TEAM SNAPSHOTS
BLUES The St. Louis Blues earned a 5-3 win on Thursday, beating their rival Blackhawks for their sixth victory in their last eight games.
Jordan Kyrou made it a 4-2 game in the third period with his team-leading 34th goal of the season, set up by a Sammy Blais assist to extend his career-long point streak to six games.
Justin Faulk also continued a career-best streak, recording his fourth consecutive multi-point game thanks to assists to Logan Brown and Alexey Toropchenko.
"We're like a family," said Toropchenko. "We're working for each other and fighting for each other - it's a good atmosphere in the locker room."
Though the Blues are still nine points out of a potential Western Conference Wild Card spot, they are generating positive momentum and cohesion amidst this 6-1-1 stretch. Since March 17, the Blues lead the NHL in goals and share No. 2 in both wins and points.
They look to continue building good habits and executing offensively when they face another Central Division rival on Saturday, meeting the Nashville Predators who hope a late-season surge can vault them into postseason contention.
The Blues will visit Bridgestone Arena with a record of 35-34-6, worth 76 points with seven games left in the regular season.
PREDATORS The Nashville Predators are hoping to shake a recent skid and get back into the playoff picture, currently on a 3-5-1 stretch capped off by a shutout loss to Pittsburgh on Thursday night.
The 2-0 loss came directly after an exciting win over the Boston Bruins. The Predators were two seconds away from blanking the President's Trophy-clinching Bruins until David Pastrnak's 52nd goal of the season disrupted Juuse Saros' shutout.
The Predators made a number of moves at the Trade Deadline, most notably trading defenseman Mattias Ekholm to Edmonton for Tyson Barrie and future assets as well as dealing forwards Nino Niederreiter and Mikael Granlund to Winnipeg and Pittsburgh, respectively.
Nashville has been battling multiple key injuries in recent weeks, with Filip Forsberg out since Feb. 11, Ryan Johansen since Feb. 21, Matt Duchene since March 26 and Roman Josi missing Thursday's game in Pittsburgh.
Despite the current injury, Josi leads the Predators with 41 assists and 59 points in his 12th season with the club - continuing his run as Nashville's all-time scoring leader.
Hoping to remain a factor in the playoff hunt, the Predators host the Blues on Saturday with a record of 37-29-8, worth 82 points - three shy of a Wild Card spot.
HEAD-TO-HEAD The Blues are 2-1-0 against Nashville this year, including an overtime shutout by Jordan Binnington on Dec. 12. Overall, they are 5-1-1 against the Predators in their last seven matchups.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
BLUES Jakub Vrana, who has four goals in his last four games including his 200th career point on Thursday in Chicago. Vrana has three points in six career games against the Predators, though he has not played them since Jan. 29, 2020.
PREDATORS Tyson Barrie, currently No. 14 in scoring among NHL defenseman with 52 points this season. Barrie has nine points in 16 games since his trade to the Predators after logging 132 points in 190 games with the Oilers.
BLUE NOTES
Jakub Vrana's nine goals since March 9 share No. 4 among all NHL skaters. His nine power-play goals share No. 8.. The Blues will play seven games in April to finish the regular season, four of which will come at Enterprise Center. All four of their Western Conference opponents in April are Central Division teams... Brandon Saad is one goal shy of the seventh 20-goal season in his career... Jordan Binnington's overtime shutout in Nashville earlier this season was the first by any Blues goaltender since he did it on Feb. 7, 2019 against the Tampa Bay Lightning... Jordan Kyrou's 23 goals in road games rank No. 3 in the NHL this season.
The Nashville Predators will continue their push to make the playoffs on Saturday afternoon when they host the surging St. Louis Blues.
The Predators (37-29-8, 82 points) are five points behind the Winnipeg Jets (42-31-3, 87 points) for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. The Blues (35-34-6, 76 points), in turn, are 11 points out with seven games remaining on their schedule.
Nashville has dropped three of its past four games following a 2-0 setback at Pittsburgh on Thursday, marking the ninth time in its past 10 games that it has been held to two goals or fewer.
Juuse Saros made 43 saves in the loss to the Penguins.
"It's a playoff mindset now," Predators coach John Hynes said. "You have to move on to the next one. You have to take some lessons from each game, but you certainly have to be able to turn around quick."
The Predators' offensive struggles can be traced to injuries to several of their top players.
Captain Roman Josi, who has team-high totals in assists (41) and points (59), hasn't played since sustaining an upper-body injury against the Jets on March 18. Josi is a game-time decision against the Blues.
Winger Filip Forsberg, whose 42 points (19 goals, 23 assists) are third on the team despite playing in just 50 games, has been on injured reserve with an upper-body ailment since Feb. 28.
Center Ryan Johansen (12 goals, 16 assists) underwent season-ending leg surgery in February. Center Matt Duchene, who is second on the team with 56 points and leads the team with 22 goals, hasn't played since injuring his hand against Toronto on March 26.
While the Predators are fading, the Blues are hitting a high note.
St. Louis is coming off a 5-3 win over the host Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday for its sixth victory in the past eight games (6-1-1), during which they've scored 37 goals.
"We're scoring lots of goals. I think that's the biggest thing we've got going for us right now," St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. "We're scoring goals, and we've got a lot of guys playing pretty good offense right now. That's the bottom line."
Brandon Saad collected a goal and an assist and Jakub Vrana, Logan Brown, Alexey Toropchenko and Jordan Kyrou also scored against the Blackhawks. Jordan Binnington made 30 saves for St. Louis.
Kyrou has scored a team-high 34 goals to go along with 35 assists for a club-best 69 points. He has three more points than Pavel Buchnevich (25 goals, 41 assists), who missed Thursday's game with an upper-body injury.
Robert Thomas has a team-high 46 assists to go along with 17 goals this season, but he missed Thursday's game with an upper-body injury. Thomas and Kyrou are game-time decisions against Nashville.
This will be the Central Division rivals' fourth -- and final -- meeting of the regular season.
Nashville cruised to a 6-2 win at home on Oct. 27 before St. Louis knocked off the Predators in the next two games on home ice. The Blues posted a 1-0 victory in overtime on Dec. 12 and 5-2 triumph on Jan. 19.
