Blues look to beat Sharks for second time in eight days
One of the San Jose Sharks' worst outings of the season came Nov. 9 in St. Louis when Blues backup goaltender Chad Johnson stopped 33 shots for his first shutout in nearly two years in the Blues' 4-0 win.
The Blues are hoping Johnson can do it again when they face the Sharks on Saturday night in San Jose to conclude a three-game road trip.
St. Louis (7-7-3) has split the first two games of the trip, earning a decisive 4-1 win Friday night in Las Vegas after getting shut out 1-0 in Chicago. The Blues remain at the bottom of the Central Division, though goaltender Jake Allen, who has turned in two consecutive strong performances after a rocky start to the season, sees some recent improvement.
"I think probably the last three, four, five games, we're getting more on the same page and it's nice to see," he told FOX Sports Midwest after his 32-save performance.
Allen, who has lost each his last two starts in San Jose, will sit while Johnson starts in net in the second game of back-to-backs. Johnson, a 32-year-old journeyman, is 2-3-0 with a 2.08 goals-against average in six games, including four starts.
Ryan O'Reilly collected two goals against the Golden Knights on Friday and has seven of his team-best 10 markers over the last six games. He scored against San Jose in the first meeting of the season but has failed to collect a point over his last three games in Silicon Valley.
Linemate Vladimir Tarasenko assisted on both of O'Reilly's tallies and is second on the club with 16 points (six goals, 10 assists). The Russian winger is still looking for his first road goal of 2018-19. He has just five assists in six road contests this season and has been held without a tally in six of seven career games in Northern California.
The Blues are 7-2-1 in their last 10 visits to SAP Center.
With about a quarter of the season gone, the Sharks sit atop their division but are also concerned about a lack of consistency on the ice.
San Jose (10-7-3) holds a one-point lead over the Vancouver Canucks and a two-point cushion on the Calgary Flames in the Pacific Division. But the club has won three in a row only once and fell to 2-1-0 on a six-game homestand after Thursday's 5-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
"When we're playing at our best, we see what's successful that makes us win hockey games," San Jose defenseman Brenden Dillon said. "We're not really doing it for a full 60 minutes right now; we're doing it in spurts."
The Sharks have allowed 64 goals this season -- the same number the club has scored.
"You can see the same kind of mistakes happening, I think, and as much as we talk about them and we want to do it right, when these same mistakes happen it kind of deflates us a little bit," said center Joe Pavelski, who has four goals and three assists during the homestand.
Dillon noted after the loss that "we are only 20 games in, but we are 20 games in" and believes he has the answer to San Jose's inconsistency.
"We know what we need to do in order to be successful and that's putting an emphasis on defense," he said. "We have enough skilled guys in here that we're going to get goals."
Goaltender Aaron Dell, who hasn't played for the Sharks since losing to the Blues, is 0-2-2 with a 3.20 goal-against average in his last four starts, while Martin Jones is 1-2-0 with a 1.35 GAA all-time against St. Louis in San Jose. Jones' win - and both losses - were via shutout.
