanford-Blais
Krug-Faulk
Dunn-Parayko
Mikkola-Bortuzzo
Binnington
Husso
* No Perron, not seeing Scandella either.
(Scandella is in fact in tonight; Dunn was just getting work in)
It looks like Perron will remain on the protocol list for at least tonight’s game. Hopefully, for many reasons, he does not have Covid-19 and this is just a false positive. If it’s not, round one might be a little more difficult than the Blues want it to be.
The team looks to be handling it was an attitude that can be best described as “que sera, sera.” What this group of guys has been through this year has seen a great deal of, pardon my French, shit thrown at them. What’s missing a key player in the first round of the playoffs in a series no one expects you to make it out of anyway?
Tonight’s game is a 9:00 Central start, so get your favorite coffee picked out now. The game will be broadcast as the second of two on NBCSN; the Bruins at Capitals game will go first at 6:30 Central. Be prepared for a delay.