Sabres at Blues preview: Blues begin to rebuild Central Division gap

The Blues, despite an accidental own goal by Ryan O’Reilly and some last second heart palpatations, defeated the San Jose Sharks 3-2 on Tuesday night. The win snapped a three game (0-2-1) losing streak and, despite Colton Parayko’s absence, marked a return to form for the Blues.

The Blues also added to their lead in the Central Division. They’re now seven points above second place Dallas, and third place Colorado who fell 5-3 to the Rangers Tuesday night. The game against the sagging San Jose Sharks might’ve been less than difficult but the Blues will need to work to continue adding points tonight against the Sabres.

Buffalo is 19-17-7 and have yet again slid out of a playoff spot after a promising start to the season. They’re seven points out of the second wild card slot, but have won their last two games. Those games were won at home; their road record is 6-12-4, which is a major part of the team’s problem this year. The Blues, however, enjoy playing at the Enterprise Center (14-4-3) and despite a recent slump have points in eight of their last ten games.

The Sabres should be confident after back to back wins, and they’d love nothing more than to get back into playoff position. The two teams have very different motivations coming from very different places tonight, but they have the same goal in mind. The Sabres haven’t won in St. Louis in more than a decade, and they haven’t taken three games in a row against the Blues since 1996, but they did beat the Blues 5-2 in Buffalo earlier this season. They’re not a pushover team and this won’t be an easy win. Jack Eichel has four points in his last four games, and Linus Ullmark has stopped 57 of his last 61 shots.

Colton Parayko’s status is still in question but Carl Gunnarsson, who has been on the IR for almost a month, could return tonight.