St. Louis Blues Game 4 Preview: Team Looks to Stay Relevant Against Minnesota Wild

Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

The St. Louis Blues face the Minnesota Wild in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series on Wednesday night, aiming to hit the reset button and give themselves a chance in the series. They certainly didn’t look like they had one in Game 3 on Monday night, as they allowed the Wild to outshoot them 24-17 and played slowly and lackadaisically while getting shut out 3-0.

Obviously, winning Game 4 will be key for the Blues, as going down 3-1 would be very detrimental to their chances against the Wild. Over the 229 times that a team has trailed 3-1 in an NHL playoff series, they’ve come back to win just 20 times, or 8.7 percent of the time (via NHL.com). Even though the Blues have the chance to play two more games on home ice during the series, a Game 4 loss would make it absolutely necessary for the Blues to win a game on the road in Game 6. They haven’t won a playoff game on the road since their first-round series against the San Jose Sharks in 2011-12, so it wouldn’t be ideal for the Blues to be confronted with having to do so now.

On the other hand, a win in Game 4 would provide the Blues with the advantage, as they’d have a much better chance at getting two more games on home ice. While that isn’t necessarily a certain recipe for success–see Game 1 of this series–it does give the Blues a competitive advantage and would surely help out their cause.

After dealing with lacking performances from a certain few players for the first three games of the series, there’s a solid chance that we’ll see some personnel changes for Game 4. Check out the projected lineup for speculation on what those changes may be.

Next: Blues' Projected Lineup