Music: {allcanada} Blues-Oilers Preview

Thursday, February 24, 2011

{allcanada} Blues-Oilers Preview

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	STATS
60	GP	61
27	W	20
24	L	33
9	OT	8
63	P	48
0.525	P%	0.393
2.75	G/G	2.54
2.90	GA/G	3.21
17.3	PP%	13.2
81.1	PK%	76.0
30.0	S/G	26.4
28.2	SA/G	31.8
48.3	FO%	44.1
BUY STL PHOTOS › \| BUY EDM PHOTOS ›

DATE	VIS/HOME	FINAL
Feb 4, 2011	EDM@STL	STL, 5 - 3
Dec 4, 2010	STL@EDM	EDM, 2 - 1

St. Louis' attempt to move into playoff position has not been easy. A visit to Edmonton also might prove difficult for the struggling Blues.

Continuing their trip through western Canada, the Blues look to avoid a fourth consecutive loss Friday night against the Oilers.

St. Louis (27-24-9) opened its three-game trip with a 3-2 loss at Vancouver on Thursday. It was the second straight one-goal defeat for the Blues, who are in 13th place and seven points out of the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot with 22 games remaining.

"It didn't seem like we were a team playing for our season," Blues forward Andy McDonald said. "We haven't been able to get that life, get that emotion and get that fire. Obviously that's not going to be acceptable if you want to get in the postseason."

Continuing that climb up the standings likely won't be easy as the Blues take the ice for the sixth time in eight days against a confident club.

Though the Oilers' 48 points are the fewest in the NHL, they've won four of five overall. They also have taken four of six at home over St. Louis, including 2-1 in overtime on Dec. 4.

"(Edmonton is) a team that's playing well," said Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, who has two goals in his last three games. "We have to be ready for that one."

McDonald, who had an assist in a 5-3 home win over the Oilers on Feb. 4, added an assist Thursday to extend his points streak to six games. He has four goals and five assists during that span.

Though victories have been hard to come by of late, the Blues have scored at least one power-play goal in seven straight games. St. Louis, which went 1 for 4 on the power play at Vancouver, is 10 for 26 with the man advantage over that seven-game stretch.

Edmonton (20-33-8) has manged to score in any situation for the most part the last five contests. Though the Oilers' 156 goals rank among the lowest in the NHL, they've totaled 18 during their last four victories.

After their three-game winning streak ended with a 4-1 loss at Minnesota on Tuesday, Edmonton rebounded with a 5-1 win at Colorado a night later.

"We've had plenty of those (one-sided games) so we'll take the ones that go our way," said forward Shawn Horcoff, who had an assist against the Avalanche.

Rookies Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle each had a goal with an assist. Hall has four goals his last three games and Eberle three his last five.

Hall also has a goal in each of Edmonton's two previous meetings with St. Louis. Eberle, meanwhile, had two assists at St. Louis earlier this month.

Though Edmonton's Devan Dubnyk is 0-3-0 with a 4.76 goals-against average against the Blues, he could start again after stopping 38 shots versus Colorado for his second straight win.

St. Louis could be without defenseman Nikita Nikitin after he suffered a lower body injury in the first period Thursday.