Preview: Blues at Capitals

BLUES AT CAPITALS

TEAM SNAPSHOTS

BLUES Vladimir Tarasenko scored two goals, David Perron recorded an assist to extend his career-best point streak to 10 games and Jordan Binnington won his third NHL game in his third NHL start to lift the Blues to a big divisional win against the Dallas Stars on Saturday night.
"It's been good," Binnington said of his three starts in the NHL. "But at the same time, you've got to stay steady, keep coming to work every day and see how it goes."
The win was the Blues' second consecutive victory, and it moved the club to five points out of the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference as of Sunday afternoon.
"I hate the words 'desperate times,' but they know the situation we're in and this is a big game," Blues Head Coach Craig Berube said after the win. "Dallas is} in our division and we're trying to catch them."
[The Blues will make several lineup changes
for Monday's game, including starting Jake Allen in goal and playing recent call-ups Jordan Kyrou and Jordan Nolan.

CAPITALS Evgeny Kuznetsov scored with 1:06 remaining in regulation on Saturday to force overtime against the Columbus Blue Jackets, but Artemi Panarin spoiled the excitement with an overtime game-winner - his second in as many games - to hand the Capitals a 2-1 loss at home.
The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for Washington.
Capitals goalie Braden Holtby left Saturday's game after being poked in the eye by an errant stick from Cam Atkinson and his status for Monday is uncertain.
"It's a really important point," Capitals Head Coach Todd Reirden told NHL.com after the game. "I thought [Columbus] played a very desperate, urgent game. We weren't on top of our game as well as we have been."
As of Sunday, Washington led the Metropolitan Division with 59 points this season (27-12-5). Alex Ovechkin leads the League in goals (32) and leads his club in points (50).
HEAD-TO-HEAD The Blues beat the Capitals 5-2 back on Jan. 3 in St. Louis and will have a chance to sweep the season series for the first time since 2014-15.
In their last six trips to Washington, the Blues have earned points in four games (3-2-1).
Since the start of the 2013-14 season, the Blues are 10-7-1 against the defending Stanley Cup Champions.

BLUE NOTES

Perron's point streak (10 games - four goals, nine assists) is the longest of his NHL career. His previous best (eight games) has been accomplished twice... In three career starts, Binnington is 3-0-0 with a 0.67 goals-against average and a .974 save-percentage. He has stopped 74 of the 76 shots he's faced in those three games... Last Thursday vs. Montreal, Ryan O'Reilly won 22 face-offs, which is the second-most in a single game in Blues history. Pierre Turgeon ranks first with 23 face-off wins. The stat has been tracked since the 1997-98 season... Since the start of the 2014-15 season, Tarasenko has 163 goals while Ovechkin has 217, which ranks third and first in the NHL, respectively... T.J. Oshie spent seven seasons with the Blues before joining the Capitals. In St. Louis, he accumulated 310 points in 443 games (110 goals, 200 assists)... Since the start of the 2016-17 season, the Blues have 47 wins against Eastern Conference teams, which ranks first among all teams in the West.