It's no secret that with the last matchup at home, Robert Thomas and his linemates will be seeing a lot of Nathan MacKinnon tonight when the St. Louis Blues look to extend their winning streak to five games against the red-hot Colorado Avalanche, who are on a heater themselves winning six straight.
Blues player to watch vs. Avalanche: Colton Parayko (1:50)
Thomas and the Blues halted MacKinnon's 19-game point streak when he came in here on Dec. 29, and they'll look to do the same here tonight with MacKinnon on another heater, a 15-game point streak (31 points; 10 goals, 21 assists).
And as much as Thomas will be seeing him, so will Colton Parayko, and that's why he is tonight's player to watch.
Parayko has always seemed to rise to these challenges, and the feeling is that Parayko will be getting a lot of minutes in this game, and he will be implementing his big and strength against the speed, size and agility of MacKinnon.
If the Blues (36-29-3) are to extend their winning streak to five, Parayko and partner Nick Leddy will have to have a big hand in it defending Colorado's bevy of weapons.
"I think that's a big piece to it too is our back end being able to defend against players like MacKinnon, like [Mikko] Rantanen," Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said. "So there's certainly that aspect. We're going to have to defend as a unit of five here tonight against those players."
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