The Columbus Blue Jackets and St. Louis Blues experienced a downturn in December before taking steps to correct their course.
Each team will seek to build more traction when the Blue Jackets host the Blues on Saturday night.
Columbus has a 4-2-1 record in its last seven games after pulling out of a 1-6-2 stretch last month. But the Blue Jackets let at least one point get away during their most recent game, a 5-4 loss at home to the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.
The Blue Jackets were 36 seconds away from overtime when Jonatan Berggren scored the winning goal for the Red Wings.
“I’d love to be sitting here with at least a point and have the opportunity (to win),” Columbus coach Dean Evason said after the game. “We made a mistake at the end, right? We should get out of there. It’s clock awareness. It’s recognizing where we are in the game. And just get out of there. And we didn’t.
“We’ll learn from it, and we’ll go forward.”
The Blue Jackets fell despite receiving a goal and two assists from defenseman Zach Werenski, who will carry a 14-game home point streak into Saturday’s contest.
Columbus will look to rebound against St. Louis.
“We have another game (on Saturday),” Blue Jackets winger James van Riemsdyk said Thursday. “We have to be ready to play. We’re right in the thick of a race to try and make the playoffs. We don’t have time to sulk and feel sorry for ourselves.”
The Blues, meanwhile, snapped out of a 1-3-2 slump in December to win four of their last five games.
“We’re playing harder,” coach Jim Montgomery said. “We’re making the good decisions. We’re still making a bunch of plays. But when we don’t have time and space to make a play, we’re predictable to each other, and it’s allowing us to gain more O-Zone time and more scoring.”
St. Louis notched a 4-0 home win over Ottawa on Friday with Jordan Binnington earning his 18th career shutout and Brandon Saad recording his third career hat trick to snap a 19-game scoring slump. The Blues held the Senators to 20 shots on goal.
“We’re just playing with good structure,” Saad said “We have good goaltending. If we play tight as a team and have good structure even if we’re not at our best that night, we’re going to get points in this league.”
Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist (illness) and defenseman Justin Faulk (upper body injury) are questionable for Saturday’s game. Both sat out against Ottawa, with forward Mathieu Joseph and Scott Perunovich replacing them in the lineup.
Becauuse Binnington faced the Senators, Joel Hofer (8-3-1, 2.75 goals-against average) likely will be in net vs. Columbus. He was 4-0-0 in December with a 2.18 GAA and a .914 save percentage.
“We just have to continue to build on what we’ve done since Christmas,” Montgomery said. “Because the only game we lost (4-2 to Buffalo on Sunday) is a game we outshot a team 35-16.”
–Field Level Media
