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St. Louis Blues Begin Road Trip, Look to Establish Winning Streak vs. New York Rangers

By Patrick Karraker

Nov 12, 2015; New York, NY, USA; St. Louis Blues right wing Vladimir Tarasenko (91) passes around New York Rangers defenseman Marc Staal (18) during the first period of an NHL hockey game at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 12, 2015; New York, NY, USA; St. Louis Blues right wing Vladimir Tarasenko (91) passes around New York Rangers defenseman Marc Staal (18) during the first period of an NHL hockey game at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports /
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St. Louis Blues New York Rangers
Nov 12, 2015; New York, NY, USA; St. Louis Blues right wing Vladimir Tarasenko (91) passes around New York Rangers defenseman Marc Staal (18) during the first period of an NHL hockey game at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports /

The St. Louis Blues begin a two-game road trip on Tuesday as they face the New York Rangers at MSG, looking to establish a two-game winning streak after a victory on Saturday.

The St. Louis Blues began the 2016-17 season in dominant fashion, winning their first three games while scoring 11 goals. Since then, though, they’ve been much more pedestrian, going 2-2-2 over their past six while scoring just 11 goals, six of which came in an October 22 win at Calgary.

The Blues appeared to be on the upswing a bit, though, in their win Saturday against the Los Angeles Kings, a team that’s tough to score on virtually all the time. The Blues scored just one goal, but they were disciplined enough defensively to prevent the Kings from scoring. More importantly, it got them back into the win column for the first time in a week.

As the Blues begin a brief two-game road trip on Tuesday night against the Rangers, they’ll be looking to win two consecutive games for the first time since they won three straight to begin the season. It could help that the team they’re playing was the final of the three teams they beat during that impressive streak to open the campaign. The Blues defeated the Rangers 3-2 on October 15, though the most impressive player in that win–goalie Carter Hutton–will be on the bench Tuesday, while regular starter Jake Allen is between the pipes once again.

The Blues will hope they perform better at Madison Square Garden this year than they did last, when they fell 6-3 to New York in one of their most embarrassing losses of 2015-16. Allen started in net but gave way to Brian Elliott after giving up three goals on the first five shots he faced. The Blues were arguably at their low point as far as forward health, and they suited up guys like Scott Gomez, Magnus Paajarvi, Dmitrij Jaskin (who scored one of his four goals on the season), and Martin Havlat (who decided to retire after apparently deciding he couldn’t play anymore during the course of the 7:33 he spent on the ice that night).

We’ll see if Allen performs better in New York Tuesday night, but one thing’s for sure: the Blues’ lineup will be much better than it was at MSG a year ago. Here’s what it will look like:

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