Blues at Lightning preview

BLUES (24-22-5) at LIGHTNING (39-11-3)
7:30 p.m.; SUN, FS-MW, NHL.TV

The Blues are 7-2-1 in the past 10 games and have allowed two goals or fewer in eight of those games. Center Ryan O'Reilly has four goals and seven assists during an eight-game point streak.
Tampa Bay is 4-3-1 in its past eight games after a 3-2 shootout loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday. The Lightning lead the NHL in goals but have scored two or fewer in six of their past nine games.
Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov leads the NHL in points (22 goals, 59 assists) but has not scored a goal in his past eight games.

Players to watch

Blues forward Alexander Steen has 12 points (two goals, 10 assists) in his past 11 games against the Lightning
Lightning center Brayden Point has eight points (five goals, three assists) in his past seven games.

They said it

"I think [the Lightning] are a great test for us. We're a great team when we play heavy and hard. It's going to be a challenge for us not to give those guys too much. I'm really looking forward to it." -- Blues center Ryan O'Reilly
"There's a lot of teams that are jockeying for position to get in the playoffs. You want to be playing your best hockey this time of year moving forward. We have tightened things up defensively, and we want to continue doing that and winning games." -- Lightning center Steven Stamkos

Blues projected lineup

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

Lightning projected lineup

Ondrej Palat -- Steven Stamkos -- Nikita Kucherov
Yanni Gourde -- Brayden Point - Tyler Johnson
Alex Killorn -- Anthony Cirelli -- Mathieu Joseph
Adam Erne -- Cedric Paquette -- J.T. Miller
Victor Hedman -- Dan Girardi
Ryan McDonagh -- Erik Cernak
Braydon Coburn -- Mikhail Sergachev
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Louis Domingue
Scratched:Ryan Callahan, Danick Martel, Anton Stralman
Injured:None

Status report

Gunnarsson was a late scratch. … Lightning coach Jon Cooper said Callahan will not play right now but he expects him to get back in the lineup eventually.

Stat pack

Binnington is 7-1-1 with a .931 save percentage and a shutout in his first nine NHL starts. Tarasenko has three goals and four assists) during a five-game point streak. … …Stamkos has 14 points (five goals, nine assists) in his past 10 games. Point is one goal away from 100 in the NHL.