Stars at Blues preview

STARS (30-19-5) at BLUES (32-15-8)
8 p.m. ET; FS-MW, FS-SW+, NHL.TV

The forward sustained an upper-body injury and left in the second period of a 3-2 loss against the Minnesota Wild on Friday when he collided with teammate Denis Gurianov.
The Stars, who are seven points behind the first-place Blues in the Central Division, did not hold a morning skate Saturday.
The Blues had their 11-game home point streak (10-0-1) end Thursday with a 4-2 loss against the Winnipeg Jets; they are 2-5-1 in their past eight games.
The Blues have won the two previous matchups against the Stars this season, 3-2 on Oct. 5 in St. Louis and 3-1 on Nov. 29 in Dallas.

Players to watch

Stars captain Jamie Benn will play in his 800th NHL game. He has 676 points (295 goals, 381 assists), including 39 points (19 goals, 20 assists) in 41 games against St. Louis.
Blues forward Robert Thomas has five points (one goal, four assists) in a five-game point streak.

They said it

"You're going into probably the toughest building to play in the League and arguably the best team in the League. ... When you're playing against St. Louis, it's a man's game. It's a game that usually separates good teams." -- Stars forward Andrew Cogliano
"We've been in a lot of emotional, very important games. What's going to help us is we've been in almost every situation from last year, so we can use that to help us this year. We're not playing bad hockey right now. We're getting a lot of chances." -- Blues defenseman Vince Dunn

Stars projected lineup

Jamie Benn -- Roope Hintz -- Tyler Seguin
Denis Gurianov -- Jason Dickinson -- Corey Perry
Mattias Janmark -- Joe Pavelski -- Joel Kiviranta
Andrew Cogliano -- Radek Faksa -- Blake Comeau
Esa Lindell -- John Klingberg
Miro Heiskanen -- Roman Polak
Jamie Oleksiak -- Stephen Johns
Anton Khudobin
Ben Bishop
Scratched:Andrej Sekera, Taylor Fedun
Injured:Alexander Radulov (upper body), Justin Dowling (lower body)

Blues projected lineup

Jaden Schwartz -- Brayden Schenn -- Robert Thomas
Zach Sanford -- Ryan O'Reilly -- David Perron
Sammy Blais -- Tyler Bozak -- Alexander Steen
Mackenzie MacEachern -- Jacob de la Rose -- Ivan Barbashev
Carl Gunnarsson -- Alex Pietrangelo
Jay Bouwmeester -- Colton Parayko
Vince Dunn -- Justin Faulk
Jordan Binnington
Jake Allen
Scratched:Robert Bortuzzo, Jordan Kyrou, Troy Brouwer
Injured: Vladimir Tarasenko (shoulder), Oskar Sundqvist (lower body)

Status report

MacEachern will play for the second time in seven games and replace Kyrou. ... De la Rose, a healthy scratch the past three games, will replace Brouwer.

Stat pack

Khudobin is 2-0-1 with a 2.29 goals-against average and .927 save percentage in four games against the Blues. ... Pavelski has five points (four goals, one assist) in a four-game point streak. ... Gurianov has four goals in the past six games. ... O'Reilly has five points (one goal, four assists) in a three-game point streak.