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The Wraparound: Blues looking to seize opportunity, close out storybook season

2019 NHL Stanley Cup Final - Game Five

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - JUNE 06: The St. Louis Blues looks on against the Boston Bruins during the second period in Game Five of the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Final at TD Garden on June 06, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images)

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The Wraparound is your daily look at the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs. We’ll break down each day’s matchups with the all-important television and live streaming information included.

The opportunity is there.

To lift the Stanley Cup in front of their hometown fans. To win the team’s first championship in their 51st NHL season. To go from the bottom of the NHL in January to the summit of the hockey world in June.

The storylines are seemingly endless. The only thing left for the St. Louis Blues is to end it.

And they’ll have that chance in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final vs. the Boston Bruins at Enterprise Center on Sunday (8 p.m. ET; NBC; live stream).

“I try to as much as possible,” Ryan O’Reilly said of not envisioning holding old Stanley above his head. “I try to occupy myself with other things. Obviously, as a kid, it’s what you’ve been dreaming of. Every time you lace them up it’s the ultimate goal. It creeps in so often but it’s one of those things you have to shut down, see it for what it is and know you have to stay in the present and the process.

“It’s nice to be home and hang with my son and do other things to take my mind away from the game. But I love this position we’re in. We have a great opportunity here and if we do things the right way, we can do this.”
[NBC 2019 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFF HUB]

The Blues have seemingly done things “the right way” since they got curb-stomped 7-2 in Game 3. Since then, they’ve neutralized Boston’s vaunted power play and they’ve neutered the Bruins in 5-on-5 situations.

The Blues are 7-1 in Games 5-7 in these playoffs, including a perfect 3-0 record when handed the chance to close out a series.

“It’s a good spot we’re in, a spot we want to be in,” Colton Parayko said. “It’s exciting, obviously, for our group. We’ve just got to make sure that we come prepared and I think that we’ve done a good job of being prepared and making sure we go over our notes and our video. When we do that, we can be confident and we can feel good. Just making sure I think preparation is the biggest thing for us and that’ll try to obviously take away a lot of the nerves and stuff like that.”

Nerves are good, as Alex Pietrangelo explained to the media on Saturday.

“Means you care,” the Blues captain said.

Still, the Stanley Cup will be in the building, looming large over a game where the stakes couldn’t be higher -- for either team.

I don’t think our group, if you talked to most of the guys, have strayed away from their mindset,” Pietrangelo said. “We’ve just been preparing the same way. [Cup] in the building or not, we know what’s at stake. We just have to go and play, got to win a hockey game.”

Do that, and St. Louis will be hosting America’s biggest party in the streets of the Gateway to the West in a few hours time.

MORE BLUES – BRUINS COVERAGE:

Pucks tell the story of Blues’ rollercoaster season
Bruins’ Chara was more than just brave in Game 5
Chara, Dunn join jaw-dropping club of playing through pain
Bruins, Blues in familiar places heading into Game 6

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Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck