St. Louis Blues Look to Establish Season-Best Five-Game Winning Streak vs. Arizona Coyotes
The St. Louis Blues seek a five-game winning streak, which would be their longest of the 2015-16 season to date, as they visit the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday night.
The St. Louis Blues will face the Arizona Coyotes for the second of three times this season on Saturday night, traveling to Glendale for the Coyotes’ only home game in the season series. The Blues beat Arizona in rather dominant fashion on December 8, taking a 4-1 victory on goals from Vladimir Tarasenko, Alexander Steen, and Kevin Shattenkirk, along with an empty-netter from David Backes. The Blues converted on nearly 20 percent of their shots on goal, and they were much more efficient than the Coyotes, who actually had a superior 23 shots on net.
As the Blues head into Glendale for what could be their last-ever visit to Gila River Arena–which is in limbo as the Coyotes’ long-term home as the franchise battles with the city of Glendale–they’ll be looking to win a fifth straight game, which would be a season-best streak. Thanks to Brian Elliott‘s incredible goaltending over the past six weeks, which has earned him the top goals-against average (1.99) and save percentage (.934) in the entire NHL, the Blues are on a major roll and have a good chance to keep things going against a Coyotes team that’s been quite inconsistent over the past couple months.
Arizona, a club that started off incredibly strong thanks to great performances out of the gate from rookie forwards Max Domi and Anthony Duclair, has experienced spottier performance as the season has gone on. They now sit in fourth place in the Pacific Division, seven points behind the third-place San Jose Sharks and four points away from stealing a Wild Card spot from the Nashville Predators or Colorado Avalanche. They’ve won two straight and have been very offensively productive, scoring six goals in each of their past two games. On the bright side, they’ve gotten an impressive performance out of rookie goaltender Louis Domingue (12-8-4 with a 2.55 GAA and .916 save percentage), but he’s just over a month into his career as a regular starter in the NHL, causing continued question as to whether he has what it takes to succeed on a night-to-night basis.
Next: Breaking Down the Blues' Injuries Through 2015-16
If the Blues stick with the same lineup that they’ve been using since this winning streak started back on February 12 in Florida (there’s really no reason for them not to with as good as they’ve been lately), here’s how it will look:
Jaden Schwartz–Jori Lehtera-Vladmir Tarasenko
Patrik Berglund-Alexander Steen-David Backes
Robby Fabbri–Paul Stastny–Troy Brouwer
Scottie Upshall–Kyle Brodziak–Ryan Reaves
Jay Bouwmeester–Kevin Shattenkirk
Carl Gunnarsson–Colton Parayko