Blues face San Jose (13-3-2 on the road)

After the Blues’ 5-0 loss to Detroit Wednesday,  they will face the Sharks tonight  at Scottrade Center.

Checkout this breakdown of the Sharks:

Overall record: 19-12-5

Home: 6-9-3 (29th in NHL)

Road: 13-3-2 (2nd in the NHL)

Blues coach Andy Murray said he did address the team about San Jose’s road record.

“We did,” Murray said. “Certainly you have to recognize that San Jose is playing a very solid team game. I use the word practical. Some people would say they play a simple game. Well, to me, there’s nothing simple about the game of hockey. It’s a hard game to play. They’ve got a real practical approach. They’ve got everybody buying into a real structured system.”

Joe Thornton leads San Jose with 41 points. But after Thornton, there is a dropoff offensively. Milan Michalek is next with 18 points, followed by Patrick Marleau with 17.

“Their next two are at 17 and 18 and yet they continue to get wins,” Murray said. “It’s buying into a structured system and everybody being committed. There are a hard-working team . . . I think the Detroit Red Wings are the hardest-working team in the league . . . and you’d rank the San Jose Sharks right up there.”

I’ve heard that Evgeni Nabokov will get the start in goal tonight, which would mean he’s been in net for all 36 of San Jose’s games this season.Nabokov has a 2.05 GAA and a .917 save-percentage in those 36 starts.  The speculation is that he could get his first break Saturday in Nashville.

In the wake of their 5-0 loss to Detroit, the Blues may want to mix their lines up a bit. They had some scoring chances early, including a particularly good chance by Andy McDonald. McDonald’s been playing with an upper-body injury that he suffered Dec. 20 against Detroit.

David Perron will be back in the lineup tonight, after sitting out Wednesday’s game as punishment for returning late from the Christmas break. The story of Perron’s trip back from Montreal was a lot more involved than anyone  could have guessed. The bottom line is that he didn’t get back in time, but a lot of things went wrong for him.

Besides a car accident that put him in traffic to the airport, there was no one at the check-in counter when he arrived 1 hour, 15 minutes before the plane left. Then on Wednesday, after flying to Toronto, he almost missed another flight when the gate was changed. He and his parents got to one end of the airport and were forced to run back to the opposite side of the airport.

Perron said the only reason he took the last flight out of Montreal was because that gave him 24 hours at home. If he would have taken the earlier flight, he would have been home about 15 hours.

“It’s just great to be back in the lineup,” he said. “It was a mistake that I will never do again in my life. I wanted to see my family. I didn’t see them for a long time. This summer, I’ve been all over the place . . . Memorial Cup, NHL combine, NHL draft, development camp here in St. Louis, the Russian Super Series and then training camp here. I think I haven’t seen my parents yet this summer. I tried to get as much time as I could with my family, but next time I won’t do that mistake.”

Perron watched the Blues-Detroit game with his parents in the stands.

“My mom was kind of scared to go up to the press box,” Perron said. “My mom doesn’t like to be that high. I thought it would be fun for them to see a game. It was a good feeling (in the stands). I wish the team would have won. Some people noticed me, but I just tried to stay with my parents.”

By the way, Andy Murray had jokingly told the media that D.J. King had an interesting journey home. He took a flight to Minnesota, then to Saskatoon, and then  jumped on  a dog-sled the rest of the way.

Call me silly, but I bought it hook, line and sinker. I asked King today about the dog-sled portion of the trip and he laughed out loud. “I don’t live that far north,” King said. “You’re not the first person to ask me about that, though. Some other people have, too. The paved roads do end before you get to my house, but I don’t have to take a dog-sled.”

Bryce Salvador will miss his second game tonight with a hip-flexor injury. Salvador skated Friday and is crossing his fingers that he’ll be able to play Saturday in Dallas.

“It felt good,” Salvador said. “I was really happy with it. I’m pretty encouraged here in the next day or two.”

Salvador had been bothered by the hip-flexor the past few weeks.

“The back-to-back games right before the break, it was getting to the point where it was spasming and stuff like that. We just knew there was a little overuse there. It’s been something I’ve been skating with for a while.”

Matt Walker will be back in the lineup tonight. John Davidson really liked Walker’s reaction to the hit on Jackman, as Walker made Detroit’s Johan Franzen pay the price.

Steve Wagner makes his return to the lineup. He was paired earlier this season with Christian Backman, so you could see that combination again.

I’ve got one other note from Peoria coach Dave Baseggio. I talked to him Thursday about how Wagner was playing, and I also asked him about Jeff Woywitka.

“Jeff has been a little inconsistent this year,” Baseggio said. “He has played pretty well,but he needs to play pretty well all the time. Jeff sometimes is his own worst enemy sometimes. We want Jeff to play like an NHL defenseman down here and he needs to do that on a more consistent basis.”

Finally, some of you asked  during Thursday’s Blues chat  about the club’s prospects. Here are some updated stats:

Jay Barriball, C, Minnesota: 18 games, 2 goals, 9 assists

Ian Cole, D, Notre Dame: 20 games, 2 goals, 5 assists

Cade Fairchild, D, Minnesota: 17 games, 2 goals, 8 assists

T.J. Oshie, C,  North Dakota: 15 games, 8 goals, 7 assists

Aaron Palushaj, RW, Michigan: 18 games, 5 goals, 14 assists

Patrik Berglund, C, Vasteras: 21 games, 14 goals, 9 assists

Lars Eller, C, Boras HC: 15 games, 2 goals, 5 assists

Simon Hjalmarsson, RW, Frolunda (U-20): 27 games, 12 goals, 16 assists

Reto Berra, G, Davos: 9-6-0, 2.6 GAA

Ben Bishop, G, Maine: 5-7-2, 2.27 GAA, .923 save-percentage

JR