Sharks at Blues: Lines, gamethread, and where to watch

The Sharks (32-19-8, 2nd Pacific) start a tough road trip tonight, playing four Central division teams in six nights, only one of which is currently outside of playoff contention. Before visiting the Predators, Blackhawks, and Wild, the Sharks make a stop off to see the Blues (34-22-4, 4th Central) in St. Louis tonight. It seems weird that this is the first meeting of these two teams, but the NHL schedule is all wheels within wheels, man.

The Blues can hop up to third place in the division with a win tonight and, with a 0-2-1 record in their last three, they could use a good showing. As the saying goes, your losing streak is wrapping up when you're losing games you deserve to win. If that's the case, the Blues are due: they dropped a 2-1 decision to the Dallas Stars on Friday night despite out shooting their hosts 29 to 16. St. Louis' only goal came courtesy of Brayden Schenn who, much to the chagrin of Flyers fans, is having a massive breakout season and leads the Blues in goals (24), assists (31), and points (55).

San Jose shares St. Louis' last opponent, but skated to a much different result. Saturday night at the Tank saw a dominant rebuttal to the Stars' 6-0 shut out of our boys on New Year's Eve. The Sharks scored on four of their first five shots, powering them to a 5-2 win. Mikkel Boedker continued heating up, scoring two goals in that game; he's got four goals and an assist to his name in his last three contests.

The Sharks could hit the road running tonight, but St. Louis is cruising on a four game winning streak against our good good teal boys, and with Joel Ward and Tomas Hertl placed on injured reserve yesterday along with Joe Thornton's continued absence, it could be an uphill skate.

Sharks Lines

Timo Meier -- Joe Pavelski -- Melker Karlsson

Joonas Donskoi -- Logan Couture -- Kevin Labanc

Mikkel Boedker -- Chris Tierney -- Jannik Hansen

Barclay Goodrow -- Daniel O'Regan -- Marcus Sorensen

Joakim Ryan -- Brent Burns

Marc-Edouard Vlasic -- Justin Braun

Brendan Dillon -- Dylan DeMelo

Martin Jones

Aaron Dell

Scratched: Paul Martin, Rudolfs Balcers, Tim Heed

Injured: Joe Thornton (knee), Joel Ward (shoulder), Tomas Hertl (upper body)

Blues Lines

Alexander Steen -- Paul Stastny -- Vladimir Tarasenko

Jaden Schwartz -- Brayden Schenn -- Sammy Blais

Ivan Barbashev -- Kyle Brodziak -- Patrik Berglund

Scottie Upshall -- Oskar Sundqvist -- Dmitrij Jaskin

Carl Gunnarsson -- Alex Pietrangelo

Jay Bouwmeester -- Colton Parayko

Chris Butler -- Vince Dunn

Carter Hutton

Jake Allen

Scratched: Chris Thorburn

Injured: Joel Edmundson (forearm), Robert Bortuzzo (lower body), Vladimir Sobotka (illness)

Where to watch

Broadcast: NBCSCA, FSMW

Stream: NHL.tv / NHL App

Radio: 98.5 KFOX / NHL App / Sharks App