Sharks at Blues
The St. Louis Blues will attempt to avoid their longest losing streak of the season when they host the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night. The Blues, who dropped into fourth place in the Central following Friday's 2-1 loss in Dallas, will follow the matchup against the Sharks with three straight versus division rivals Winnipeg, Nashville and Minnesota.
“The thing is, if you’re looking at the teams we’ve played, we’ve played good teams," St. Louis coach Mike Yeo said. “But bottom line is we’re finding ways to lose games as opposed to finding ways to win games." The Blues have managed only five goals during the three-game slide and have been limited to one goal or less 14 times this season. San Jose is leading a pack of four teams battling for second place in the Pacific behind expansion Vegas, which owns a comfortable double-digit lead atop the division. The Sharks could be without their leading scorer after defenseman Brent Burns sat out the final 16 1/2 minutes of Sunday's 5-2 win over Dallas.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBCS California (San Jose), FS Midwest (St. Louis)
ABOUT THE SHARKS (32-19-8): After collecting only one assist during a 10-game stretch, Mikkel Boedker appears to have snapped out of his offensive funk with four goals in the last three games, including a pair in the victory over Dallas. "He's played some solid hockey at stretches but hasn't got rewarded," coach Peter DeBoer said of Boedker. "I think he's combining them now, which is what we need, and we need that to continue." Burns is not the only health concern -- forwards Tomas Hertl and Joel Ward went on injured reserve Monday.
ABOUT THE BLUES (34-22-4): Yeo juggled his lines during practice on Monday in an effort to jump-start the offense, elevating Dmitrij Jaskin on a line with Jaden Schwartz and Brayden Schenn while inserting Kyle Brodziak between Patrik Berglund and Vladimir Sobotka. “Trying to shake things up I guess,” said Brodziak, who has been seeing time on the fourth line. “Hopefully we can find something that clicks.” Vladimir Tarasenko has scored in just once of his last 10 games overall and has not converted on the power play since Dec. 16.
OVERTIME
1. The Sharks have been shut out twice during a four-game losing streak to St. Louis.
2. Blues G Carter Hutton is 4-0-1 with an 0.98 goals-against average and .968 save percentage versus San Jose.
3. The Sharks recalled D Paul Martin and F Rudolfs Balcers from San Jose of the American Hockey League.