Goal-challenged Blues face even more goal-starved Senators
The St. Louis Blues' only scoring in their past two games has been a pair of power-play goals. Their next opponent hasn't even been that fortunate.
The Ottawa Senators try to avoid being shut out in three consecutive games for the first time in franchise history Monday night in St. Louis.
The Blues (23-14-4) have scored six times in their last four games, and all of their even-strength goals came in a 4-3 overtime win against Nashville on Tuesday. They had a season-best four-game home win streak snapped with a 3-1 loss to Minnesota on Thursday while leading scorer Vladimir Tarasenko sat out with an illness.
Tarasenko returned Saturday and scored his 23rd goal in a 4-1 loss in Toronto.
"It's adversity everyone faces throughout the year," center Paul Stastny told the team's official website. "It's frustrating at times, but you try not to let it bother you. The minute we start playing too hesitant, too tentative, and start worrying too much about that, that's when you get in trouble."
Ottawa (18-15-6) suffered its third consecutive loss and seventh straight on the road with a 3-0 defeat to Chicago on Sunday, its second in a row by that score. The Senators have been blanked three times this season after scoring in every game in 2014-15.
"You go through your ebbs and flows of the season, when you somehow you don't think you play well but you find a way to manufacture four (goals). Tonight, you get the opportunities and come up with a goose egg," forward Bobby Ryan said. "You get 12-14 chances like we did, there's not going to be many nights when guys aren't finding a way to put one in. We've got to find a way out of the funk."
The Senators are in the midst of their longest road skid since an 0-10-2 slide Nov. 1-Dec. 28, 2008. They've won four of their last five visits to St. Louis, taking the past two in shootouts, but haven't faced the Blues since Nov. 25, 2014, at the Scottrade Center.
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They split their two overall matchups last season, losing 3-2 Nov. 22.
"We always have a real battle with St. Louis. It's going to be a fun one," forward Kyle Turris said.
Andrew Hammond could make his first start against St. Louis with Craig Anderson having played against the Blackhawks. Anderson hasn't faced the Blues since Feb. 7, 2012, and is 2-1-0 with a 3.39 goals-against average in his last three matchups.
St. Louis is expected to start ex-Senators netminder Brian Elliott, who is 2-0-1 with a 1.65 GAA in four lifetime starts against his former team. Playing behind Jake Allen, Elliott is 1-3-1 with a 2.64 GAA in six starts since the beginning of November.
Ottawa captain Erik Karlsson has two goals and two assists in his last four games against St. Louis. He totaled three goals and six assists in the Senators' seven contests before the back-to-back shutouts.
Alexander Steen scored in each game against Ottawa last season, while Tarasenko has one goal in four lifetime matchups.
