The Blues have struggled at home all season, but one of their best performances at Scottrade Center came against the Canucks. St. Louis will try to duplicate that performance in tonight's home battle versus Vancouver.
St. Louis is just 6-13-2 as the host this year and has dropped seven of its last eight at home thanks to Tuesday's 4-3 setback to Nashville. However, the Blues handed the Canucks a 6-1 loss on home ice back on November 10 behind David Perron's first career hat trick and 22 saves by Chris Mason. The six- goal output is the most by the Blues in a home game this season.
St. Louis also recorded a 3-1 win in Vancouver on December 20 to run its series winning streak to three games. The Canucks have lost two straight and four of their last six at Scottrade Center.
The Blues have lost three in a row overall and the first two contests of a four-game homestand after Tuesday's loss to the Preds. Alex Steen and Andy McDonald both had assists in addition to third-period tallies that brought the Blues within one, but they couldn't net the equalizer.
Carlo Colaiacovo also scored while Mason allowed four goals on 30 shots in the loss, which gave the Blues their longest losing streak since a season-worst five-game slide from October 29-November 8.
"We played frustrated, we took too many penalties and we didn't show a lot of composure with the puck," said Blues coach Andy Murray. "Most of that stemmed from the fact that we didn't manage the puck very well."
St. Louis played without Paul Kariya, who suffered an upper-body injury when he was elbowed in the head during Sunday's loss to Buffalo. He is doubtful to return for this game.
On the other hand, the Canucks had a three-game winning streak end with Tuesday's 3-2 shootout loss to the Coyotes. Kyle Wellwood forced overtime on a goal with 6:12 left in regulation and Mikael Samuelsson also scored in regulation, but he also failed to extend the shootout as Vancouver's final skater in the third round.
Roberto Luongo was the hard-luck loser with 23 saves, as the Canucks lost for the first time this season beyond regulation (23-16-1).
Vancouver defenseman Kevin Bieksa suffered a lacerated left leg in the contest that will sideline him indefinitely.
"They're a good team over there. I thought we played a real strong road game, there was a couple breaks, a guy breaking his stick and Bieksa was kind of hurt there on there other goal, we felt we played strong enough to win," Wellwood told Vancouver's Web site. "We generated enough chances here to win, but they stuck with their game plan and won in a shootout."
Vancouver fell to 1-0-1 on a four-game road trip and 7-10-1 overall as the road team this year.
