The St. Louis Blues will ride momentum into their game at Buffalo on Wednesday, while the Sabres will bring a sense of relief.

St. Louis finds itself on a seven-game winning streak and hasn’t lost since Nov. 8.

“Winning cures everything, everyone feels better about it,” Blues captain Ryan O’Reilly said. “We have that belief back in our group and it’s exciting. It’s fun coming to the rink.”

The Sabres are coming off a 7-2 road victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday that snapped an eight-game losing streak.

“It has taken a weight off my shoulders, I can tell you that, personally,” Sabres coach Don Granato said after the game. “It’s great. It’s fun to see the guys play that way, obviously. Lots of guys, I mean, they care and they work. We’re young.

“You see the care behind the scenes. It’s really nice to see them enjoy this tonight.”

The Blues know how the Sabres have felt. Prior to the current winning streak, St. Louis lost a team-record eight consecutive games in regulation while getting outscored 38-12.

“When things aren’t going well and you’re losing, it’s tough coming to the rink,” O’Reilly said. “Everything’s negative, you’re watching video and it’s negative, you’re not doing what you what you want to do, so it’s clearly a different feel in here and it’s something we want to keep maintaining and keep building it and still we’ve got a lot of work left. Win the next game and go from there.”

During their winning streak, the Blues have outscored their opponents 30-16.

“Just the way we’re playing the game as a team is a lot stronger,” St. Louis center Robert Thomas said. “And once you’re winning, you’re a little bit looser, more relaxed and that also helps you create more chances offensively.”

St. Louis winger Jordan Kyrou has two goals and six assists in his past five games. Goaltender Jordan Binnington has allowed two goals or fewer in each of his past five starts.

The Blues got defenseman Colton Parayko (upper-body injury) back in the lineup Monday for their 3-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks after he missed three games. They could get winger Vladimir Tarasenko (illness) back for the Wednesday game, but defenseman Torey Krug (upper-body injury) is questionable.

“We thought it was best (Krug) stay off again today and then get a skate tomorrow and see how he feels,” Blues coach Craig Berube said after Tuesday’s practice.

Forward Tyson Jost made his Sabres debut Tuesday after arriving from Minnesota on a waiver claim, and winger Zemgus Girgensons returned after sitting out one game due to an undisclosed reason.

Defenseman Mattias Samuelsson was back in the lineup after missing a month with a lower-body injury, rejoining Rasmus Dahlin on the top pairing.

“He’s a presence within the locker room, he’s a presence on the ice,” Granato said. “He’s an incredible athlete — size, speed, strength, agility. And he tiers everybody down in the sense that he comes in, he plays with Dahlin, that means nobody has to move up and fill that spot.”

Buffalo goaltender Craig Anderson started in Montreal, making 29 saves for the win. Eric Comrie is sidelined by a lower-body injury, so Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen could get the call against the Blues.

–Field Level Media

After struggling through the first month of the season, the Columbus Blue Jackets appear to have found a rhythm amid their recent run of success.

That included another win over the Montreal Canadiens, whom they have dominated of late.

Looking to continue their November surge, the Blue Jackets aim for a seventh straight head-to-head victory over the visiting Canadiens on Wednesday night.

Columbus totaled 30 goals while losing nine of its first 12 games, but has since scored 25 times in going 4-1-1. Johnny Gaudreau had a goal with two assists, Brody Jenner scored his team-leading eighth and Daniil Tarasov made a career-high 47 saves in his eighth NHL start during the Blue Jackets’ 5-3 home win over Florida on Sunday.

Gaudreau has recorded half of his team-high 18 points over the last six games. Meanwhile, linemate Jenner has seven goals with three assists in the last eight for Columbus.

“It’s great to find that chemistry with a player,” Gaudreau said. “It’s tough sometimes losing games and switching lines with different guys, but me and Boone have stuck together for most parts of the season.

“It takes time, but we’re getting there. We’re finding each other and using each other well. It’s been good.”

Gaudreau and Jenner are a big reason the Blue Jackets have posted 22 goals amid a 4-1-0 home stretch, which has been key considering they’ve yielded 19 in those games. That includes a 6-4 victory over Montreal last Thursday. Sean Kuraly had two goals with an assist, Jenner recorded one of each and Gaudreau added an assist in that contest.

Columbus has outscored the Canadiens 28-14 during its six-game series winning streak. Since Jan. 25, 2016, the Blue Jackets are 13-3-2 vs. Montreal, and they have won four straight and eight of the last nine meetings in Columbus.

