San Jose Sharks vs. St. Louis Blues: Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 3/9/2023

Time: 8 p.m. ET

Venue: Enterprise Center, St. Louis, MO

Where to watch: BSMW, NBCSCA

DraftKings: Blues -145, Sharks +120

BetMGM: Blues -145, Sharks +120

Caesars: Blues -145, Sharks +120

Sharks: 19-34-12

Blues: 27-32-15

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The San Jose Sharks will be playing the St. Louis Blues on Thursday, March 9 in St. Louis, Missouri.

The San Jose Sharks lost against the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday, March 7 at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado with a score of 6-0. The San Jose Sharks currently rank 7th in the Pacific Division.

Kaapo Kahkonen allowed five goals on 24 shots before being pulled early in the second period for the Sharks (19-33-12), who were coming off a 3-2 overtime win at the Winnipeg Jets on Monday but are 1-5-1 in their past seven games. James Reimer made 18 saves in relief.

"That was as dominant a performance as I've seen all year. That hasn't happened to us all year," San Jose coach David Quinn said. "A), they're very good; B), we've been going through a lot the last few weeks like a lot of teams have, but big win last night and traveled here. But everybody plays back to back. Anything that could have gone wrong did. (We) didn't show any type of characteristics that we have throughout the season, and we've just got to move forward here quickly."

Colorado scored five goals before the third period, scoring the final goal of the game at 18:21 with a score of 6-0.

The San Jose Sharks have won two of their last 10 games.

The St. Louis Blues lost against the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday, March 7 at Mullett Arena in Tempe, Arizona with a score of 6-2. The St. Louis Blues currently rank 6th in the Central Division.

Pavel Buchnevich scored twice for the Blues (27-31-5), who have lost eight of nine (1-6-2). Jordan Binnington made 21 saves in his seventh straight loss (0-5-2).

"We couldn't find the back of the net tonight, and I think that tells the story," St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. "We had tons of chances, breakaways, power plays. Give credit to their goalie too. He was sharp."

The Blues were 0-for-5 on the power play, including a two-man advantage lasting 1:16 that began late in the second period with Arizona leading 2-1.

"That was definitely a turning point," Berube said. "If we're coming in tied to start the third, we've got the momentum. Just some crazy bounces the other way against us."

St. Louis' power play is 2-for-35 over the past nine games.

"We have to find out something with the power play," Buchnevich said. "We're not connecting. It's not working. It's not one game, it's two weeks, it's three weeks."

St. Louis had six odd-man rushes or breakaways in the first two periods, but scored only on Buchnevich's backhand off Justin Faulk's stretch pass for a 1-0 lead at 2:12 of the first period.

Jakub Vrana, a forward acquired by St. Louis in a trade with the Detroit Red Wings on Friday, had a short breakaway that could have put the Blues ahead by two, but he couldn't score.

Christian Fischer then tied it 1-1 at 12:53, jamming in the rebound of Connor Mackey's shot from the right point that deflected off the end boards.

Nick Schmaltz's power-play goal made it 2-1 at 16:25, just after Robert Thomas couldn't score on a 2-on-0 breakaway created by Schmaltz's giveaway. Schmaltz has five goals in three games against St. Louis this season.

Travis Boyd made it 3-1 at 2:01 of the third period with the first of Arizona's four goals in the period, shortly after the Blues couldn't score on the 5-on-3.

Buchnevich cut it to 3-2 at 8:18, going from his forehand to his backhand before Boyd pushed it to 4-2 at 10:59 with his second goal.

Clayton Keller extended the lead to 5-2 at 12:49, and Lawson Crouse scored at 17:54 for the 6-2 final.

The St. Louis Blues have won two of their last 10 games.

Prediction

Well this game won't be fun. Blues 3, Sharks 0

Sharks:

William Eklund -- Tomas Hertl -- Fabian Zetterlund

Andreas Johnsson -- Logan Couture -- Alexander Barabanov

Noah Gregor -- Nico Sturm -- Evgeny Svechnikov

Oskar Lindblom -- Steven Lorentz -- Kevin Labanc

Nikolai Knyzhov -- Erik Karlsson

Marc-Edouard Vlasic -- Matt Benning

Mario Ferraro -- Derrick Pouliot

Kaapo Kahkonen

Blues:

Pavel Buchnevich -- Robert Thomas -- Jordan Kyrou

Jakub Vrana -- Brayden Schenn -- Kasperi Kapanen

Brandon Saad -- Logan Brown -- Sammy Blais

Alexey Toropchenko -- Nikita Alexandrov -- Tyler Pitlick

Nick Leddy -- Colton Parayko

Marco Scandella -- Justin Faulk

Torey Krug -- Tyler Tucker

Jordan Binnington