St. Louis Blues vs. Washington Capitals: Game Preview
The St. Louis Blues play their third game in the past four days on Sunday afternoon, heading into the Verizon Center to face the Washington Capitals in a pre-Super Bowl matchup.
In the teams’ previous matchup this season on November 15 at Scottrade Center, the Blues won 4-1, getting goals from Jori Lehtera, Jaden Schwartz, David Backes, and Patrik Berglund. Brian Elliott recorded 24 saves on 25 shots.
With the Nashville Predators’ recent struggles, the Blues are now in position to move into a tie for first place in the NHL Central Division with a win on Sunday. The Blues have been on a tear since 2015 started, going 9-1-1 in the month of January. The last time the club lost a game in regulation with forward Jaden Schwartz (who missed six losses in seven games from December 18 to January 2) in the lineup was December 4, when they fell 4-3 to the Nashville Predators.
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Washington, meanwhile, is middling in the NHL Metropolitan Division, currently tied with the New York Rangers for third place. After getting off to a good start in 2015, the Caps have lost five of their past six games. Washington has had solid offensive production but simply has not been able to perform effectively enough defensively to come away with wins.
The Blues are expected to stick with the same lineup that they utilized on Friday against the Carolina Hurricanes, with the exception of the goaltender. Brian Elliott will get back in net after Jake Allen got the win in Friday’s shootout victory.
It’s possible that injured forwards Patrik Berglund and Jori Lehtera, who missed Friday’s game, could get back into the lineup, but it’s more likely than not that they’ll need at least one more game to recover from upper-body injuries. Along with those two, defenseman Chris Butler is expected to be a healthy scratch. After sticking in the lineup for 20 of 22 games upon beginning his Blues tenure, Butler has now been a healthy scratch for the past six games straight.