Sharks at Blues
Nothing puts the brakes on an extended rough stretch like a pair of emphatic road victories - just ask the St. Louis Blues. They'll look to stay hot Thursday night as they kick off a seven-game homestand against the San Jose Sharks. St. Louis ended 2014 - and rang in the new year - with a 1-5-1 showing before getting back to its dominant self, following a 7-2 throttling of the host Sharks with a 6-0 trouncing of Arizona on Tuesday.
The Sharks have bounced back nicely from that one-sided loss to the Blues, their worst of the season and the punctuation of a 1-3-1 stretch. San Jose answered with a 3-2 victory over Winnipeg and followed that up with a 4-3 overtime win over the Minnesota Wild the next night. Thursday marks the finale of a three-game road trip for the Sharks, who have points in four of their last five games away from San Jose and are 12-8-3 on the road for the season.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, CSN-CA (San Jose), FS-MW (St. Louis)
ABOUT THE SHARKS (22-14-5): San Jose can attribute much of its recent success to Marc-Edouard Vlasic. The veteran defenseman scored the game winner in each of the Sharks' previous two contests - converting with 4.5 seconds left in the win over the Jets before blasting the overtime winner versus the Wild. "He's taking the shot - a lesson for all of us," coach Todd McLellan said of Vlasic, who also scored a late game-tying goal Dec. 20 against the Blues in a game San Jose eventually won 3-2. "He's got a hot hand, get him the puck and let him shoot it."
ABOUT THE BLUES (24-13-3): The return of goaltender Brian Elliott to full health has relegated legendary netminder Martin Brodeur to the press box. Brodeur was the third netminder for the game against Arizona, with Elliott making his third start in the past four contests and Jake Allen backing him up. But Blues general manager Doug Armstrong says Brodeur will remain with the team for now, telling the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the team will continue to carry three goalies until it decides to go in a different direction.
OVERTIME
1. St. Louis has won its last seven home games following a road trip of seven or more days.
2. San Jose has just one victory in its last five encounters against teams with winning records.
3. Elliott is 3-2-1 with a 2.62 goals-against average in seven career appearances versus the Sharks.