A chance to finish with seven of eight points on an incredibly tough road trip as the Canucks are in St Louis to take on the Blues.

VANCOUVER CANUCKS (32-26-9) vs ST LOUIS BLUES (35-20-9)

ENTERPRISE CENTER, ST LOUIS, MO

4:30PM PST

TV: SPORTSNET. RADIO: SPORTSNET 650

OPPOSING BLOG: ST LOUIS GAME TIME

It’s a hard thing to have to rely on help in a quest for a playoff spot, but full credit to the Canucks for at least keeping up their end of the equation. They went 2-0-1 against three very good home teams, and can head home with seven of eight possible points for this trip with a win tonight in St Louis.

The Blues have been struggling a bit, with just three wins in the month of March after going 6-1-1 in February. With the Canucks finding some momentum after a couple frustrating OT losses at home, this seems like a perfect scenario for them to get another step closer to that last Wild Card slot. And it’s not like the Blues are a lock to make the post-season anymore, either. They’ve dropped down to the first Wild Card slot, and should they drop both upcoming games against the Canucks in regulation, will find themselves just two points up on Vancouver. The only saving grace is their three games in hand, but the way they’re playing right now, that might not be enough to save them.

Vancouver needed a big effort from their backup last week with a back to back in Colorado and Minnesota, and Jaroslav Halak stepped up big time with a 32 save performance in his best outing as a Canuck. He’ll get the call tonight, while Thatcher Demko will get the nod when these teams meet again Wednesday night at Rogers Arena.

LINEUPS

Courtesy of nhl.com, this is what tonight’s disasterpiece should resemble:

Canucks projected lineup

Tanner Pearson — J.T. Miller — Conor Garland

Elias Pettersson — Bo Horvat — Brock Boeser

Vasily Podkolzin — Juho Lammikko — Alex Chiasson

Nic Petan — Brad Richardson — William Lockwood

Oliver Ekman-Larsson — Tyler Myers

Quinn Hughes — Luke Schenn

Travis Dermott — Brad Hunt

Jaroslav Halak

Thatcher Demko

Scratched: None

Injured: Matthew Highmore (upper body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Jason Dickinson (lower body), Kyle Burroughs (upper body), Tucker Poolman (head)

Blues projected lineup

Brandon Saad — Ryan O’Reilly — David Perron

Pavel Buchnevich — Robert Thomas — Vladimir Tarasenko

Ivan Barbashev — Brayden Schenn — Jordan Kyrou

Mackenzie MacEachern — Nathan Walker — Alexei Toropchenko

Nick Leddy — Colton Parayko

Marco Scandella — Justin Faulk

Niko Mikkola — Calle Rosen

Ville Husso

Jordan Binnington

Scratched: Robert Bortuzzo, Logan Brown

Injured: Torey Krug (hand), Tyler Bozak (lower body), Scott Perunovich (upper body)

The Blues are going to try and roll the dice with Ville Husso again, but I’d be surprised if he got lucky twice. No changes for the Canucks, and that means another game for Will Lockwood. who had a decent outing in limited minutes for his first game of the season. I would hope that Boudreau gives him an opportunity to show what he can do tonight, and having his physical presence certainly won’t hurt against a team like the Blues.

GAME DAY CHATTER

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

From their breakthrough album ‘The Real Thing’, one of my favorites from Faith No More in today’s GDBH. ‘Surprise, You’re Dead’ showed the heavier side of the band, and scared the hell out of everyone expecting the entire album to be like ‘Falling To Pieces’ and ‘Epic’.

Enjoy the game, everyone! Go Canucks Go! Slava Ukraini!