Preview: Blues at Islanders

BLUES AT ISLANDERS

TEAM SNAPSHOTS

BLUES Brayden Schenn matched his career-high goal streak by scoring in his fourth straight game and Sammy Blais scored in front of a large contingent of friends and family, but the Blues suffered their their first regulation loss of the season Saturday in a 6-3 defeat to the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre.
"They played better, they played harder than us, that's what it boils down to," Blues Head Coach Craig Berube said after the game.
"We know who we were playing," said Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin, who had a goal and an assist Saturday. "We were playing a team that's won the Stanley Cup, that's won a lot of battles in the past, and they know how to win. So if we didn't bring it to them, they were going to bring it to us and they're probably going to get that win."
Saturday's loss ended the Blues' three-game winning streak. With a win Monday, the Blues could finish their four-game road trip with a 3-1-0 record.
ISLANDERS Semyon Varlamov made 35 saves and stopped every shooter he faced in a shootout Saturday, helping the New York Islanders to a 3-2 victory against the Florida Panthers at Nassau Coliseum.
The win was the second of the season for the Islanders, who had previously been outscored 10-4 in back-to-back losses to the Edmonton Oilers and Carolina Hurricanes.
"It was a different game tonight," Varlamov told NHL.com. "The boys battled very hard in front of the net, and then they did an unbelievable job today; I saw most of the shots, which is always easy to play like that."
"We didn't have any passengers," added Islanders Head Coach Barry Trotz. "It was a team win. Tonight, we had Islanders hockey; we had all our lines going."
HEAD-TO-HEAD Monday's game will be the first of two meetings between the Blues and Islanders. The next meeting is set for Feb. 27 at Enterprise Center.
The Blues were 0-1-1 against the Islanders last season, but in the last 13 meetings, the Blues have a 7-3-3 record.
St. Louis has earned points in six of their last eight trips to visit the Islanders (4-2-2). Five of the last 10 matchups in New York have needed overtime or shootouts.

THE COLISEUM

The Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY was home to the New York Islanders from 1972 until 2015 when the Islanders moved to Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Because that move proven difficult, the Islanders began splitting its home schedule between Barclays Center and the Coliseum last season while they wait for their new arena to be completed for the 2021-22 season.
The Coliseum has since undergone renovations since and now seats 13,917 fans for hockey.
The Blues' last game at Nassau Coliseum was Dec. 6, 2014 - when Martin Brodeur won his first game as a member of the Blues, making 14 saves in relief to help St. Louis overcome a 3-0 deficit to win 6-4.

HOT VS. ISLANDERS

David Perron has a three-game point streak (one goal, two assists)
Alexander Steen has nine points in his last nine games (four goals, five assists)
Vladimir Tarasenko has seven points in his last seven games (four goals, three assists)
Brayden Schenn has six points in his last seven games (two goals, four assists)

BLUE NOTES

Since Berube took over behind the bench on Nov. 21, 2018, the Blues have the most wins and points of any Western Conference team against the Eastern Conference. Overall, the Blues are 41-20-7 (89 points) under Berube… Ryan O'Reilly leads the Blues with seven points (one goal, six assists) in five games this season. He ranks fourth in the League with 60 face-off wins and has won 57.5 percent of his draws.