Wild at Blues preview

WILD (4-8-0) at BLUES (6-3-3)
8 p.m. ET; NBCSN

The Blues, 3-1-2 at home this season, have lost three in a row to the Wild on home ice after four straight wins.
St. Louis will play its third game without forward Vladimir Tarasenko (shoulder), who had surgery Tuesday and will be re-evaluated in five months.
The Wild are coming off a 6-3 loss at the Dallas Stars on Tuesday, when they surrendered a 3-0 lead and allowed five goals in the third period.
Goalie Devan Dubnyk is expected to start after missing three games with an upper-body injury.

Players to watch

Wild center Eric Staal has seven points (four goals, three assists) in his past five games.
Blues center Brayden Schenn has five points (four goals, one assist) in his past four games. He will play in his 600th NHL game.

They said it

"Momentum is real. Momentum in games is real. We had all of it and then it shifted. I don't know what the answer is as to why, but we've got to figure that out. It obviously helped them the other way." -- Wild center Eric Staal after the game Tuesday
"We've got to focus on what we need to do tonight, play our game and don't beat ourselves." -- Blues coach Craig Berube

Wild projected lineup

Jason Zucker -- Eric Staal -- Mats Zuccarello
Zach Parise -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Luke Kunin
Marcus Foligno -- Mikko Koivu -- Ryan Hartman
Jordan Greenway -- Victor Rask -- Ryan Donato
Ryan Suter -- Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin -- Matt Dumba
Carson Soucy -- Brad Hunt
Devan Dubnyk
Alex Stalock
Scratched:Nick Seeler
Injured: Kevin Fiala (lower body), Greg Pateryn (core)

Blues projected lineup

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

Status report

The Wild did not hold a morning skate. ... Blais is expected to return after missing one game with a thumb injury. ... Steen is a game-time decision; he left a 5-4 overtime win against the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday in the third period with a lower-body injury and did not practice Tuesday. ... Gunnarsson will replace Bortuzzo.

Stat pack

Zucker has three points (one goal, two assists) in his past two games. ... Perron has seven points (three goals, four assists) in his past five games and needs two assists for 300 in the NHL. ... O'Reilly has five points (two goals, three assists) in his past three games, including his second four-point game of the season Sunday. ... Schwartz has eight points (one goal, seven assists) in his past eight games. ... Schenn has scored nine goals in 12 games. He didn't reach nine goals last season until his 36th game.