Maple Leafs at Blues
The St. Louis Blues try to extend their point streak to seven games as they continue their season-long seven-game homestand against the struggling Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday. St. Louis had its five-game winning streak snapped with a 3-2 loss in overtime to Detroit on Thursday as Alexander Steen made it possible for the Blues to earn a point by scoring with 48 seconds left in the third period to extend his goal streak to four games and his point run to eight contests (six goals, eight assists). "I think that's the best somebody's played against us in this building for a long time," coach Ken Hitchcock told reporters. "I'm disappointed in some aspect, but I think there's some real good lessons here. This was like a playoff game."
Toronto is 0-3-0 on its four-game road trip following a 3-1 loss to San Jose on Thursday and is 1-4-0 since Peter Horachek took over behind the bench. "We have to figure it out," Maple Leafs forward Phil Kessel told reporters. "… We're playing decent hockey, we're just not winning games. We have to keep improving." Defenseman Roman Polak's goal against San Jose snapped a scoreless span of 133 minutes, 10 seconds after Toronto was shut out in Los Angeles 2-0 and Anaheim 4-0.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, NHL Network, CBC, FSN Midwest (St. Louis)
ABOUT THE MAPLE LEAFS (22-20-3): Like most struggling teams, Toronto isn't getting many breaks, prompting Kessel to tell the Toronto Star: “We’ve gotta slay a dragon or something? We gotta get one bounce, don’t you think?” An area of concern is the power play, which is 2-for-19 in the last six games with both goals coming in the Maple Leafs' last victory - 5-3 over Columbus on Jan. 9. Kessel and James van Riemsdyk share the team lead with 19 goals apiece, but have combined for only three in seven January games in which Toronto is 1-6-0, and the Maple Leafs have been outscored 17-3 in five consecutive road losses.
ABOUT THE BLUES (27-13-4): St. Louis has no such problems on offense and is second in the NHL in scoring at 3.1 goals per game with five players recording 11 or more goals and two more totaling nine. Leading the way is Vladimir Tarasenko, who is fourth in the league with 24 goals and has two in the last three games. As Martin Brodeur ponders his future during a leave of absence, Hitchcock confirmed that Brian Elliott (11-5-2, .925 save percentage, 2.00 goals against average) will start on Saturday.
OVERTIME
1. The Blues boast the league's best power play at 25.7 percent, with captain David Backes providing nine of St. Louis' 39 goals with the man advantage.
2. Hitchcock has 684 victories and needs one to move past the late Pat Quinn and into fifth place on the all-time list.
3. The Blues won both meetings last season, including a 5-3 victory March 25 on the strength of Backes' hat trick.