Preview: Blues at Devils

When: Thursday, March 7 at 6 p.m. CT
Where: Prudential Center in Newark, NJ
Watch: ESPN, ESPN App
Listen: 101 ESPN, Blues App

TEAM SNAPSHOTS

BLUES The St. Louis Blues are looking to bounce back after losing to the New York Islanders 4-2 on Tuesday night.

The game started out well for the Blues. After a scoreless first period, Alexey Toropchenko and Jordan Kyrou scored to put the Blues up by two 8:30 into the second period.

From then on, however, it was all Isles. Kyle Palmieri, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Bo Horvat would roar back to give New York the lead less than a minute into the third, then Mathew Barzal tucked the empty-netter to ice the game.

“[The Islanders] play hard," Brayden Schenn said after the game. "They’re not going to give you much; nothing for free. We’ve just got to, as a team, find ways to generate more and not rely on goalies and defense so much.”

Blues Head Coach Drew Bannister thought his team had its chances to win, but he isn't questioning their fight.

“I think the effort was there," he said, "but sometimes the execution wasn’t quite where we'd like it. On a back-to-back, we knew it was going to be tough. I thought our guys stuck with it, but we’ve got to find ways to get points here. We’ll move past here, move forward to New Jersey and get ready to win a game there.”

Luckily for the Blues, the Wild Card is still within striking distance. There's three teams in the Western Conference with 73 points: the Nashville Predators, Vegas Golden Knights and Los Angeles Kings. St. Louis is just six points behind. Both Nashville and Los Angeles lost in overtime Monday, while Vegas has lost three straight. With 20 games remaining, there's still plenty of time for the Blues to knock out one of those teams for a playoff berth.

Thursday is the third game of five on the Blues' east-coast road trip. Next up, they will be live from New York on Saturday night, taking on the Rangers in Madison Square Garden.

DEVILS It's been a rough couple of weeks for the New Jersey Devils. They've lost three straight, won two of their last eight and fired former coach Lindy Ruff on Monday. 

The Devils named Travis Green as their interim head coach, and his first game behind the Devils bench came Tuesday against the Florida Panthers. However, the woes New Jersey faced before didn't go away.

Between Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt, the Devils have plenty of talent up front. However, the defense has dragged them into a lot of high-scoring battles they haven't been able to win. That was on display again Tuesday. The Devils were behind the eight ball all night, going down 2-0 in the first period before Hughes started their comeback attempt. While they made it interesting, Florida ultimately won 5-3. 

"Any time you get down 2-0," Green said after the game, "it’s not the way you want to start a game, but give our guys credit how they fought back and battled back. We were right in it until the end."

Over their last eight, the Devils have allowed 4.25 goals per game. They've started three different goalies this season, and of the 66 goalies with at least 15 games played, no Devil ranks higher than 49th in save percetage (Akira Schmid, .895) or 46th in goals against average (Schmid, 3.15). 

The Devils (30-28-4) are falling quite behind in the playoff race, but they're not out of it entirely. They're only eight points back of a Wild Card spot, but in a crowded Eastern Conference, they'll have to overtake teams like the Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals to get there.

HEAD TO HEAD This is the second and final matchup between St. Louis and New Jersey this season. The Blues won their Nov. 3 meeting at Enterprise Center 4-1. The Blues are 6-1-1 in their last eight trips to the Garden State.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

BLUES Alexey Toropchenko's goal against the Islanders was 11th of the season, reaching a new career high for him. Toropchenko now has two goals in the Blues' last three games. 

DEVILS Timo Meier has scored a goal in three straight games, and he has five points in his last four games. The Swiss forward has 29 points (14 goals, 15 assists) in 49 games this season.

BLUE NOTES

• The Blues have scored four or more goals in four of their last five games against New Jersey, outscoring the Devils 19-16 over those five games.
• Brayden Schenn has 15 points in 19 career games at Prudential Center. Pavel Buchnevich as 12 points in 12 such games.
• The Blues power play percentage of 25.0% since Jan. 20 is tied for sixth in the NHL. The Florida Panthers are leading the League at 37.1%.
• Jordan Binnington has posted an 11-5-2 record with a 2.29 GAA, a .928 SV%, and two shutouts in his last 18 starts dating back to Jan. 4.
• Colton Parayko has nine goals this season, which leads Blues defensemen and are just one shy of his career-high, which he set in both 2018-19 & 2019-20.
• Robert Thomas is just two points shy of reaching 300 career points. Thomas has 69 points (20 goals, 49 assists) this season.
• As a team, the Devils possess a .882 save percentage, which is the second-lowest mark in the NHL this season (1. Ottawa, .880). The Blues, meanwhile, have the fifth-highest percentage (.905).