Hurricanes at Blues preview

HURRICANES (6-6-2) at BLUES (4-5-3)
8 p.m. ET; FS-MW, FS-CR, NHL.TV

After starting the season 4-0-1, Carolina has gone 2-6-1 in its past nine games, including 0-3-1 in the past four.
Carolina will start goalie Curtis McElhinney for the first time since Oct. 20.
The Blues will play without center Brayden Schenn because of an upper-body injury sustained in a 5-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday.
St. Louis defenseman Jay Bouwmeester will be a healthy scratch for the second time this season although coach Mike Yeo said Bouwmeester needs more therapy on his left hip, which required offseason surgery.
Goalie Chad Johnson will make his second start of the season for the Blues.

Players to watch

Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho has no points in his past two games after getting 17 points (four goals, 13 assists) in a 12-game point streak to open the season.
Blues center Ryan O'Reilly has a seven-game point streak (four goals, eight assists), one short of tying his NHL career high.

They said it

"We've obviously tripped up over the last week or so. Definitely just got to get back more to our game of speed and tenacity and obviously special teams has been a glaring issue." -- Hurricanes center Jordan Staal on Carolina's four-game losing streak
"We had this one circled on the calendar. Our schedule has allowed us to give Jake [Allen] the reps and the opportunity. We've gotten Chad into a couple games, but we've wanted to get him into a game here." -- Blues coach Mike Yeo on starting Chad Johnson

Hurricanes projected lineup

Warren Foegele -- Jordan Staal -- Justin Williams
Micheal Ferland -- Sebastian Aho -- Teuvo Teravainen
Jordan Martinook -- Lucas Wallmark -- Andrei Svechnikov
Brock McGinn --
Nicolas Roy
-- Valentin Zykov
Jaccob Slavin -- Dougie Hamilton
Calvin de Haan -- Justin Faulk
Trevor van Riemsdyk -- Brett Pesce
Curtis McElhinney
Scott Darling
Scratched:Haydn Fleury
Injured: Victor Rask (hand), Petr Mrazek (lower body)

Blues projected lineup

Jaden Schwartz -- Ryan O'Reilly -- Vladimir Tarasenko
Robby Fabbri -- Robert Thomas -- David Perron
Zach Sanford -- Tyler Bozak -- Alexander Steen
Pat Maroon -- Ivan Barbashev -- Oskar Sundqvist
Carl Gunnarsson -- Alex Pietrangelo
Vince Dunn -- Colton Parayko
Joel Edmundson -- Jordan Schmaltz
Chad Johnson
Jake Allen
Scratched: Jay Bouwmeester, Nikita Soshnikov
Injured: Brayden Schenn (upper body), Robert Bortuzzo (lower body)

Status report

Mrazek skated after the Hurricanes' morning skate and is day to day. ... Schmaltz will replace Bouwmeester. ... Barbashev will play after being a healthy scratch the past two games. ... Schenn took part in the morning skate but will miss his first game in two seasons since joining the Blues.

Stat pack

Teravainen has no points in his past three games after getting 11 (three goals, eight assists) in the previous 10 games. ... Tarasenko has a four-game point streak (four goals, one assist). ... Johnson is 7-3-1 in 11 games against the Hurricanes.