The last time the Blues weren’t the top team in the Central Division was on Halloween. Ever since then, the Blues have gone through a run where they extended their advantage beyond a double-digit lead, all the way to now where they are tied with the Dallas Stars and only a point ahead of the Colorado Avalanche. Thursday night the Blues try and defend their top spot against the Arizona Coyotes in what is their third and final matchup between the two clubs this year.
Blues fans will get their first look at Marco Scandella who will play on the second defensive pairing with Colton Parayko.
Scandella was averaging just over 17 minutes per game in Montreal and just under that in Buffalo earlier in the year. Although Scandella was a foe of the Blues when he played for the Wild, he is very familiar with several players on the team including Ryan O’Reilly, who he played with in Buffalo as well as some Canadiens he played with at the World Juniors.
The Blues are riding the hot hand tonight as Jordan Binnington will get the start coming off a shutout that extinguished his four-game losing skid.
The Coyotes are 4-4-2 in their last 10 games that includes losses to the Senators and an overtime loss to the Maple Leafs while managing to top the Capitals and the Oilers. The Coyotes played Wednesday in Dallas where they fell 3-2 on a third-period goal by Jamie Oleksiak. The Coyotes have the chance to sweep the season series against the Blues for the first time since the 2007-08 season where they went 4-0 in a season where the Blues finished 14th in the West.
