Preview: Blues at Predators

When: Thursday, April 4 at 7 p.m. CT
Where: Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN
Watch: ESPN+, Hulu
Listen: 101 ESPN, Blues App

TEAM SNAPSHOTS

BLUES After Saturday's loss to the San Jose Sharks, the St. Louis Blues faced an ultimatum.

"Obviously a lot of unhappy people internally in the locker room and as an organization," Blues Captain Brayden Schenn said. "As far as a message, it was just, ‘You can go about this two ways: You can either give up and mail it in for eight games and be miserable, or you dig in and push 'til the end.'”

Monday night, they chose the latter.

Schenn led the way in a 3-2 overtime win against the Edmonton Oilers. Playing game No. 500 in the Blue Note, the captain scored twice in regulation before Brandon Saad scored a walk-off overtime winner.

Both Schenn and Saad are heating up at the right time, too: Schenn has eight points in his last nine games, while Saad has goals in five of his last six, including three game-winners.

However, the Blues (40-31-4) can't rest on their laurels. They're still chasing the Los Angeles Kings for the last Wild Card spot, but the gap's starting to narrow. After losing to the Winnipeg Jets on Monday, LA has dropped three straight (pending the result of Wednesday's contest vs. Seattle). Meanwhile, St. Louis is just three points behind.

Head Coach Drew Bannister liked his team's response, but he stressed the need to build on it. With seven games left, the Blues need to stack as many wins as possible to dethrone the Kings.

“Moving forward, it’s always what’s next for us now," he said Monday. "We’ve had a good game here tonight, we bounced back well, now we have to have a response when we go into Nashville.”

Thursday is the start of a three-game road trip. After leaving the Music City, the Blues get a chance exorcise Saturday's demons with a trip to San Jose. After that, they visit Anaheim on Sunday.

PREDATORS The last time the Nashville Predators came to St. Louis, they kicked off one of the best stretches of hockey of any team this season. Starting with a Feb. 15 win over the Blues, the Preds would earn points in 18 straight, going 16-0-2.

However, they've since come back to Earth. Tuesday night, they were shut out by the Boston Bruins for a third consecutive loss.

Boston put on a defensive clinic. Linus Ullmark pitched a 31-save shutout, while the Bruins killed all four Nashville power plays.

"Obviously they're a good kill," Predators captain Roman Josi said, "but I think we just didn't execute well either. Just didn't execute well getting in, missing some passes. They just outworked us on the penalty kill. It was a 0-0 game, so if we find one there, it's a different game."

Instead, on the Bruins' last penalty kill, they caught the Preds in a line change. It resulted in a Charlie Coyle breakaway, and Boston broke the scoreless tie. Four minutes later, Pavel Zacha scored, and then David Pastrnak got the empty-netter, so the Bruins won 3-0.

Despite the losing streak, Nashville coach Andrew Brunette isn't worried. He said his team played well, but they didn't get the breaks they needed to win.

"There's going to be nights that the hockey gods are going to make you work a little bit harder to get back going," he said. "It is what it is, same with our winning streak. We just (need to) go straight ahead and worry about the next game."

The Predators' (43-28-4) run in February and March still has them in the top Wild Card spot, six points ahead of St. Louis. While the Preds likely won't miss the postseason, if the losing streak continues, the Blues have a shot at catching them.

HEAD TO HEAD This is the third and final meeting between these two divisional rivals. Nashville has dominated both meetings this season, winning 8-3 and 5-2 at Enterprise Center.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

BLUES Colton Parayko has been a stalwart on the Blues' blue line all season long. In addition to matching his career high in goals (10), Parayko also leads the NHL in blocked shots (197), which is also the most in a season by any Blues defenseman since the NHL began tracking blocked shots in 2005-06. 

PREDATORS Roman Josi has been one of the NHL's premier defensemen for a long time, and he's not slowing down. He's tied for the third in points by a defenseman (76) and second to Filip Forsberg for the team lead.

BLUE NOTES

• The Blues are 3-3-1 in their last 7 trips to Nashville.
• The Blues have won three straight road games, outscoring their opponents 15-7 over those three games, scoring five goals in each game (Boston, Ottawa, Minnesota).
• The Blues have scored a power-play goal in eight of their last 10 games against Nashville, going 9-for-30 (30.0%) on the power play over those 10 games.
• In his 27 starts since Jan. 11, Jordan Binnington has posted a 16-8-3 record with a 2.44 goals against average, a .924 save percentage and two shutouts.
• Monday's overtime winner was Brandon Saad's seventh game-winning goal of the season; he's one shy of tying his career high, which he did in 2017-18 with the Chicago Blackhawks.
• Pavel Buchnevich has nine points in his last eight games (two goals, seven assists), recording three multi-point games in that span.