BLUES Despite a season-high 45 shots on goal, the St. Louis Blues started their road trip on the wrong foot with a 5-1 loss in San Jose on Thursday night. Robert Thomas extended his point streak to eight games, but the Blues ultimately struggled to get pucks past goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen.
"We're all disappointed," said Craig Berube, "Coming here, we have a chance to keep building... It didn't happen. We weren't good enough."
Pavel Buchnevich scored the lone Blues goal at SAP Center, tipping in a shot from Justin Faulk. Highlighted by his hat trick in Colorado, Buchnevich is up to seven points in his last four games.
The Blues will have to quickly shake off Thursday's loss, beginning a back-to-back in Southern California with a matchup against the Los Angeles Kings Saturday night. They'll then head out to Anaheim to face the Ducks on less than 24 hours' rest.
The Blues visit the Kings with a record of 8-6-1, worth 17 points and fifth in the Central ahead of Friday's games.
KINGS Off to a middling start, the Los Angeles Kings put together an eight-game point streak from Oct. 24 to Nov. 9 to take their place in the early Pacific Division playoff hunt.
The streak included an impressive four-game stretch which saw LA take road wins over the Maple Leafs, Senators, Flyers and Golden Knights. The Kings are 7-0-0 on the road this season, the only undefeated mark in the NHL.
The Kings bounced back from a regulation loss to Philadelphia which ended their point streak with a home win over Florida Thursday night. The tight 2-1 victory saw two points from Kevin Fiala and a game-winning goal from Anze Kopitar. Since joining the Kings last summer, Fiala has 88 points in 84 games.
After facing the Blues to end a four-game homestand, the Kings head to Arizona and Anaheim - trading places with the Blues' upcoming destinations on their road trip.
The Kings enter the matchup with a season record of 9-3-3, worth 21 points and third in the Pacific Division.
HEAD TO HEAD The Blues went 0-3-0 against the Kings last year, including a 7-6 game in their last matchup at Crypto.com Arena. Prior to last season, the Blues earned points in four straight games against Los Angeles and are 3-3-1 in their last seven matchups overall.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
BLUES Justin Faulk, whose shot from the point led to Pavel Buchnevich's tip-in goal on Thursday in San Jose. Faulk has eight points on the season, seven of which have come in the last seven games.
KINGS Adrian Kempe, sharing the team lead with 16 points in 15 games this season. Kempe is coming off a career-high 67 points last season, including three goals and an assist in three games against St. Louis.
BLUE NOTES
The Blues are 7-0-0 when scoring first this season, which shares the sixth most wins in the NHL, and the Blues are one of just two teams in the NHL to not have a loss of any kind when scoring first this season
Though their 39 times shorthanded this season are the fewest in the NHL, the Blues are one of six teams in the League to score four shorthanded goals.
In the month of November, the Blues' 5-3-0 record shares fourth in the League in wins while their 29 goals scored ranks third
Robert Thomas shares seventh in the NHL with 12 points in November, including an active eight-game point streak.
Brayden Schenn's next point will be No. 600 in his NHL career
Justin Faulk's plus-10 rating since Nov. 3 shares second in the NHL
The Los Angeles Kings aim for back-to-back home victories for the first time this season when they host the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night.
The Kings, who are a league-best 7-0-0 on the road, snapped a three-game home losing streak with a 2-1 victory over the Florida Panthers on Thursday, just the second home victory in eight games this season (2-3-3). Only the rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks (1-4-0) had fewer home wins.
The Kings' Cam Talbot made 30 saves against the Panthers to improve to 8-3-1, tied for second in wins in the NHL. Kevin Fiala had a goal and an assist and Anze Kopitar scored what proved to be the game-winning goal in the second period for Los Angeles, which is six points behind Pacific Division-leading Vegas with two games in hand.
"It's no secret that we need to make this building a little tougher to play in, and I think tonight's a good step in the right direction," Talbot said.
Special teams played a key role in the win over the Panthers. Los Angeles was a perfect 5-for-5 on the penalty kill and survived another 2:17 of 6-on-5 at the end of the game when Florida pulled goalie Sergei Bobrovsky for an extra attacker.
Kopitar's game-winner came on one of the Kings' two power plays.
"Our PK was absolutely amazing tonight," Talbot said. "We just kept battling. It felt like they had possession for the whole two minutes a couple times. We bent but we didn't break. ... I think our PK won us the game tonight."
St. Louis comes in off a 5-1 loss at San Jose on Thursday in the first game of a four-game western road trip that includes a Southern California weekend back-to-back against the Kings and Anaheim Ducks, followed by a Wednesday contest at Arizona.
The loss to the Sharks snapped a three-game winning streak for the Blues that included an impressive 8-2 victory at Colorado last Saturday and a 5-0 shutout of Tampa Bay.
The road trip got off to a bad start when San Jose's William Eklund scored just 17 seconds into Thursday's game. The Sharks, who have the fewest wins (three) and points (seven) in the league, scored three times in the first four minutes of the second period to make it 4-0.
"I think the first 10 minutes of the first two periods cost us the hockey game," St. Louis center Brayden Schenn said. "We didn't come out intense enough in the first period. In the second period, in the first 10 minutes, the compete level wasn't high enough, the battle level wasn't high enough, and all of a sudden it was 4-0 before you know it.
"It's tough to come back in a league like this no matter who you're playing when you're down four (goals)."
Kaapo Kahkonen made 44 saves to record his first win in six starts for the Sharks. Pavel Buchnevich spoiled the shutout when he scored on a wrist shot with 6:05 to go.
"We're all disappointed," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "Coming in here, having a chance to keep building and gain points in the standings and it didn't happen. Didn't happen. Weren't good enough."
