Let's Go Blues

BLUES
A late empty-net goal from David Perron extended his consecutive goal streak to seven games on Tuesday night - a mark not reached by a Blue since Mike Sillinger accomplished it during the 2005-06 season.

Perron's goal capped off a 5-2 win for the St. Louis Blues against a red-hot Washington Capitals squad - a victory the Blues desperately needed to leap back into second place in the competitive Central Division.

"Every game's important," Brandon Saad said after Tuesday's road win. "Every team in our division is battling for positioning. For us, it's just controlling what we can and winning hockey games. Playoff hockey starts now."

Saad had a goal and an assist in Tuesday's win, Brayden Schenn contributed three points (one goal, two assists) and Ville Husso made 19 saves for the Blues, who snapped a three-game winless streak.

Defenseman Nick Leddy, who was acquired by the Blues an hour before Monday's NHL Trade Deadline, made his debut in the win, playing 20 minutes and 50 seconds and recording two shots.

Torey Krug left Tuesday's game in the second period with an upper-body injury. An update on his status for Thursday's matchup with the Flyers is not yet available.

FLYERS The Philadelphia Flyers road woes have reached an almost unimaginable low.

On Tuesday night, the Detroit Red Wings beat Philadelphia 6-3 with help from Oskar Sundqvist, who contributed a goal and an assist in his Red Wings' debut. The loss was the Flyers' 13th straight on the road - they are 0-12-1 in those games.

"It's tough to lose this game tonight, but we're obviously going to keep pushing," Flyers coach Mike Yeo said after the loss in Detroit. "We played hard, but we had a lot of turnovers in the neutral zone. That puts the defense under a lot of pressure."

Philadelphia's last road win was on Dec. 30, 2021 - a 3-2 overtime victory against the Seattle Kraken.

The Flyers will come to St. Louis without Claude Giroux, who was traded to the Florida Panthers prior to the trade deadline. Giroux played 15 years and 1,000 NHL games with the Flyers, posting 291 goals and 609 assists (900 points) during that span.

HEAD-TO-HEAD The Blues beat the Flyers 4-1 in the first meeting between the teams back on Feb. 22 at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

The Blues are 3-0-1 in their last four games against the Flyers and are 2-1-1 against them in the last four meetings at Enterprise Center.

PLAYERS TO WATCH
BLUES Brandon Saad, who has five points (two goals, three assists) in his last five games and is one goal away from netting his sixth career 20-goal season. Saad is one of 14 active players in the League to have at least 200 goals and 200 assists in less than 700 games.

FLYERS Cam Atkinson, who leads the Flyers with 48 points (23 goals, 25 assists) in 63 games this season.

BLUE NOTES
With a goal against the Flyers, Perron would become just the third Blue in franchise history to record a goal streak of eight games or more. The last was Brett Hull in the 1991-92 season, when he netted 14 goals in a 10-game streak… The Blues have 44 points at home this season (20-7-4). Vladimir Tarasenko leads the team with 31 points (12 goals, 19 assists) at Enterprise Center this season. Tarasenko is just four points away from 500 career points.

The Philadelphia Flyers will hope to avoid a 14th consecutive road loss when they visit the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.

The Flyers, who haven't won on the road since a 3-2 overtime victory Dec. 29 at Seattle, fell 6-3 at Detroit on Tuesday.

"That loss was on me," defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen said. "I gave them three goals and that cost us the game."

The visit to St. Louis will be the second stop of a five-game road trip.

Philadelphia's longest winless road skid occurred in 1971-72 as it struggled through an 0-15-4 streak.

Like they have all season, the Flyers cut into the deficit against the Red Wings only to quickly fall behind again. After closing within 3-2, they allowed a late second-period goal to Jakub Vrana and ultimately lost by three goals.

"Anytime you give up a goal in the last minute of a period, that's tough," Flyers interim coach Mike Yeo said. "But I thought we regrouped and came out hard in the third period. Obviously, there's some things we can be better at execution-wise. We had some turnovers tonight and we've got to be a little bit sharper there. I did like the way the guys kept battling back for each other here tonight, just didn't find a way to tie it up."

Joel Farabee, Oskar Lindblom and James van Riemsdyk each scored one goal for the Flyers.

When you don't protect the puck, bad things tend to happen.

"Overall, I thought we played a pretty solid game, minus a few turnovers that ended up in the back of our net," Farabee said. "If we just clean that up, we can play more of a complete game and give ourselves a better chance."

The Blues will look to build off of a strong performance in a 5-2 victory Tuesday on the road against the Washington Capitals.

Brandon Saad had one goal and one assist for the Blues, who have struggled with consistency in recent games.

"Every game's important," Saad said. "Every team in our division is battling for positioning. For us, it's just controlling what we can and winning hockey games. Playoff hockey starts now."

The news wasn't all great for the Blues as defenseman Torey Krug left the game with an injury to his left hand and wrist. Rob Thomas was already out with an undisclosed injury and Vladimir Tarasenko missed a second consecutive game with an illness.

"It's frustrating," captain Ryan O'Reilly said. "Obviously, he's (Krug) a huge part of our team. Hopefully a speedy recovery and he'll be back soon. But it's always tough."

The injury-riddled Blues have dealt with a short-handed roster most of the season.

This is no different.

"We've done it all year," St. Louis head coach Craig Berube said. "No different. It's the way it is. What are you going to do?"

The Blues won only two of nine games before recently rebounding to work their way back in playoff contention.

"You wake up one morning and you're in a wild card -- that's the way it goes," Berube said. "We gotta keep winning games. That's what it tells you. That's it."