Blues at Sharks
The San Jose Sharks have a fairly comfortable lead in the race for the Pacific Division crown and still have first place in the Western Conference within their reach. San Jose, which sits two points behind Chicago for the top spot, continues its quest when it hosts the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.
The Sharks, who are seven points ahead of Anaheim in the Pacific, have won four of their last five games — including a 3-1-0 mark on their six-game homestand — thanks in part to Joe Pavelski. The captain has recorded two points in each of the four victories, registering three two-goal performances and seven tallies in total to move one ahead of defenseman Brent Burns for the team lead with 28. St. Louis wasted an opportunity to move into third place in the Central Division on Wednesday, remaining two points behind Nashville after dropping a 2-1 decision in Anaheim. Ivan Barbashev scored the lone goal for the Blues, who fell to 1-1-0 on their five-game road trip as their string of consecutive victories ended at five.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, FSN Midwest (St. Louis), CSN California (San Jose)
ABOUT THE BLUES (36-28-5): Dmitrij Jaskin was not in the lineup against the Ducks and is expected to miss at least one week with an upper-body injury he suffered in Monday's victory at Los Angeles. The 23-year-old Russian right wing has recorded one goal and nine assists in 47 games this season but is mired in an 11-game point drought. Alex Steen is one tally away from passing Jorgen Pettersson (161) for ninth place on the franchise list and one point shy of 400 as a member of the Blues.
ABOUT THE SHARKS (42-20-7): Joe Thornton is riding a five-game point streak during which he has collected a goal and six assists. The 37-year-old center has registered 1,388 career points — three behind Brett Hull for 22nd place on the all-time list and six in back of Luc Robitaille for 21st. Burns remains among the league leaders with 70 points despite being kept off the scoresheet in five of his last six games.
OVERTIME
1. Sharks C Melker Karlsson and D David Schlemko have missed two and six straight games, respectively, with lower-body injuries.
2. St. Louis LW David Perron, who is on his second tour of duty with the club, needs two goals to reach 100 with the organization.
3. Pavelski is two tallies away from his fourth consecutive 30-goal season.