The St Louis Blues (23-22-3, 49 points, 11th Western Conference) pay a visit to the desert southwest on Thursday for an NHL game against Central division rival the Arizona Coyotes (15-28-5, 35 points, 14th Western Conference). St Louis was defeated by the Buffalo Sabres 5-3 on Tuesday. The Blues have lost two straight and four of the last six. St Louis is six points behind the eighth and final spot in the Western Conference postseason standings. Arizona was defeated by the Anaheim Ducks 5-2 on Tuesday night and the Coyotes have lost 12 of the last 14. Arizona is 14th in the Western Conference standings and well off the pace for postseason contention. Robert Bortuzzo, Ryan O’Reilly, Marco Scandella and Pavel Buchnevich are out for St Louis. Andrew Ladd, B ryan Little, and Liam O’Brien are out for Arizona .
If the St Louis Blues hope to qualify for the postseason they must tighten up their blue line and in goal. St Louis is allowing an average of 3.56 schools per game which is 25th. Opponents are averaging 32.0 shots per game which is 21st. The St Louis penalty kill unit is 24th, successfully holding opponents scoreless 74.6% of the time the Blues are short-handed. Jordan Binnington is 18-16-3 with a 3.28 goals against average .891 save percentage.
St Louis is scoring an average of 3.10 goals per game which is 19th in the NHL. The Blues are averaging 28.8 shots per game which is 29th. The Blues’ power play is scoring 23.0% of the time St Louis has the man advantage which is 15th. Jordan Kyrou is the leading goal scorer for St Louis with 23, while Pavel Buchnevich is second with 15 but is out injured. Two other players for St Louis have scored 12 goals apiece. The leader in assists is Robert Thomas with 31 and Brayden Schenn is second with 24. Kryou is the points leader with 46 and Thomas is second with 43. St Louis has scored 31 goals on the power play