(SportsNetwork.com) - The St. Louis Blues will try to press on without their No. 1 goaltender on Friday night as they play host to the struggling Edmonton Oilers.
The Blues lost Brian Elliott to a lower-body injury in Tuesday's 3-2 shootout setback to the Ottawa Senators. Elliott stopped all 16 shots he faced before exiting late in the second period after a scrum for a loose puck in the crease.
While it is unknown how long Elliott will be out, he has been termed "week-to- week" by head coach Ken Hitchcock and the goaltender was placed on injured reserve on Wednesday.
Elliott is 8-4-1 with a 1.82 goals against average and .931 save percentage this season, but it appears 24-year-old Jake Allen will carry the load from here on out.
Allen made 15 saves in losing Tuesday's contest and is 6-2-1 with a 2.12 GAA and .920 save percentage in nine games this season. He'll be backed up by 21- year-old Jordan Binnington, who has never played in an NHL game.
However, veteran Martin Brodeur is expected to practice with the Blues on Friday and could end up signing with the club.
Allen could see action on consecutive nights as the Blues visit the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. He has faced the Oilers just once before and gave up three goals on seven shots in just 25 minutes of work to take a loss.
St. Louis plays its second straight at home before hitting the road for four in a row. The Blues split a four-game swing ahead of the loss to Ottawa, putting forth an effort termed disappointing by Hitchcock.
"The loss is one thing, but the way we played at times is disappointing," said the coach. "Attention to detail and focus. Coming back, we took a day off, get re-energized. I thought our focus was really inconsistent, poor at times execution, not even close to what we played on the road."
Unfortunately for the Oilers, they have been consistently bad this season. They come in on an eight-game losing streak, their longest skid since going 0-8-3 from March 8-31, 2011.
Edmonton notched a tough-luck loss on Thursday night to the Nashville Predators, falling 1-0 in overtime. Filip Forsberg scored the winner for the Preds with 1:05 left in the bonus frame.
The Oilers opened overtime on a power play and were awarded a penalty shot 13 seconds into the frame when Nashville defenseman Shea Weber closed his hand on the puck while in the crease.
However, Jordan Eberle saw his chance to end the game denied by Pekka Rinne's left pad.
Viktor Fasth ended with 24 saves for the Oilers, who are 0-11-2 against the Western Conference this season.
"I think we played a really good game today, but unfortunately we couldn't get two points," Fasth said.
Fasth finished with 24 saves for the Oilers, who lost their eighth consecutive game.
Edmonton lost forward Matt Hendricks to a leg injury after he blocked a shot in the first period.
Ben Scrivens could start tonight for the Oilers and is 2-1-0 with a 3.66 GAA and .888 save percentage in four career games versus the Blues with three starts.
The Oilers were outscored 17-4 in losing all three meetings with the Blues last season and have lost eight of nine and 14 of the last 17 encounters.
Edmonton has dropped seven of its last eight in St. Louis as well.
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