The Blues have a strange problem. Against Montreal they put 46 shots on rookie Jacob Fowler and still lost 2-0, which made it 2 straight home shutouts after a 4-0 loss to Carolina, per Yahoo Sports. That's 2 different stories. Against the Hurricanes they barely threatened. Against the Canadiens they controlled the puck and ran into a goalie who had won 6 straight. Only the second one is an offense that's close.
It wasn't long ago that St. Louis looked fine. The Blues beat Winnipeg 2-1 and handled Vegas 6-2 back to back at home before the scoring stopped. There's a little help coming up front too: Alexey Toropchenko came back against Montreal after missing 10 games with a shoulder injury, which gives the bottom 6 some of the forechecking bite it had been missing.
The back end is the bigger worry. Torey Krug is on long-term injured reserve with an ankle injury, Tyler Tucker is out after arthroscopic knee surgery, and Logan Mailloux is on IR too. That's 3 defensemen gone before you count Dillon Dube and Ross Johnston up front. A thin blue line against a Boston team that just put 6 goals on Nashville and San Jose in back-to-back home games is the matchup to watch.
Boston's goaltending depth matters as well. Michael DiPietro got his first career shutout in that 6-0 win over Nashville, so the Bruins have 2 goalies who've shown they can win games, and either one could start Thursday. For St. Louis, the question is whether the 46 shots on Fowler were a sign the offense is about to come back or just a stat that looks good on a 2-game scoreless run. Score the first goal against Boston and the building relaxes. Fall behind early and you'll hear about it.