Boston @ St. Louis preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 17, 2019 ) St. Louis 2, Boston 5

After seeing their franchise-record 11-game winning streak finally come to a halt, the surging St. Louis Blues may find it hard to bounce back when they face a team that has been almost equally as hot. The Blues will look to erase the memory of a 5-2 loss in Dallas on Thursday night when they return home to face the sizzling Boston Bruins on Saturday afternoon.

St. Louis had not even trailed over a stretch of eight games before Dallas scored the first three goals on Thursday to hand the Blues their first loss since Jan. 21. “This time of the year everybody’s trying to push for something, whether it’s a playoff spot or playoff seed,” captain Alex Pietrangelo said. “So we know every single game’s gonna be important.” Boston, which is in second place in the Atlantic Division, has won seven in a row entering the finale of a five-game road trip and takes a 12-game point streak into the matchup against St. Louis. "The whole month we've been good, consistent," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "Part of that is to do with our lineup has become consistent because our injured guys are back. They've got some time under their belt."

TV: 4 p.m. ET, NHL Network, NESN (Boston), FS Midwest (St. Louis)

ABOUT THE BRUINS (36-17-8): Boston made a move to bolster its depth down the middle when it acquired center Charlie Coyle from the Minnesota Wild in exchange for Ryan Donato and a fifth-round pick in this year's draft. Coyle, who scored a career-high 21 goals in 2015-16 and had 10 tallies and 28 assists this season with the Wild, has plenty of ties to his new club, growing up in nearby East Weymouth and playing collegiately at Boston University. "You envision you’re playing for the hometown team, and I definitely did some of that when I was younger," the 26-year-old Coyle said. "So obviously it’s a cool moment right now."

ABOUT THE BLUES (32-23-5): St. Louis' No. 1 line of Vladimir Tarasenko, Ryan O'Reilly and Brayden Schenn carried the offense during the 11-game run, but Schenn sat out Thursday's game after suffering an upper-body injury two nights earlier. Tarasenko and O'Reilly each accounted for the goals at Dallas while playing alongside Jaden Schwartz, who has collected points in six of his last seven games overall and has posted four goals and five assists during a seven-game point streak against Boston. Rookie Jordan Binnington had his nine-start winning streak snapped, giving up more than three goals for only the second time.

OVERTIME

1. Bruins F Jake DeBrusk has scored in five straight games to go along with five assists in that span.

2. Tarasenko has 11 goals in his last 12 games and has scored three in nine meetings with Boston.

3. Boston G Tuukka Rask is 12-0-2 in his last 15 starts, including a 5-2 win over St. Louis on Jan. 17.

PREDICTION: Blues 3, Bruins 2