Marco Scandella returned on Friday night, but the absences of Nick Leddy and Robert Bortuzzo plus a suddenly anemic offense proved the Blues’ undoing. Losing 5-1 at home is bad enough, but losing 5-1 and losing Torey Krug to a lower body injury is a recipe for disaster for the Blues.
Krug left the ice with 8:58 left on the clock in the first period, and by that time the Wild were already up 2-0. Things continued to go downhill from there, as an already exhausted defense began to pull more time than they needed - especially Calle Rosen, whose 17:42 TOI is probably not necessarily something that you want to see in a playoff game.