Even shorthanded, the Hurricanes have kept winning. They put together a 7-game winning streak before Calgary snapped it 3-2, and as of this writing they're 4-1 in the last 5 and 8-2-1 overall. The 6-3 win in Vancouver finished a regular-season sweep of the Canucks. That's 3 wins in 4 games on the road during this trip, which says plenty about how well Rod Brind'Amour's system travels.
St. Louis has been more up and down. The Blues won 7-2 in Ottawa, then gave up 5 in back-to-back losses to Minnesota and Nashville, then came home and settled down: 2-1 over Winnipeg and 6-2 over Vegas. Against the Golden Knights they scored twice in the 1st and 3 more in the 3rd, and a short-handed blue line held Vegas to 2 goals. That Vegas team was also playing without Mitch Marner, so don't read too much into it. Still, it's 8 goals for and 3 against across 2 home games.
The blue line is the Blues' real problem. Torey Krug is on long-term IR with an ankle injury, Tyler Tucker had knee surgery and won't be re-assessed for a while, and Logan Mailloux is on IR too. Up front, Dillon Dube, Alexey Toropchenko and Ross Johnston are all out, and Otto Stenberg was called up from Springfield to fill in. Carolina's forecheck goes after thin defensive groups, and St. Louis will have to make a lot of clean exits.
So it comes down to legs against depth. Carolina has more talent and a system that has held up on the road. St. Louis has the rest, home ice and a 2-game run of looking like itself again. If the Hurricanes look heavy-legged in Edmonton, this one tightens up.