Blue Jackets at Blues
The St. Louis Blues have suffered five one-goal losses, sandwiching their best performance of the season, and look to get on a roll when they open a seven-game homestand against the inconsistent Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday. St. Louis put it all together with a 4-1 win at Toronto on Saturday before coughing up a two-goal lead in the third period Monday during a 5-4 overtime loss at Winnipeg.
“We had everything going for us, all the momentum,” Blues forward Pat Maroon told the St. Louis Dispatch of Monday’s setback. “And then something happened. I don’t know what stopped. But we can’t really focus on that, we gotta a focus on what we have to do for Thursday. We gotta find ways to nip this in the bud and get back to work.” The Blues have won four of the last five in the series after taking a pair last season from the Blue Jackets. Columbus started a three-game homestand with a 6-3 victory over Philadelphia last Thursday before dropping twin 4-1 games to Chicago and Arizona despite combining for 74 shots, to drop back to the .500 mark. “We needed something good to happen in a game where we’re fighting it a little bit,” Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno told reporters after Tuesday’s loss to Arizona. “We’ve got to be a little better, a little sharper, more attention to detail.”
TV: 8 p.m. ET, FS Ohio (Columbus), FS Midwest (St. Louis)
ABOUT THE BLUE JACKETS (4-4-0): All-Star Seth Jones said he felt pretty good in his season debut Tuesday after sitting out the first seven games with a knee injury, playing a game-high 27:24 with four shots on net. “He’s a big part of our team,” Columbus coach John Tortorella told reporters of the 6-4 defenseman. “You know how I feel about him. There was some rust there, but he also did some really good things.” Leading scorer Artemi Panarin, who is in the last year of his contract, has been held off the scoresheet the last two games after posting nine points in the season’s first six contests.
ABOUT THE BLUES (2-3-3): Center Ryan O’Reilly has picked it up over the last three games with six of his team-leading 10 points and left wing David Perron produced five of his nine in the same stretch. Sammy Blais was sent to American Hockey League while fellow forwards Nikita Soshnikov (concussion) and Robby Fabbri, who missed all of last season because of knee surgery, are closing in on their return to the lineup. St. Louis scored the second most power-play goals (10) in the league through Tuesday’s contests, getting three from Perron and two apiece from Brayden Schenn and Vincent Dunn.
OVERTIME
1. Columbus Fs Cam Atkinson (minus-8 rating) and Josh Anderson (plus-4) lead the team with four goals apiece.
2. St. Louis D Jay Bouwmeester, who was back in the lineup Monday after being scratched one game, needs one point for 400 in his career.
3. The Blue Jackets must improve on special teams as the power play (12.5 percent) was 27th in the league and penalty kill 24th (72.0) through Tuesday.