The Canadiens, meanwhile, won three straight Nov. 8-12 but have allowed 22 goals during the 1-3-0 rut that has followed. Montreal gave up three goals to Buffalo in the first 2:13 on Tuesday and fell 7-2 at home.

“We’re just going to get ready for Columbus (Wednesday),” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “We’ll address some of these things (from Tuesday) in a shorter period of time.

“It was one of those games, and sometimes it’s gonna happen. Sometimes, you’ve got to move on.”

Montreal’s Jake Allen allowed each goal while facing 38 shots Tuesday; he has given up 19 while splitting his last four starts. However, backup Sam Montembeault (3-2-1, 2.83 goals-against average), who stopped 23 of 28 shots at Columbus last week, could get a second straight start against the Blue Jackets in this back-to-back scenario for the Canadiens.

Nick Suzuki and Brendan Gallagher each had a goal with an assist at Columbus, but teammate Cole Caufield was held without a point. Caufield, though, has three goals with an assist in the last two contests. Meanwhile, Suzuki has recorded two goals and five assists in seven career games against the Blue Jackets.

Columbus’ Joonas Korpisalo made 38 saves against the Canadiens, but he has allowed 10 goals in his last two starts. Recently called up following an injury to Elvis Merzlikins, Tarasov has a 3.71 GAA in five starts this season.

–Field Level Media

The Vancouver Canucks have been competitive this year despite having a losing record. The issue is the inability to hold leads.

Vancouver has lost seven games in which it had a multiple-goal lead, including Monday night’s 5-4 loss to Vegas. The Canucks will try to rebound when they hit the road to play the surging Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night.

Monday’s loss snapped a short two-game winning streak, although it looked like Vancouver would make it three straight. The Canucks led 4-2 after Elias Pettersson scored his 10th goal of the season at 6:11 of the third period.

The Golden Knights tied it within 2 minutes, 46 seconds, and then won it late. It left Vancouver frustrated yet again.

“We all want to win and we’re all trying, but I don’t know what the answer is,” Pettersson said. “We just can’t let that happen and it’s been happening too much this season. It’s just frustrating. We have to love being in those moments, and I think we do, but it’s just not good enough.”

Wednesday will be the Canucks’ first game of a three-game road trip and their first time facing the defending champions this season. One of the challenges for Vancouver is staying out of the penalty box against Colorado’s potent power play.

The Canucks have racked up 229 penalty minutes, fourth-most in the NHL entering Tuesday, and that could be an issue against the Avalanche, who lead the NHL in power-play percentage at 34.5. Colorado’s power play was an uncharacteristic 1-for-6 in a 3-2 shootout win at Dallas on Monday night.

Part of that can be blamed on good goaltending but also the lack of depth up front. The Avalanche are dealing with injuries to its corps of forwards and a couple of key defensemen.

They might get one back against Vancouver. Sam Girard has been skating and may return Wednesday or Friday at Nashville.

Colorado does have Cale Makar on the blue line, and he was a difference maker against the Stars. He scored a goal for his 200th career point in just 195 games to become the fastest defenseman in NHL history to reach that mark.

The quickest to reach it before was Sergei Zubov, who did it in 207 games.

“If we don’t have this group of guys, I don’t think that gets accomplished,” Makar said.

The Avalanche are streaking after stumbling at the start of the season. They have gone 7-1-0 in November, including a sweep of their three-game road trip at Carolina, Washington and Dallas — despite multiple players being out.

“It’s huge for us, huge,” said Alex Newhook, who scored a goal Monday night. “Obviously a time where we’re trying to build and missing a lot of guys in our lineup. But guys are stepping up, and to get six points on a trip where we’re playing three pretty good teams, that’s huge for us.”

Colorado has gotten good goaltending and generated plenty of offense. The Avalanche have outscored opponents 32-15 in the eight November games, including a shutout by Alexandar Georgiev in Washington on Saturday.

–Field Level Media

Jeff Skinner had two goals and three assists as the Buffalo Sabres snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 7-2 win against the host Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday.

Tage Thompson contributed one goal and three assists and Alex Tuch and Rasmus Dahlin each had a goal and two assists for the Sabres. Henri Jokiharju and JJ Peterka also scored, Dylan Cozens notched two assists and Craig Anderson made 29 saves for the victory.

