Blues at Flames preview

BLUES (30-12-8) at FLAMES (26-19-5)
9 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SNW, SNP, FS-MW, NHL.TV

St. Louis, which is playing the second of a back to back following a 3-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Monday, is 0-2-1 in its past three games. Forward Sammy Blais was activated off injured reserve and is expected to return after missing 28 games because of a right wrist injury.
Calgary, which is playing its first game following its League-mandated break prior to the 2020 Honda NHL All-Star Game, has lost two of its past three after winning five straight.
Flames forward Buddy Robinson was recalled from Stockton of the American Hockey League on Sunday and will play his first NHL game since Dec. 10, 2016, when he was a member of the Ottawa Senators.

Players to watch

Blues forward David Perron has four points (one goal, three assists) in a three-game point streak and 10 (five goals, five assists) in his past eight games.
Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk has gone 10 games without a goal and has five assists in that span.

They said it

"We've got to get back in the winning column here. I think that's three in a row now, so we've got to get back to winning hockey games and getting that ground back that we've built so far throughout the season."-- Blues forward Brayden Schenn
"You can tell right away looking at the standings, we're only two, three points apart from being out of the playoffs to being first in our division. Every game's important, and we've got to look at it that way." -- Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau

Blues projected lineup

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

Flames projected lineup

Matthew Tkachuk -- Elias Lindholm -- Andrew Mangiapane
Johnny Gaudreau -- Sean Monahan -- Derek Ryan
Sam Bennett -- Mikael Backlund -- Buddy Robinson
Milan Lucic -- Mark Jankowski -- Dillon Dube
Mark Giordano -- TJ Brodie
Noah Hanifin -- Travis Hamonic
Oliver Kylington -- Rasmus Andersson
Cam Talbot
David Rittich
Scratched:Tobias Rieder, Zac Rinaldo Michael Stone
Injured:None

Status report

The Blues did not hold a morning skate.

Stat pack

Schwartz will play his 500th NHL game. … Binnington is 0-1-1 in his past two starts and has allowed eight goals on 36 shots. … Monahan, who needs one point for 400 in the NHL, has two assists in his past seven games. … Talbot is 6-2-0 with a 2.05 goals-against average and .940 save percentage in his past nine games (eight starts).