No. 1 St. Louis Blues center Robert Thomas has been inching closer to a return from his broken ankle.
He traveled with the Blues on their 1-1-1 road swing through Buffalo, Boston and Carolina and continued skating. Without him and a trio of injured defensemen, the Blues have been trying to stave off a collapse.
That quest will continue when the Blues host the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night.
St. Louis suffered a 4-3 overtime loss to the Sabres last Thursday, then defeated the Bruins 3-2 in overtime Saturday before finishing the trip with a 4-1 loss to the Hurricanes on Sunday.
The Blues outshot Carolina 30-24 and controlled much of the play despite missing Thomas and defensemen Philip Broberg, Nick Leddy and Pierre-Olivier Joseph, who are all on the injured list.
“I thought we outplayed them,” Blues winger Jack Neighbours said. “I thought we deserved better, whether it was to get it to overtime or just be in the game at the end. I think the difference, at the end of the day, is they scored on their chances and we didn’t.”
The Blues also committed some untimely turnovers that handed the Hurricanes good scoring chances.
“I think it’s just a couple little errors that we need to fix, but overall, I didn’t hate our effort,” Blues forward Dylan Holloway said. “I thought a back-to-back, it didn’t feel like a 4-1 game to me. Sometimes, your effort doesn’t show, I guess, in the score.”
The Wild are also 1-1-1 in their last three games. They cooled somewhat after winning nine of their previous 11, due somewhat to key forwards Joel Eriksson Ek and Mats Zuccarello plus defenseman Jonas Brodin missing time due to injuries.
Minnesota adapted to their absences by playing a sound defensive game Saturday against the Dallas Stars, but the Wild fell 2-1.
“You got to put your work boots on and go,” forward Marcus Foligno said. “So we kept it close, and we had a fighting chance at the end. And you never want to be satisfied with losing. But there’s some things in this game where, as a team, we didn’t open up with a track meet or anything like that where we got uncharacteristic and didn’t listen to the coach, didn’t listen to our systems.”
Wild coach John Hynes believes his team’s strong third period against Dallas will be something to build on.
“You come out in the third period, you’re not turning pucks over,” Hynes said. “You don’t get away from it. You put them under duress. … I look at the style of game, the mindset, the discipline, things like that. You’re going to win more of those opportunities.
“I like where we’re headed, for sure.”
The Wild expect to get Eriksson Ek (lower-body injury) and Brodin (upper body) back in the lineup to face the Blues. Both players practiced Monday.
The Blues are likely to come back with Jordan Binnington in goal after playing Joel Hofer in Sunday’s loss. The Wild are expected to start Filip Gustavsson in goal in St. Louis and then play Marc-Andre Fleury in one of their two upcoming games against Edmonton and Calgary.
