Thursday, March 28, 2024

NHL Preview: St. Louis Blues (26-27-3) at Carolina Hurricanes (37-10-8)

ST. LOUIS BLUES NOTES:

CURRENT INJURIES
Brandon Saad – Upper-Body (Announced on Feb. 16)
Jake Neighbours – Upper-Body (Will be re-evaluated in 5 weeks; announced on Feb. 20)
2022-23 Total Man Games Lost: 234

RECENT TRANSACTIONS
February
20 – Placed forward Jake Neighbours on IR; Activated defenseman Marco Scandella and Scott Perunovich from IR; Assigned Perunovich to the Springfield Thunderbirds (AHL)
18 – Recalled forwards Nikita Alexandrov and Matthew Highmore from the Springfield Thunderbirds (AHL)
17 – Acquired a 2023 First and Third-Round draft pick, as well a 2024 Second-Round draft pick and forwards Mikhail Abramov and Adam Gaudette from the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for forwards Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari

BLUES VS. HURRICANES

  • The Blues and Hurricanes will meet for the 2nd and final time this season
  • The Blues lost to the Hurricanes in the 1st meeting of the season, 6-4 on Dec. 1 in St. Louis
  • The Blues went 0-2-0 against Carolina last season
  • The Blues have dropped 3 straight games to Carolina, but are 5-4-0 in their last 9 games against the Hurricanes
  • The Blues have lost back-to-back games at Carolina, but won their previous 4 games against the Hurricanes in Carolina
  • The Blues have scored a power play goal in 4 straight games against Carolina, going 6 for 16 (37.5%) on the power play
  • The Blues have not allowed the Hurricanes a power play goal in 4 of their last 5 games in Carolina, going 11 for 12 (91.7%) on the penalty kill over those 5 games
  • Brayden Schenn is expected to dress in his 400th game as a Blue
  • If Marco Scandella plays, it will be his 700th career NHL game

UPCOMING SCHEDULE
2/23 – vs. Vancouver
2/25 – vs. Pittsburgh
2/28 – vs. Seattle
3/2 – at San Jose
3/4 – at Los Angeles

A LOOK AHEAD

  • The Blues will play 4 more games in February, 3 of which will come at Enterprise Center
  • The Blues will play 2 more games against the Eastern Conference this month, as well as 2 more against the Western Conference

EXTRA NUGGETS

  • The Blues are 22-8-0 this season when scoring first, which shares the 11th most wins in the NHL (1. Boston, 29-0-3)
  • The Blues are 1 of 4 teams to record 3 multi-goal third period comeback wins this season (Kings/Islanders/Ducks)
  • The Blues have 9 play

CAROLINA HURRICANES NOTES:

LAST GAME
The Hurricanes earned a 4-1 win over the Washington Capitals at Carter-Finley Stadium in the 2023 NHL Stadium Series on Saturday, the first outdoor game in franchise history. Martin Necas (1g, 2a), Jesperi Kotkaniemi (1g, 1a) and Teuvo Teravainen (1g, 1a) each posted multi-point games, and Paul Stastny rounded out the goal scoring for the Hurricanes. Jordan Martinook also recorded an assist and was assessed his first fighting major of the season. Frederik Andersen earned an assist for his first point in 2022-23 and stopped 24 of 25 shots faced in net to register his second career outdoor win.

INJURY REPORT
Jake Gardiner, upper-body, missed 55 games (10/12-2/18)
Ondrej Kase, concussion, missed 54 games (10/14-2/18)
Max Pacioretty, torn Achilles, missed 10 games (1/21-2/18)
2022-23 Man-Games Lost Due to Injury: 215

RECENT TRANSACTIONS
None

UPCOMING GAMES
DATE OPPONENT TIME TV RADIO
Feb. 21 St. Louis 7 p.m. BSSO HRN
Feb. 24 Ottawa 7 p.m. BSSO HRN
Feb. 25 Anaheim 7 p.m. BSSO HRN
March 1 at Vegas 10 p.m. TNT HRN
March 3 at Arizona 9:30 p.m. BSSO HRN

  • All times are Eastern | BSSO = Bally Sports South | HRN = Hurricanes Radio Network

UPCOMING PRACTICE SCHEDULE
DATE DAY LOCATION TIME
Feb. 21 Tuesday PNC Arena 10:30 a.m.
Feb. 22 Wednesday Invisalign Arena 11 a.m.
Feb. 23 Thursday PNC Arena 11 a.m.
Feb. 24 Friday PNC Arena 10:30 a.m.
Feb. 25 Saturday No morning skate

  • All times are local. Times and locations are subject to change.

