TEAM SNAPSHOTS
BLUES Oskar Sundqvist recorded a goal and an assist and Brayden Schenn had two assists Saturday in a 5-1 win against the Chicago Blackhawks in the Blues' last outing.
Ville Husso made 15 saves in the game and improved to 8-1-0 at home on the season.
The Blues are now embarking on a four-game road trip that will begin Tuesday in Ottawa before continuing in Montreal, Toronto and Philadelphia.
Tuesday's game was originally scheduled for Dec. 21 but was postponed when the NHL stopped cross-border games just before the Christmas break.
SENATORS The Ottawa Senators went 162 minutes and 39 seconds without a goal but finally broke the drought on Sunday in Washington.
Ottawa would score four goals in the game to earn a 4-1 win on the road against the Capitals.
Brady Tkachuk and Connor Brown contributed a goal and an assist each, while goalie Anton Forsberg made 33 saves for the Senators.
"Everybody stepped up and elevated their game," Tkachuk said after the game. "Everybody gave a gutsy effort tonight, so we're really happy with the outcome. It was fun out there."
The Senators are 5-4-1 in their last 10 games but sit in sixth place in the Atlantic Division with 38 points (17-24-4).
At home, Ottawa is 9-13-1 this season.
HEAD-TO-HEAD The Blues have won five of their last six games against the Senators and six of their last seven visits to Canadian Tire Centre.
The teams haven't met since Oct. 10, 2019 - a 6-4 Blues win in Ottawa.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
BLUES Brayden Schenn, who has recorded 13 points (seven goals, six assists) in his last eight games. Schenn is on a four-game point streak and leads the team with 15 points since Jan. 1.
SENATORS St. Louis native Brady Tkachuk, who shares the team lead with 34 points (15 goals, 19 assists) this season.
BLUE NOTES
As of Monday, Justin Faulk ranked 10th overall in the League with a plus-27 rating this season. Since joining the Blues in 2019-20, Faulk is a plus-35… Husso leads all goaltenders with a 1.84 goals-against average and a .941 save-percentage (with a minimum of 10 games played)… The next win will be Doug Armstrong's 500th as the Blues' general manager.
The St. Louis Blues will start a critical stretch of road work Tuesday when they visit the Ottawa Senators.
That contest for St. Louis begins a run of eight road outings in a nine-game span. The Blues are 18-6-2 at home this season but just 9-8-3 on the road.
"We need to find a way to win more games on the road," said Vladimir Tarasenko, who has 18 points (eight goals, 10 assists) in his last 14 games. "Talking about stats, we don't really track our road record. But we need to understand that we have so many games on the road."
The Blues also have games at Montreal, Toronto and Philadelphia on this trip before returning home for one game ahead of their next excursion. They sit in fourth place in the Central Division, one point behind third-place Nashville.
"It's very important points," Tarasenko said. "From a playoff standpoint, we have to find a way to play well this upcoming road trip. We will prepare well for those games."
The rebuilding Senators are just 9-13-1 at home this season. But they have gained points in seven of their last 11 games overall, going 6-4-1 in that span.
After sustaining 2-0 shutout losses at home against Pittsburgh and Boston last week, the Senators earned a 4-1 victory at Washington on Sunday.
"We get four or five and then we struggle other nights," Senators coach D.J. Smith said. "Tonight was a night it went in for us."
"Everybody stepped up and elevated their game," Senators captain Brady Tkachuk said. "Obviously, we weren't happy with bits and pieces of our last two games. Everybody gave a gutsy effort tonight, so we're really happy with the outcome. It was fun out there."
That victory capped a busy stretch that saw the Senators play five times in seven days while making up games postponed during the COVID-19 surge.
"It's not easy to play five in seven," Senators forward Connor Brown said. "The boys battled hard this week, so it feels good."
The Senators lost defenseman Thomas Chabot and Alex Formenton to undisclosed injuries during the game in Washington. They were already missing forwards Josh Norris (shoulder), Colin White (shoulder). Drake Batherson (ankle), Scott Sabourin (finger) and Shane Pinto (upper body) to injuries.
Also, rugged forward Austin Watson must sit out Tuesday's contest to complete his two-game suspension for an interference hit on Boston Bruins defenseman Jack Ahcan.
The Blues have been missing defensemen Marco Scandella (lower body) and Scott Perunovich (upper body) to injuries. Jake Walman has stepped into the lineup as a result.
Coach Craig Berube wants his team to play a more focused and defensive-minded game on the road.
"It's about every game you go into, you gotta have urgency, you gotta have intensity, you gotta be relentless," he said. "If you bring those three things to every game, we're gonna give ourselves a good chance to win."
Official LGB sponsor of Robert Thomas 2022-2023 Season
Glad to see Husso is going again, tonight. I've honestly had quite enough of Binnington. The team plays differently in front of him, his stats are trash and he's a shell of a shell of what he was in 2019. Again, thanks for the Cup but Husso is the obvious choice to be #1 right now.
Official LGB Sponsor of Ryan O'Reilly 2021 - 2022
Official LGB Sponsor of Colton Parayko 2017 - 2019
Official LGB Sponsor of Kevin Shattenkirk 2016 - 2017
Official LGB Sponsor of Troy Brouwer 2015 - 2016
Official LGB Sponsor of Jaden Schwartz 2013 - 2015
Love that Berube swapped ROR and Barbashev in the 3rd, even though the Blues were winning. Other than Schenn's goal off of the faceoff win, those two lines prior to the swap weren't really generating anything. The way Perron and Saad were playing, moving ROR between them makes sense. I suspect we will see that again next game. Making those changes while winning lets the team not get too comfortable, which will be important moving forward. Montreal shouldn't be a challenge but having played Ottawa and Montreal before facing Toronto on Saturday, the Leafs game could be an issue if the players aren't on their toes.
Thought the same about Sundqvist on that last shift the way he labored to get off the ice. So the question if Sundqvist needs a night off, who plays? Bozak or Brown? IMO, Bozak. But Berube might decide Brown needs a game since he hasn't played since the Jan 5th loss to the Penguins when Brown was so bad, Berube tried him on 3 different lines and every time the line he was on couldn't do crap - largely due to Brown playing crappy. We'll see.
Official LGB sponsor of Robert Thomas 2022-2023 Season
