Preview: Blues at Predators

[December 13, 2016]  The St. Louis Blues will wrap up a four-game road trip when they visit the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night in a matchup of Central Division rivals. St. Louis was on an 8-1-1 tear prior to dropping two of three games on the road trip to drop to 4-8-1 away from home, including a 3-1 setback at Nashville on Nov. 10.

"I think the story of the road this year has been a little bit of consistency between games," Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo said after Sunday's 3-1 setback at Minnesota. St. Louis avenged last month's loss to Predators with a 3-1 victory at home nine days later, continuing a trend for both teams of stellar play in their own arenas. Nashville returns to Bridgestone Arena after suffering a pair of three-goal defeats at Dallas and Arizona. The Predators are struggling to slow the opposition during their current 1-3-1 stretch in December, permitting a total of 21 goals in the five games.

TV: 8 p.m. ET, FSN Midwest (St. Louis), FSN Tennessee (Nashville)

ABOUT THE BLUES (16-9-4): St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock juggled his lines at Monday's practice and put together a unit of leading scorer Vladimir Tarasenko with Jaden Schwartz and Robby Fabbri, who rank second and third in points among forwards on the team. "We have a good line. We should spend way more time offensively," Tarasenko said. "I'm used to playing with those guys before and we have some success, so try to build on it and play better tomorrow." Tarasenko has scored half his 14 goals in the past nine games.

ABOUT THE PREDATORS (12-11-4): Nashville could get some reinforcements back in the lineup as defenseman Ryan Ellis and forward Colton Sissons were full participants in Monday's practice. Ellis (upper body) has not played since Nov. 23 and Sissons (upper body) has been sidelined since Nov. 25. "They've been out there, but we just haven't had a good practice in a while, so it was good to get home and get a practice in," Predators coach Peter Laviolette said after practice. "It was nice to have them on the ice."

OVERTIME

1. Tarasenko has nine goals and 19 points in 21 games against Nashville.

2. Nashville is 9-2-2 at home as opposed to 3-9-2 away from Bridgestone Arena.

3. Blues G Jake Allen takes a 5-1-0 record and 2.27 goals-against average against the Predators into Tuesday's start.

PREDICTION: Blues 3, Predators 2

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