The St. Louis Blues have another critical game on their schedule as they play the Utah Hockey Club tonight in Utah. Utah is five points behind the Blues, so a win tonight would put St. Louis in a good position to separate themselves. Here are three players to watch for in tonight's game.
1. Colton Parayko
Parayko has been on a heater lately. He has goals in three straight games and has looked completely different in the month of January when being paired with Cam Fowler. Parayko has always been a defenseman that is elite when he has a good partner, and that's what Fowler has been.
This three-game goal streak is the first one for Parayko since 2019-2020. That season happened to be the final year Parayko played with Jay Bouewmeester, who was a very reliable partner for Parayko at the time. It's no coincidence that Parayko is nearing his career high offensively with Fowler.
2. Clayton Keller
Anytime the Blues played the Coyotes, Keller was always a player St. Louis had to watch out for. The Chesterfield, Missouri native was named the captain of the team for a reason. He always put up good numbers to be on a team that wasn't necessarily good at scoring.
Keller is worth mentioning anytime when talking about Utah.
3. Brayden Schenn
We have to give Brayden Schenn credit. There's been plenty of times over the last two seasons or so where he looked slow and lost his edge. Even this season with Drew Bannister, Schenn was looking like a shell of himself. However, under Jim Montgomery, he looked like a completely different player.
A lot of people around the NHL thought Schenn was one of the worst captains in the league, which if you didn't watch the Blues every game would be understandable. But his performance in the two games against Calgary should change some people's minds.