Senators at Blues preview: Saturday Night’s Not All Right

So the Blues, despite their 5-2 loss to the Boston Bruins Thursday night, are sitting five points out of a playoff spot. The Ottawa Senators, who have two fewer points than the Blues in two fewer games played, are 13 points out in the Eastern Conference.

This really is more or less a commentary on the conferences at this point, not the quality of the teams. Ottawa gets flack for being bad while the Blues are starting to see some good press for finally starting to consistently try to play hockey (Jaden Schwartz’s pass to nowhere Thursday night notwithstanding). One arena where the Blues could stand to improve would be their play at home. If they want to make up some ground in the standings, fixing their 11-13-2 home record would be a place to start. They’ve won one home game on a Saturday night this season, and that was back on October 27th against the Blackhawks. The other five have been losses in regulation, and some of them have been pretty impressive losses at that.

If they want to prevent another Saturday loss at home, they’re going to need to keep their eye on Bobby Ryan. Ryan just had a seven game point streak snapped but he has 19 goals and 14 assists against the Blues in his career. Since I just wrote that the Blues should keep their eyes on him, he’ll more than likely wind up on the scoresheet tonight. I apologize in advance, especially since he’s been a key reason that the Senators have four wins in their last five games.

David Perron’s point streak sits at 13 games, tied for sixth all time on the Blues.

A 2-1-1 road trip isn’t something to sneeze at, and the Blues can use it to their advantage tonight against the Sens if they feel like it. They have three games left before some time off - three wins could see them a lot closer to the playoffs entering the season’s second half than it did a month ago.