The 7-6-1 St. Louis Blues and 7-7-1 New York Rangers share similar records but only one team is winning games of late.
The Blues are seeking a third straight win Tuesday night when they visit Madison Square Garden to face the Rangers, who are attempting to avoid a fifth straight loss.
St. Louis started 1-2-1 through its first four games but has rebounded to go 6-4-0 in its past 10. The Blues have scored at least four goals in six of their victories and are coming off a big comeback in Saturday’s 5-4 win at Detroit despite finishing with just 15 shots on goal.
The Blues scored three times in a span of 4:38 in the third period to overcome a 4-2 deficit two days after scoring four straight goals in its 4-1 home win over the Boston Bruins, a game that followed them getting blanked by Montreal despite generating 46 shots on goal.
Jimmy Snuggerud has scored in consecutive games for the third time this season and five of his eight goals in the past six games. He scored in the final minute of the third period Saturday and had an assist on Justin Barron’s tying goal.
Barron scored 18 seconds before Aleksanteri Kaskimaki scored the tiebreaking tally for his first career goal.
“Obviously, that was not the best game we’ve ever played,” Barron said. “With that being said, I really liked the way we came back in the third period.”
The Rangers are getting outscored 28-16 during a four-game losing streak. The last three losses are by three goals, and New York has led for only 90 seconds during the skid when it allowed a tying goal 90 seconds after Tye Kartye scored 6:30 into the second period in Toronto on Oct. 22.
New York also has allowed a goal within the first five minutes of its past four games, including three within the first two minutes. Easton Cowan scored for Toronto 96 seconds in on Oct. 22, Drake Batherson scored for Ottawa 5:34 on Oct. 24 and Taylor Ward scored 1:15 into a 6-3 win for the Los Angeles Kings on Oct. 26.
On Sunday, the Rangers started their 4-1 home loss to the Edmonton Oilers by allowing Connor McDavid to score 50 seconds into the contest. New York gave up two goals in the first period and has been outscored 9-2 in the opening 20 minutes in its losing streak.
“I don’t feel like the start was the reason,” New York coach Mike Sullivan said. “The start was scoreboard-wise, but I don’t necessarily agree that it was a lack of being ready when the puck drops. I don’t feel like that was the case tonight.”
New York also is 1-5-1 in its past seven games and has allowed 32 goals in those games. Dylan Garand allowed three goals Sunday and has let in 22 over his past seven appearances.
The Rangers made a slight alteration to their forward lines by moving Pavel Dorofeyev to the top line along with Alexis Lafreniere and Mika Zibanejad. Dorofeyev scored on his new line but only has four goals in his first 14 games.
New York made other alterations to its forward alignment Monday when Gabe Perreault went from the third line to the second line with J.T.Miller and Kartye after being swapped with Dorofeyev to the third line for Sunday. The Rangers also moved third-liner Will Cuylle to center.
“I just feel like where we’re at, we need to affect a little bit of change,” Sullivan told reporters at practice Monday. “Will has a lot of qualities or the attributes that I think would allow him to be effective at that position.”
New York also may be without defenseman Sean Durzi due to an undisclosed illness for the second straight game.