New York @ St. Louis preview

Last Meeting ( Mar 17, 2018 ) NY Rangers 3, St. Louis 4

The St. Louis Blues continue a four-game stretch against Metropolitan Division teams when they play their third contest of a five-game homestand Monday against the New York Rangers. St. Louis, which has the second-fewest points in the Western Conference (34) and tied for third-worst in the NHL, is coming off a 6-1 loss to Pittsburgh on Saturday after a promising 5-2-0 stretch.

The Blues are the only team in the league that hasn't won at least three in a row this season with captain Alex Pietrangelo telling reporters: “It shouldn’t be (a mental block). Especially now. If we want to make the playoffs, that’s what we’ve got to do. Gotta find a way to string some together here.” New York snapped a three-game losing streak (0-1-2) by overcoming a third-period deficit to score a 4-3 victory at Nashville on Saturday, improving to 4-6-5 in their last 15 contests. The Rangers were energized by the return of Jesper Fast, who scored twice and combined with linemates Mike Zibanejad (career-high four assists) and Chris Kreider to record 10 points. "We've been talking about winning in this league. It's not playing great all the time, it's playing smart and finding a way,'' New York goaltender Henrik Lundqvist told reporters. "... There's so many games obviously we could've won. We played good enough to win a lot of games, but it came down to a couple plays in the end that turned the game around so it's important not to overreact to that."

TV: 7 p.m. ET, MSG (New York), FS Midwest (St. Louis)

ABOUT THE RANGERS (16-14-7): Kevin Hayes (33 points) extended his career-high point streak to nine games with an assist against Nashville, giving him five goals and 11 assists during that span. Kreider (club-most 20 goals) has five goals and two assists in his last four games while Fast, who missed five games with an upper-body injury, has four of his five goals this season in six December contests. Zibanejad (team-high 34 points) was kept off the scoresheet in the previous three games prior to Saturday.

ABOUT THE BLUES (15-17-4): Ryan O'Reilly has a goal and an assist in the last two games but has recorded only seven of his team-leading 34 points and two of his club-most 14 goals in 12 December games. David Perron (13 goals, 24 points) has two goals and three assists in his last three contests after scoring Saturday. Pietrangelo returned Saturday after missing 11 games with a broken hand, playing 19 minutes, 56 seconds while Robby Fabbri (shoulder) could play Monday for the first time since Dec. 1.

OVERTIME

1. St. Louis yielded four power-play goals Saturday and has killed only 6-of-13 penalties over the last four games while New York has scored with the man advantage in each of its last two contests.

2. Lundqvist is 4-6-0 with a 2.26 goals-against average and .922 save percentage versus the Blues.

3. St. Louis swept last season's two-game series, including a 4-3 victory at home on Brayden Schenn overtime goal after Pietrangelo scored twice.

PREDICTION: Blues 3, Rangers 2