For a team that’s struggling to score, the St. Louis Blues aren’t exactly the ideal opponent. But that’s exactly who the Minnesota Wild will get tonight at the Xcel Energy Center.
Consider:
---- The Wild have lost four of their last five games. They’ve been shut out twice during that stretch, with just six total goals scored.
---- The Blues have won five straight, with goalie Brian Elliott posting back-to-back 1-0 shutouts in his last two outings.
As such, Minnesota coach Mike Yeo is preparing his team for a tough battle.
“They don’t give you anything for free,” Yeo said this morning, per the Star Tribune. “You’ve got to be committed to breaking them down, forcing them into mistakes.
“I think one thing we have to do a much better job of, that we haven’t done as much of lately, is funneling pucks and bodies to the net. When we were scoring goals, that was sort of our mentality.
“Quite often, when you haven’t scored as many goals, for whatever reason, you drift further and further away from the area where you do score those goals. That’s going to be something that’s very important tonight.’'
The Wild’s mini-slump has dropped them six points back of Vancouver in the race for first place in the Northwest Division.
The Blues, meanwhile, can still get home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs if they can overtake San Jose and Los Angeles.
