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Blues captain Backes (foot) out tonight, ‘potentially’ until playoffs

backesgetty

Mired in one of their worst slumps of the year, the Blues received some tough news on Thursday as captain David Backes was ruled out of tonight’s game against Minnesota with an injured foot.

The Blues are reeling lately -- 5-5-0 in their last 10, losers of three straight -- and have seen their once-comfortable lead atop the Central Division whittled away to just two points. Colorado heads into tonight’s action with 109 points to St. Louis’ 111, and each team has three games remaining in the regular season.

(The Avs also hold the regulation/overtime wins tiebreaker over St. Louis, 46 to 43.)

Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock wasn’t offering much in the way of details regarding Backes’ injury, telling the Post-Dispatch his captain “is going to be out for potentially three games and then play,” suggesting Backes might be shut down and rested for the playoffs. Backes was seen in a walking boot today, the byproduct of taking an Alex Steen shot off his foot during a 4-1 loss to Washington.

Anyway, back to the playoff jockeying. Here some info as to how the Central Division might play out over the next few days...

Current standings:

Central Standings

Games remaining:

St. Louis (3): at Minnesota, at Dallas, Detroit

Colorado (3): at Vancouver, at San Jose, at Anaheim

Chicago (2): at Washington, at Nashville

Up for grabs, really.