Sharks At Blues Game Preview: Pavelski, Sharks Promise To Make It Tough

The Blues' fortunes against the San Jose Sharks turned last season. After an 0-3 year against San Jose in 2014-2015, the Blues went 2-1 last year, winning both games 7-2.

The Blues haven't scored more than four goals twice this year, and have scored four goals in their last four games, so temper your expectations. The Sharks have lost one game in regulation in their last 11. This seems like either a recipe for a close battle or a blowout, doesn't it? The Blues' scoring problems have gotten so bad that Vladimir Tarasenko didn't have a shot on goal Tuesday night.

But hey, it's all good, right Troy and Ken?

"We know there are goals in here to be had, and we know we have good enough players to score those goals," Blues forward Troy Brouwer said. "And they’ll come. We still want to be able to score and not (have to) win 1-0 every night, but if that’s what needs to be done, that’s how we’ll do it."

"We’re just going through an unlucky phase," Blues Head Coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We’ll get lucky here in the next week or so and start scoring. I think we’re playing well. When we’re playing loose, we’re scoring more and giving up more. When we had our high-water mark as far as offense goes, it was a wide-open affair. To me, the zero or the one goal against is the most important thing because it gives you a chance to win every game. You’d like to score a lot more, but with 30 games left in the season, it’s all about winning hockey games.

"I don’t really care what the score is as long as we win games."

I get where they're coming from. I also think that expecting to win when you get a goal and that's it is unrealistic and perhaps it's something that needs to be fixed. That could just be me, especially when you're playing the team with the best road record in the West.

Tonight's lines for the Blues are the same from Tuesday night:

Blues

Forwards

Patrik Berglund - Alexander Steen - David Backes

Magnus Paajarvi - Paul Stastny - Vladimir Tarasenko

Robby Fabbri - Jori Lehtera - Troy Brouwer

Scottie Upshall - Kyle Brodziak - Dmitrij Jaskin

Defense

Jay Bouwmeester - Alex Pietrangelo

Joel Edmundson - Kevin Shattenkirk

Carl Gunnarsson - Colton Parayko

Goalie

Brian Elliott

Sharks:

Forwards:

Tomas Hertl - Joe Thornton - Joe Pavelski

Joonas Donskoi - Logan Couture - Tommy Wingels

Matt Nieto - Patrick Marleau - Joel Ward

Dainius Zubrus - Chris Tierney - Melker Karlsson

Marc-Edouard Vlasic - Justin Braun

Defense:

Paul Martin - Brent Burns

Brenden Dillon - Dylan DeMelo

Goalie:

Martin Jones

Alex Stalock