The Vancouver Canucks will try to get back on the winning track when they travel to St. Louis to take on the Blues who have lost five straight.
Vancouver will have goalie Roberto Luongo back in the line-up, although he is expected to be Andrew Raycroft's back-up. Raycroft is 1-1-0 with a 1.01 GAA in two starts versus the Blues, stopping 35-of-37 shots faced.
Luongo has been out of the line-up for two weeks with a broken rib. He suffered the injury in a contest against Toronto October 24. He would finish the game against the Leafs and then posted a shutout against Edmonton the next night, before he aggravated his injury in a loss to Detroit October 27.
With the return of Luongo, the Canucks announced Tuesday morning that the club has re-assigned goaltender Cory Schneider to Manitoba. Schneider's demotion comes after he stopped 45 of 47 shots faced in a 2-1 setback to Dallas last Friday.
Mason Raymond had the lone score for the Canucks against Dallas, who had a three-game winning streak snapped and fell to 1-1-0 on a five-game road trip. Vancouver is 3-6-0 overall as the guest this year.
Vancouver could also see the return of Daniel Sedin on this road trip. Sedin has missed the last 14 games with a broken foot. Daniel could be back playing with his brother, Henrik, on the top line Thursday in Detroit.
The Canucks have won five of their last seven versus the Blues, but have dropped five of their last eight in St. Louis. These two clubs also met in the first round of last season's playoffs, with Vancouver handing St. Louis a four-game sweep.
The Blues have lost five consecutive contests for the first time since December 10-18, 2008. They haven't lost six in a row since October 30-November 12 of last year.
Though St. Louis has not won since October 28, it does have a point in three straight. That includes a 3-2 shootout loss to Atlanta on Sunday in which netminder Ty Conklin made 38 saves but was beaten twice in the final frame.
"We didn't want to play a shut-down game in the third," said Blues head coach Andy Murray. "We wanted to play attack hockey, and we need to continue to play attack hockey and learn how not to sit on a lead. We made mistakes, they scored."
St. Louis will likely go with Chris Mason in net tonight in the opener of a six-game homestand. St. Louis is just 2-5-1 at home this year.
Mason, 3-4-3 with a 2.45 goals-against average this year, is 1-4-1 with a 3.19 GAA lifetime versus the Canucks.
With files from The Sports Network and The Canadian Press