GDT #66: Blues @ Canucks | 9:00 pm CT | BSMW, 101 ESPN

[theohall]

BLUES
Vladimir Tarasenko recorded three points - including the 500th of his career - in a 4-1 win for the Blues against the Vancouver Canucks on Monday night at Enterprise Center.

Tarasenko became just the fifth player in Blues history to reach 500 points with the club, joining Bernie Federko, Brett Hull, Brian Sutter and Garry Unger.

Ville Husso made 35 saves in the win, which pulled the Blues back into third place in the Central Division for a day.

The Blues begin a three-game road trip to Western Canada on Wednesday when they have a rematch with the Canucks. The trip will continue to Edmonton and Calgary for back-to-back games over the weekend.

The Blues enter Wednesday's game with a record of 36-20-9, good for 81 points.

CANUCKS
After a tumultuous start to their season, the Vancouver Canucks have slowly worked their way back into the Playoff picture. Before they hired Bruce Boudreau as head coach in early December, the Canucks were 8-15-2, last place in the Pacific Division.

Since Boudreau won his first game behind the bench, the Canucks have turned their season around. They have a record of 24-12-7 under Boudreau, and are now just three points out of a Western Conference Playoff spot as of Tuesday afternoon.

Despite ending a four-game point streak in Monday's loss to St. Louis, the Canucks have a tremendous opportunity to stay in the hunt for a Playoff spot.

They play a home-and-home set with Vegas, who currently holds the last Western Conference Playoff spot, after Wednesday's matchup with the Blues, then play a pair against the Sharks and Coyotes before seeing the Golden Knights yet again for the third time in nine days.

If this upcoming stretch breaks in their favor - playing seven of their next nine games on home ice - Vancouver could see themselves firmly in the Playoff race. By opposing win-loss record, the Canucks also have the sixth easiest remaining schedule in the NHL (St. Louis ranks 14th).

Monday's loss to the Blues brought Vancouver's season record to 32-27-9, worth 73 points and fifth place in the Pacific Division.

HEAD-TO-HEAD
Wednesday will mark the third and final matchup between the Blues and Canucks this season. The Blues are 2-0 against Vancouver in 2021-22.

The Blues are 4-1-1 in their last six regular-season matchups with the Canucks, and 6-2-2 in their last 10 trips to Vancouver.

PLAYERS TO WATCH
BLUES Robert Thomas recorded two assists on Monday night, eclipsing 40 in a season for the first time in his career. The 22-year-old forward is at a career-best 52 points this season and has recorded multi-point games in four of his last six outings.

CANUCKS J.T. Miller, who firmly leads the Canucks in points this season. The All-Star forward has a career-best 80 points in 66 games thus far, scoring 28 goals and recording 52 assists in an impressive campaign.

BLUE NOTES
Jordan Kyrou (23) and Thomas (22) are the first set of teammates in Blues history to each record 40 assists in the same season prior to turning 24 years old. Prior to this season, only three players had recorded 40 assists in a season prior to turning 24: Bernie Federko, Doug Gilmour and Wayne Babych... Kyrou is on pace to become the seventh player in Blues history to record 70 points in a season before turning 24, last achieved by Tarasenko in 2014-15... Perron is two goals shy of matching his highest mark as a Blue, scoring 25 goals in the 2019-20 season.

The Vancouver Canucks are not yet in do-or-die territory, but it will be a tall order to keep their slim playoff hopes alive by repeating their last performance when they play host to the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday, the second half a home-and-home series.

The Blues claimed a 4-1 home-ice win in the first clash on Monday, a game in which they staked a 3-0 lead by the opening minute of the third period and were never in danger or relinquishing it.

The Canucks had so much hope when they pulled themselves within striking distance of a playoff position by the first week of March, but have just three wins in their last 10 outings (3-4-3) and have begun to slip further back of the wild-card pace.

"There are no easy games and everybody is fighting for something right now," said forward J.T. Miller. "Whoever wants it more is going to win."

The Canucks can look to the fact they outshot the Blues by a 17-9 edge during a scoreless second period of that game, but coach Bruce Boudreau wouldn't want them to fool each other into thinking it was a good outing beyond the fact they trailed 2-0 after the opening period and couldn't find the comeback goals.

"I just didn't think we had enough guys playing with a sense of urgency that's needed at this stage of the season," said Boudreau of his team that returns home after a 2-1-1 road trip. "Shoot it on that goalie where he has to make a save. We were hitting him in the chest every shot from great opportunities.

"The first five minutes of the third period they took it to us and we didn't have the pushback we needed."

The Blues currently are in a playoff position, but are not on the most solid of footing in the tight-as-a-drum battle that is headed down the stretch. They have compiled a 4-6-3 record in March, even with David Perron leading the attack with 12 goals in that time and Vladimir Tarasenko heating up to become the fifth player in franchise history to collect 500 career points.

A key to those struggles, and a big reason for Monday's win, was the fact it was the first time in a half-dozen outings the Blues opened the scoring.

"I feel like (the lead) gave the team confidence," defenseman Marco Scandella said. "I was lucky to be the one to put that one in, but I felt like we came out strong. We had a good third period (the previous) game. It hasn't gone our way a little bit the last couple games before that. So it was a big response by us."

The Blues will look for a repeat against a Canucks team against which they have posted a 12-3-2 record against in the last 17 regular-season meetings.

"It's always important (to get the lead)," head coach Craig Berube said. "If you score first in the game, you've got a good feel going, you feed off that. It was nice getting that 2-0 lead. After we killed a penalty in the second, I wish we would have kind of got going the other way a little bit more than we did."

[WaukeeBlues]

Robert Thomas is good at hockey.

The Blues may have just single handedly, in 2 games, ended the Canucks playoff hopes.

That is all.