Blues at Kings preview

BLUES (35-25-6) at KINGS (24-34-8)
10:30 p.m. ET; FS-W, FS-MW, NHL.TV

The Blues trail the second-place Winnipeg Jets by six points and first-place Nashville Predators by seven, and are three points ahead of the Dallas Stars, who hold the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. They're 3-3-1 since an 11-game winning streak after defeating the Anaheim Ducks 5-4 on Wednesday.
The Kings are 1-7-4 in their past 12 games and 16 points behind the Minnesota Wild for the second wild card from the West.

Players to watch

Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo has scored in consecutive games, including the winning goal against the Ducks with 52 seconds remaining in the third period. He has six points (four goals, two assists) in his past five games.
Kings forward Dustin Brown has four points (three goals, one assist) in his past four games.

They said it

"You can't take anyone lightly, especially this time of year. Anyone can beat anyone at any given time." -- Blues forward Brayden Schenn
"When we get scored on I think we take it hard as a group. It's good that we take it hard, but we can't let it bother us. When it happens, we've got to move on." -- Kings coach Willie Desjardins on the importance of not allowing the first goal

Blues projected lineup

Brayden Schenn -- Ryan O'Reilly -- Vladimir Tarasenko
Pat Maroon -- Tyler Bozak -- Robert Thomas
Jaden Schwartz -- Oskar Sundqvist -- Alexander Steen
Mackenzie MacEachern -- Ivan Barbashev -- Sammy Blais
Joel Edmundson -- Alex Pietrangelo
Jay Bouwmeester -- Colton Parayko
Vince Dunn -- Michael Del Zotto
Jake Allen
Jordan Binnington
Scratched:Zach Sanford, Robby Fabbri, Robert Bortuzzo
Injured:David Perron (upper body)

Kings projected lineup

Dustin Brown -- Anze Kopitar -- Tyler Toffoli
Brendan Leipsic -- Jeff Carter -- Ilya Kovalchuk
Alex Iafallo -- Adrian Kempe -- Jonny Brodzinski
Kyle Clifford -- Trevor Lewis -- Matt Luff
Derek Forbort -- Drew Doughty
Alec Martinez -- Sean Walker
Dion Phaneuf -- Matt Roy
Jonathan Quick
Jack Campbell
Scratched:Paul LaDue, Kurtis MacDermid
Injured:Austin Wagner (lower body)

Status report

The Blues did not hold a morning skate. ... Doughty and Phaneuf did not participate in an optional skate.

Stat pack

The Blues have allowed at least four goals in each of their past three games (1-2-0) … … Carter is one point for 700 in the NHL. … Schwartz needs one point for 300. … Doughty has three assists during a three-game streak.