Toronto looking to avoid a third bad loss to St. Louis

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Toronto looking to avoid a third bad loss to St. Louis

The Toronto Maple Leafs are losing badly of late and hope that changes against the St. Louis Blues.

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The St. Louis Blues are playing with a renewed confidence, having shut down a Western Conference power in coach Ken Hitchcock's team debut.

The Toronto Maple Leafs' confidence level seems to be wavering a bit following a second straight lopsided defeat. The Blues try to build on an impressive win Thursday night when they host the suddenly struggling Maple Leafs.

Sitting in 13th place in the West 13 games into the season, St. Louis (7-7-0) fired Davis Payne on Sunday and replaced him with the 59-year-old Hitchcock. The Blues responded to the wake-up call, defeating Central Division-leading Chicago 3-0 on Tuesday in the opener of a five-game homestand.

Vladimir Sobotka recorded his first goal of the season, Chris Stewart scored on the power play to end a 10-game goal drought and T.J. Oshie had a goal and an assist.

Halak stepped up, finishing with 29 saves to earn his first shutout of the season after posting a 3.71 goals-against average in losing his previous five starts. The Blues' power-play unit also showed some signs of life, converting on 1 of 2 chances after entering as the NHL's worst team at 7.5 percent (3 for 40).

While Hitchcock liked what he saw from his team, Toronto's Ron Wilson is not pleased with how things are progressing with his club.

The Maple Leafs (9-5-1) are in first place in the Northeast Division but have been outscored 12-1 in losing their last two games.

Toronto had been receiving solid goaltending from Jonas Gustavsson and Ben Scrivens in the first six games since starter James Reimer suffered a concussion against Montreal on Oct. 22, but neither has had much luck lately.

Gustavsson surrendered three soft goals on 21 shots against the Panthers before being replaced by Scrivens, who finished with five saves on seven shots. In Saturday's 7-0 loss to Boston, Scrivens started and stopped nine of 14 shots before giving way to Gustavsson.

These goal tenders will have to answer the bell and play great hockey to avoid another embarrasiing defeat on the ice.