BLUES A few late goals have kept the St. Louis Blues from collecting points in each of their two games this weekend.
On Saturday night, Brendan Smith scored with 2:57 left in regulation to break a 2-2 tie and secure a win for the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena. On Sunday, it was Edmonton's Kailer Yamamoto, who beat Jordan Binnington with 28 seconds left to help the Oilers to a 5-4 victory at Enterprise Center.
"Looking at a positive, we're fighting back. Every goal they get, we seem to respond well and get back into the game," said Blues forward Robert Thomas. "That's a positive, but these late goals are killers."
"It's just frustrating," added defenseman Robert Bortuzzo, who scored in Sunday's contest. "I think every guy in that room knows how valuable points are, no matter what time of year it is, the League's too competitive, there's too much parity. Strong division. So it's frustrating to give a few of those away, especially tonight where I thought we had great energy and a little lapse in the second but overall, I thought, good, strong spurts of hockey, similar to [Saturday] night, where we kind of played a good third period. Just frustrating."
The Blues will have reinforcements for the game: Oskar Sundqvist is back after missing eight months due to a knee injury, Torey Krug returns for the first time in 12 days due to COVID-19 protocol and rookie Scott Perunovich, who leads the AHL in points (20) as a defenseman, will make his NHL debut.
COYOTES The Arizona Coyotes enter Tuesday's game against the Blues in dead last in the NHL standings, and by a considerable margin.
The Coyotes have collected just three points in 15 games this season (1-13-1).
Their only win came on Nov. 6 against the expansion Seattle Kraken.
Defenseman Shane Gostisbehere, who was acquired in an offseason trade from the Philadelphia Flyers, leads the team in points with 12 (two goals, 10 assists) in 15 games. St. Louis native Clayton Keller (three goals, three assists) ranks third.
Arizona is without former Blue Dmitrij Jaskin, who was injured Saturday in Nashville. Christian Fisher is also on injured reserve, Nick Schmaltz is day-to-day with an injury, and Andrew Ladd and Johan Larsson are among the players in COVID-19 protocols.
HEAD-TO-HEAD The Blues beat the Coyotes 7-4 in the first meeting between the teams this season (Oct. 18 at Gila River Arena). Klim Kostin scored two goals in 47 seconds in the game, the quickest pair by a Blue since Herb Raglan on Nov. 28, 1987.
The Blues have lost their last three home games to the Coyotes (0-2-1).
Pavel Buchnevich has four goals in six career games against Arizona, while Justin Faulk has 15 points (six goals, nine assists) and a plus-17 rating in 25 career games against the Coyotes.
