Preview: Blues vs. Senators

BLUES VS. SENATORS

TEAM SNAPSHOTS

BLUES The St. Louis Blues suffered their only regulation loss of a four-game road trip on Thursday against the Boston Bruins, falling 5-2.
Ryan O'Reilly and Carl Gunnarsson scored for the Blues, and David Perron picked up an assist to extend his career-best point streak to 13 games.
The Blues finished the road trip with a 2-1-1 record.
"It was a good trip," Blues Head Coach Craig Berube said after the game against Boston. "I didn't like our game tonight, but overall, in the other games I thought we played really well. And we didn't have a good one tonight, so we just go home and regroup and we've got Ottawa on Saturday] and we've got to get two points there … we've got to worry about that game now."
Perron will miss Saturday's game with an upper-body injury and is day-to-day. Alexander Steen, who has missed six games with a shoulder injury, is a game-time decision. Jordan Binnington is expected to start in goal. [PROJECTED LINEUP

SENATORS Bobby Ryan, Mark Stone, Magnus Paajarvi and Christian Wolanin scored for Ottawa on Friday, helping the Senators to a 4-1 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena.
It was the Senators' fourth win in the last five games.
"We played really solid, we created a lot of turnovers," Paajarvi, a former Blue, said after Friday's game. "The defense was really good. That's a nice feeling, especially when you can put four in the net."
The Senators acquired forward Nino Niederreiter from the Minnesota Wild on Thursday in a deal that sent Victor Rask to the Minnesota Wild. Niederreiter had four shots and played 16 minutes and 57 seconds in his debut with Ottawa.
Mark Stone leads the Senators with 50 points this season (22 goals, 28 assists), while Matt Duchene ranks second with 46 points (20 goals, 26 assists). Rookie Brady Tkachuk, who grew up in St. Louis and is the son of former Blue Keith Tkachuk, has 11 goals and 22 assists (23 points) in 37 games this season.
Ottawa is 15 points out of a Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference with 43 points (19-24-5).
HEAD-TO-HEAD Saturday's game is the first of two meetings between the Blues and Senators this season. The second game will be played March 14 in Ottawa.
The Blues swept the season series against the Senators last season and outscored Ottawa 7-1 in two games.
The Blues have won three straight against the Senators and have points in 11 of the last 12 meetings.

BLUE NOTES

David Perron can become the first Blue to record a 14-game point streak
since Pierre Turgeon in 1999-2000 with a point on Saturday against Ottawa… Since the start of the 2014-15 season, Vladimir Tarasenko ranks sixth among all Western Conference players with 62 goals against Eastern Conference teams. Tarasenko has a six-game point streak against the Senators (five goals, two assists)… Since the start of the calendar year, the Blues are 5-3-1.