Cole Caufield and Sean Monahan scored, and Jake Allen made 31 saves for the Canadiens, who have lost three of their past four games.

The contest wasn’t even a minute old before the Sabres jumped out to a 2-0 lead. Thompson skated to the left circle before spinning around to feed a trailing Dahlin, who had plenty of time and space in the slot before beating Allen blocker side 35 seconds in for a 1-0 edge.

Peterka doubled the margin 17 seconds later. Cozens’ attempt at the edge of the crease slid through the bottom of the crease over to Peterka on the right side, and he quickly pounced to push the puck under Allen’s pad.

It marked the second-fastest two goals from the start of a game in franchise history after Rick Martin’s two tallies in the first 49 seconds on Dec. 18, 1975, against the Minnesota North Stars.

Tuch took a feed from Dahlin at the top of the right circle and wired it glove side to extend the margin to 3-0 on a power play at 2:13 of the first period.

It was the second-fastest three goals from the start of a game in Sabres history, behind the mark of 2:11 set back on Jan. 6, 2010, against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Canadiens got one back at 2:57 of the first, with Caufield firing a one-timer from the top of the left circle off a feed from Kaiden Guhle to cut it 3-1.

Skinner made it 4-1 at 11:21 of the second period. Tuch dragged the puck around defenseman Mike Matheson and got it to Thompson, who skated to the goal line before sending it to Skinner in the low slot.

Monahan scooped up the rebound of his own shot to narrow the difference to 4-2 at 13:57 of the middle period.

Tuch found Jokiharju on the backdoor to push it to 5-2 at 3:48 of the third period. Thompson scored at 6:39 to extend it to 6-2, and Skinner made it 7-2 with a one-timer from the right circle on a power play at 14:26.

–Field Level Media

Until last week, the Seattle Kraken had one overtime victory in their season-plus in the National Hockey League.

Now they’ve got two in a row.

The Kraken, who have worked extra time in three straight games, hope to get things taken care of in regulation Wednesday night when they wrap up a six-game homestand against the San Jose Sharks.

“We obviously haven’t had a lot of success in overtime (in the past),” Kraken forward Jordan Eberle said after scoring the winner Saturday against the Los Angeles Kings. “And then, the last two we put a lot of work and emphasis into it. When you go into those games, those are huge points that you give up.

“You never know when you may need that extra point to get in (to the playoffs).”

The overtime streak started Nov. 13 with a 3-2 loss to Winnipeg after the Jets scored the tying goal on the power play and with the goalie pulled for an extra attacker with 5.2 seconds left in regulation.

After that loss, Kraken coach Dave Hakstol devoted time in each of the next two practices to three-on-three play.

“It’s a possession game,” Hakstol said. “So there are a lot of pieces built into it. But three-on-three is something that grows with chemistry. No question about it. You can have some basic rules, some basic systematic looks you want to put into place.

“But that grows with chemistry as well. And we need to continue growing there.”

Seattle responded by beating the New York Rangers last Thursday and the Kings on Saturday, both by 3-2 margins, to improve to 3-1-1 on the homestand.

Jared McCann and Daniel Sprong also scored against L.A., rookie Matty Beniers added two assists and goaltender Martin Jones stopped 27 shots.

“You don’t need to force it,” McCann said of playing overtime. “Hold on to it. It’s a puck possession time of the game. You’ve got to just hold on to it, make the right play and wait for your chances.”

The Sharks snapped a two-game losing streak with a 5-1 victory Monday against visiting Ottawa.

Five players scored for San Jose, Luke Kunin had three assists and goalie Kaapo Kahkonen made 37 saves. The Sharks had lost their previous six games (0-3-3) at home.

“Just really proud of our guys,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “That was a great bounce-back win. I thought we got better and better as the game went on.”

It was certainly a bounce-back game for Kahkonen, who allowed nine goals over his previous two starts.

“I think his confidence early on, even about a week and a half ago, was not where it needed to be,” Quinn said. “And he’s built his confidence up. He’s worked hard. He’s done a really good job.”

The Sharks’ Logan Couture scored for the fourth consecutive game on an empty-netter in the final minute to give him 10 goals this season. Defenseman Erik Karlsson had an assist to tie for third in the NHL with 29 points.

“I think we started a little bit sloppy, but we cleaned it up fairly quick,” Karlsson said. “And the last 40 minutes, I think we played like the better team and it was a nice, nice win for us to get at home. It’s been a while.”

–Field Level Media