St. Louis Blues set for NHL exhibition game Wednesday at the Sprint Center

In a city that lost its NFL team to Los Angeles and saw its baseball franchise get eliminated from postseason contention Sunday, the St. Louis Blues have provided a much-needed contrasting trajectory over the past year.

And their next stop will be in Kansas City.

After reaching the NHL’s Western Conference finals last season for the first time in 15 years, the St. Louis Blues will face the Washington Capitals in a 7 p.m. exhibition game at the Sprint Center.

Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said Monday he plans to play a large contingent of the team’s top players in Wednesday’s preseason hockey game, including leading returning scorer Vladimir Tarasenko, assistant captain Paul Stastny and No. 1 goaltender Jake Allen. The Blues open the season on Oct. 12.

In August, the Blues announced a working agreement with the Missouri Mavericks, an ECHL team based in Independence. The agreement includes an option for the Blues to send players to the Mavericks during the 2016-17 season.

The Blues are dubbing their Sprint Center appearance Wednesday as “Kansas City Blues Night,” part of an initiative to “make the entire Midwest region the heartland of hockey,” the team announced. To that end, the game will be treated similarly to a Blues home game, using the team’s usual videos and introductions.

Tickets for the exhibition can be purchased on the team’s website.

This story was originally published October 3, 2016 at 2:45 PM with the headline "St. Louis Blues set for NHL exhibition game Wednesday at the Sprint Center."