The St. Louis Blues travel to Utah’s Delta Center for their first-ever game in Salt Lake City Saturday night (8 p.m. CT, FanDuel Sports Network, 101 ESPN).
Blues head coach Jim Montgomery decided to conduct an optional practice Saturday morning – meaning with only off-ice practices Friday, the Blues haven’t skated since Thursday’s 4-1 win against the Calgary Flames.
“We wanted to be optioned today because we’ve been playing a lot of hockey lately and we’ve had some really good practices,” Montgomery said. “When you combine that with the altitude here, I just wanted to give the players the opportunity to do whatever they needed to do to prepare for tonight.
“They’re going to be ready.”
The Blues will look to snap their first three-game winning streak of the season after back-to-back victories against the Calgary Flames, who hold the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference. With a win against the Utah Hockey Club on Saturday and a little help from around the league, the Blues could find themselves in playoff position by the end of the night.
“Every game seems to become important because you have to have urgency now so you don’t need to increase your urgency later in the year when you run out of games,” Montgomery said. “If we succeed (now), we will be able to control our own destiny, no matter what other teams do.”
Montgomery will make no changes to the lineup for Saturday’s game, keeping the same forward lines and defensive pairings.
Jordan Binnington will start in goal.
