There are a number of opponents the St. Louis Blues have yet to face this season, but when it comes to the Arizona Coyotes, it's a been-there, done-that mantra.
The Blues (12-9-1) and Coyotes (11-9-2) meet for the fourth and final time this regular season at 8 p.m. today (BSMW, ESPN 101.1-FM) at Mullett Arena in Tempe, Ariz.
Arizona took the first matchup 6-2 in St. Louis on Oct. 19, but the Blues have won the past two matchups, 2-1 in St. Louis on Nov. 9 and 6-5 in this building on Nov. 22 in a wild back-and-forth affair in which each starting goalie (Jordan Binnington for the Blues and Karel Vejmelka for the Coyotes) were pulled from the game.
The Blues are coming off a wild one themselves, 6-4 against the Buffalo Sabres at home on Thursday in which they fumbled away a 3-0 lead but recovered to score three unanswered to get the win.
Arizona, which is on a season-best three-game winning streak, has not lost since that affair with the Blues. The Coyotes have wins against Vegas (2-0), Tampa Bay (3-1) and Colorado (4-3 in overtime) in their most recent outing on Thursday.
"They won [Thursday] against Colorado and they're playing extremely well," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "It's a pretty good team over there. They've got some good talent, speed. We've got to check, we've got to do a good job checking. We've got to make sure we're disciplined and staying out of the penalty box; they've got a good power play.
"It's about doing a job on some of these guys, [Clayton] Keller and [Nick] Schmaltz and some of their speed and skill. We've got to make sure we're hard on them. If we don't manage the puck properly, we're going to be in a track meet with them, and that's what we don't want."
The Blues are slated to only make one lineup change based off Friday's practice at Centene Community Ice Center with Scott Perunovich returning to play with Marco Scandella in favor of Tyler Tucker.
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* Defenseman Colton Parayko will skate in his 600th NHL game tonight; he will be the 16th player in Blues history to reach the milestone, including sixth defenseman.
* Forward Kevin Hayes has three goals the past five games after just two in the first 17 (both in the same game, Nov. 3 vs. the New Jersey Devils).
* Center Robert Thomas has six points (two goals, three assists) the past five games.
* Forward Brandon Saad has five points (one goal, four assists) the past five games.
* Forward Jordan Kyrou hasn't scored in the past eight games but does have six assists the past six games.
* Defenseman Torey Krug, who played in his 200th game with the Blues on Thursday, has four assists the past four games.
* Forward Jake Neighbours, who leads the Blues with nine goals, has scored seven the past seven games, including four the past three, after just two in the first 15.
* Forward Pavel Buchnevich has seven points (two goals, five assists) the past four games and 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) in 13 games against the Coyotes.
* The Blues are 11-0-0 this season when scoring first, the only team in the NHL with an unblemished record; they're 10-1-0 when scoring three or more goals and 10-1-1 when allowing three or fewer.
* The Blues are 27-for-29 (93.1 percent) on the penalty kill on the road this season, which is second-best in the NHL (Dallas, 38-for-40, 95.0 percent)
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The Blues' projected lineup:
Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Jake Neighbours
Kevin Hayes-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou
Brandon Saad-Oskar Sundqvist-Kasperi Kapanen
Alexey Toropchenko-Nikita Alexandrov-Sammy Blais
Nick Leddy-Colton Parayko
Torey Krug-Justin Faulk
Marco Scandella-Scott Perunovich
Joel Hofer will start in goal; Jordan Binnington will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Jakub Vrana, Robert Bortuzzo and Tyler Tucker. The Blues report no injuries.
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The Coyotes' projected lineup:
Clayton Keller-Logan Cooley-Nick Schmaltz
Matias Maccelli-Nick Bjugstad-Lawson Crouse
Michael Carcone-Alex Kerfoot-Jason Zucker
Milos Kelemen-Liam O'Brien
J.J. Moser-Sean Durzi
Matt Dumba-Josh Brown
Juuso Valimaki-Troy Stecher
Michael Kesselring
Connor Ingram will start in goal; Karel Vejmelka will be the backup.
The healthy scratch is Ryan McGregor. Travis Boyd (upper body), Jack McBain (lower body), Barrett Hayton (upper body), Vladislav Kolyachonok (lower body) and Travis Dermott (upper body) are out.