Carolina Hurricanes: Media Notes
HURRICANES vs. BLUES SERIES NOTES
— Carolina is facing St. Louis in the second and final meeting between the teams during the 2022-23 season.

— The Hurricanes and Blues are meeting for the 87th time in their histories. Carolina holds a 33-43-5-5 overall record, including an 18-20-2-2 home record and a 15-14-1-5 record since relocation.

— Carolina leads the season series 1-0-0 in 2022-23 (St. Louis: 0-1-0).

— The Hurricanes earned a 6-4 win over the Blues at Enterprise Center on 12/1. Jordan Martinook (3g) scored his second career hat trick, and Brent Burns (1g, 1a) tallied two points. Antti Raanta made 12 saves in net before being replaced by Pyotr Kochetkov, who stopped 10 of 11 shots and earned a win in relief.

— Sebastian Aho has registered seven points (3g, 4a) in 10 career regular-season games against the Blues.

— Brett Pesce has tallied eight points (2g, 6a) in 11 career regular-season games against St. Louis.

— Paul Stastny played parts of four seasons with the Blues from 2015-18, earning 175 points (56g, 119a) in 267 games and serving as an alternate captain in his final three campaigns with the team. He also spent part of his childhood in St. Louis, as his father, Peter, registered 18 points (6g, 12a) in 23 games with the Blues over his final two NHL seasons (1993-95) and then worked as a Blues scout for two seasons (1996-98). Paul played youth hockey with the Jr. Blues and attended Chaminade College Prep in St. Louis for his freshman and sophomore years of high school (2000-02). He has earned 36 points (16g, 20a) in 32 career regular-season games against the Blues.

— Hurricanes Head Coach Rod Brind’Amour was drafted ninth overall by St. Louis in the 1988 NHL Draft and recorded 110 points (43g, 67a) in 157 NHL games with the Blues from 1989-91.

— Logan Brown’s father, Jeff, was acquired by Hartford from VAN along with a third-round pick in the 1998 NHL Draft (Paul Manning) in exchange for Jim Dowd, Frantisek Kucera and a second-round pick in the 1997 NHL Draft (Ryan Bonni) on 12/19/95 and recorded 51 points (10g, 41a) in 81 games with Hartford/Carolina from 1995-97. Logan was born in Raleigh on 3/5/98, just after Jeff was traded to TOR in exchange for a fourth-round pick in the 1999 NHL Draft (Yevgeny Pavlov) on 1/2/98, and he is one of just two active NHL players and four players all-time born in North Carolina.

— Justin Faulk was selected by Carolina in the second round (37th overall) of the 2010 NHL Draft and skated in 559 NHL games with the Hurricanes from 2011-19, posting 258 points (85g, 173a). He was traded to St. Louis on 9/24/19 along with a fifth-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft (Pavel Novak) in exchange for Joel Edmundson, Dominik Bokk and a seventh-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft (Nikita Guslistov). Faulk ranks first in goals, points and game-winning goals (19), third in games played and fourth in assists among all defensemen in Whalers/Hurricanes history.

— Josh Leivo played in the Hurricanes’ organization in 2021-22, recording three points (1g, 2a) in seven NHL games with Carolina and adding 46 points (22g, 24a) in 54 AHL games with Chicago while serving as one of the Wolves’ alternate captains. He also earned an AHL-leading 29 points (15g, 14a) in 18 playoff games as Chicago won the 2022 Calder Cup and won the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the league’s playoff MVP.

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