ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Blues return from the Christmas break winners of four of their last six games.It is finally some traction for a team still seven points out of a playoff spot as the season nears the midway point.The Blues (14-16-4) hope to keep that momentum as they resume play by hosting the Buffalo Sabres (21-11-5) on Thursday night at Enterprise Center.Article continues below ...The game will be the first for Blues center Ryan O’Reilly against his former club since a trade brought him to St. Louis over the summer. O’Reilly’s 13 goals and 32 points lead the team.“We were in so many of these games Authentic Teuvo Teravainen Jersey , had leads and lost them,” O’Reilly said last month according to Buffalonews.com. “We didn’t have the consistency in games. Bad period here, blow a lead, couple bad shifts there. It wasn’t the hockey we needed to win.”Forwards Ivan Barbashev and Oskar Sundqvist will also look to continue their strong play on the Blues’ fourth line. Either Barbashev or Sundqvist have scored in five of the last nine games for St. Louis.“We pop Barbashev and Sundqvist up and down the lineup a little bit in different matchups and things, penalty killing,” Blues interim coach Craig Berube told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “They’ve done a really good job. They’re scoring goals here and there, which is good. You need everybody to chip in in the goal department.”The duo has been productive despite limited minutes. Barbashev averages 11 minutes, 19 seconds of ice time, which ranks 21st on the team. Sundqvist is at 11:10, ranking 22nd.“Every single (shift) we just try to play really good defensively but at the same time we want to play in the (offensive) zone,” Barbashev told the Post-Dispatch. “Just play a simple game Womens Victor Rask Jersey , you know. Keep the puck. Get some energy. Sometimes maybe even try and score a goal.”The Blues have dominated the Sabres for the better part of two decades. Since 1999, St. Louis has a 17-3-4 record against Buffalo, including 9-1-2 in the last 12 meetings.The Sabres haven’t beaten the Blues in St. Louis since Dec. 27, 2009.Perhaps the key to the Sabres’ success would be extending the game. More than one-third of the team’s games have gone to overtime or a shootout and Buffalo has an 8-5 record in those situations.“I love overtime. I’m always looking to score,” Sabres defenseman Ramsus Ristolainen told Buffalonews.com. “There’s a lot of room and you have a chance to make big plays for your team.”The Sabres entered the break off of a 3-0 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday.Left winger Jeff Skinner scored his team-leading 26th goal of the season and Linus Ullmark made 40 saves to earn the shutout.“It’s an emotional game,” Skinner told NHL.com. “Some games that’s just the way it goes. A little bit of a feisty game, I guess, at the end of some of the periods but I thought we did a good job sticking together.” Now that the Christmas break is over, the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks can focus on getting back in the win column.The Pacific Division rivals are each trying to avoid a fourth straight loss Thursday night at SAP Center. For the Sharks, the league’s three-day hiatus couldn’t have come at a better time.“I feel like our team’s running on fumes a little bit, the tank’s a little empty Alex DeBrincat Jersey ,” coach Peter DeBoer said after a 4-3 shootout loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Sunday. “We’ve had to dig deep the last two nights to find a way to scratch out a couple of points.”Article continues below ...The latest setback came after San Jose (19-12-7) dropped a 3-2 decision to the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday. The Sharks opened their homestand with a 5-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Dec. 20.“All three of them, we should have collected points,” San Jose center Logan Couture said. “I wouldn’t say it’s a step backward. I’d say we weren’t at our best.”For Anaheim (19-14-5), the challenge isn’t just in ending its skid. The Ducks managed only two goals during their losing streak and went into the break with a 3-0 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday.Ryan Getzlaf told the Orange County Register that the club didn’t finish the Eastern part of a season-high six straight games on the road strongly but also chose to look at the bigger picture.“The biggest message was that we’ve accomplished a lot in the last month and don’t let this derail us from what we want to accomplish,” he said. “Come back energized and ready to play again.”From Nov. 27 through Dec. 17, Anaheim scored 36 goals while winning nine of 10. Getzlaf, Ondrej Kase and Pontus Aberg each collected more than 10 points over that span.“If you look at the bulk of the work we’ve had the last month or so, there’s a lot of good things to build off,” defenseman Josh Manson told the Register. “I think we’re playing a good brand of hockey. Look at those games we were winning. What needs to change when we’re winning?“You don’t want to start picking your whole game apart because you lost three (straight).”Even with their respective slides, the Ducks and Sharks remain near the top of a tightly packed division.“This league, the margin of error is very small. The parity is very good regardless of the records and if you’re off a little bit Cam Atkinson Jersey Kids , you’re going to have tough nights,” DeBoer said.One player Anaheim will not face in its first game back is Erik Karlsson, who is wrapping up a two-game suspension. The defenseman drew the first ban of his 10-year career for a check to the head of Los Angeles winger Austin Wagner on Saturday.Karlsson has an eight-game assist streak and collected 19 (two goals, 17 assists) of his 26 points this season since Nov. 13.However, this will be the 1,000th game for teammate and fellow blueliner Brent Burns. A two-time Norris Trophy winner and three-time 20-goal scorer, Burns leads San Jose with 31 assists and is second with 35 points.Since the start of the 2013-14 season, Burns leads all NHL defensemen with 111 goals and is second with 361 points, trailing only Karlsson.The Sharks and Ducks split the first two meetings this season since San Jose swept Anaheim in the first round of the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs.