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Blues forward Robert Thomas returned to practice Friday morning and will play Game 1 against Winnipeg on Saturday evening.

Thomas left Tuesday’s win over Utah in the third period with a lower-body injury, and then did not skate during Blues practice on Thursday. On Friday, he was back in his customary spot on the top line between Jake Neighbours and Pavel Buchnevich, and also on the power play.

“He looks fine out there to me in practice,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “I talked to him at the end, he said ‘All good.’”

With Thomas back at practice, Alexandre Texier returned to his role as an extra forward.

In the 26 games after the 4 Nations break, Thomas had a league-high 40 points and he closed the regular season with the league’s longest active point streak at 12.

The other injury question facing the Blues is Dylan Holloway, who has not played since April 3 against Pittsburgh due to a lower-body injury. Holloway was classified as week-to-week on April 4, and has not rejoined the team for any practices or morning skates since.

Asked whether Holloway was traveling to Winnipeg with the team for Games 1 and 2, Montgomery said: “I don’t have the answer to that now. He wasn’t here at the rink yesterday for me to talk to him. I just texted with him.”

Taking on the best

For the first time since 2021, the Blues will play the Presidents’ Trophy-winning team in the first round of the playoffs. Four years ago, it was the Avalanche. This season, it’s the Jets, who finished with 116 points.

Montgomery has experience as a Presidents’ Trophy-winning team in the playoffs, as his record-setting Bruins in 2022-23 were bounced in the first round by the Panthers in seven games. That year, Boston accumulated 135 points (22 points more than the next-closest team) to set a new NHL record.

Is there extra pressure after winning the Presidents’ Trophy?

“From my experience, yes, there is,” Montgomery said. “You don’t sense it until you start playing the games.”

The Bruins had a 3-1 series lead on the wild-card Panthers, but lost Game 5 in overtime, Game 6 in Florida, and then Game 7 in overtime on home ice.

“What I noticed was how we reacted in Boston to certain situations,” Montgomery said. “It wasn’t the same as what we did in the regular season.”

Since the 2004-05 lockout, six Presidents’ Trophy winners have been knocked out in the first round. That’s the same frequency as Presidents’ Trophy winners reaching at least the conference finals.

‘Just OK’

The Blues focused on defense during Thursday’s practice, and shifted the focus to working on offense on Friday morning, including power play work. How did it go?

“Just OK, to be honest,” Montgomery said. “The urgency that, as a coach, you’d like to see for trying to bury pucks and attacking the blue paint was not at the level I’d like to see.”

In order to beat the Jets, the Blues will have to puncture the league’s stingiest group, as Winnipeg led the league by allowing 2.32 goals a game, with a lot of credit going to likely Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck.

“We’re going to have to be good at it,” Montgomery said. “They’re the best defensive team in the league. If we don’t make it hard on them, it’s going to be easy on them.”

Cranley up

Goaltender prospect Will Cranley joined the Blues for practice on Friday, and will serve as the emergency goalie in the first round. Cranley has spent most of the season with ECHL affiliate Florida, but played two games with AHL affiliate Springfield.

In the ECHL, he has an .896 save percentage and 2.71 goals against average. Cranley was originally a sixth-round pick in 2020.

The Blues should have more options in net shortly, as Springfield’s regular season ends this weekend. The Thunderbirds will then play in a best-of-three first-round series in the Calder Cup playoffs. Colten Ellis has been one of the AHL’s best goalies this season with a .922 save percentage.