On Thursday’s edition of “Daily Faceoff Live,” Tyler Yaremchuk and Mike McKenna discuss who needs a win more, the St. Louis Blues or the Nashville Predators. They also go in-depth on which players need to step it up.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Two teams that are struggling right now, maybe not to the point that they’re contemplating a coaching change, but it’s the St. Louis Blues and Nashville Predators. I asked Frank yesterday on “OilersNation Daily Show” if could it be time for a coaching change in Nashville with John Hynes and he kind of threw water on the idea saying that David Poile doesn’t really like to do that all too often. But, when you look at these two teams Mike, each who have big games coming this evening. The Preds are getting nothing from their star players, they won those two games in Europe and since then they’re 1-6-1 since coming back to North America. The Blues are almost in the same boat. Their stars are underachieving and after a great start to the season, they’ve fallen off a cliff. Which one of these two teams needs a win more tonight? 

Mike McKenna: I think it’s St. Louis. You look at the Predators and was that lineup really a Cup contender going into this season? I don’t think so. St. Louis was a team that you still looked at that had a chance. Well, they’ve lost five in a row and they’re pretty lost right now. Even their captain Ryan O’Reilly who’s had a terrible start to the year said “I’ve been horrible.”

I think kind of the key to this is what their GM Doug Armstrong said: “what we need to see is a competitive level that is higher than what we have now” and I’m going to give you a good example of that. Jordan Kyrou, he’s minus-10 in his last five games, and minus-3 in his last game against Nashville. With three goals on the year, and no assists, he just signed an eight-year deal worth $65 million. Just watch him straight-leg float into the zone here, there’s no competitive fire, and there’s no competitive level. That’s who O’Reilly has been playing with most of the year until head coach Craig Berube went to the nuclear option and put Robert Thomas and Kyrou together last game to find a jump. St. Louis is last in the league in goals, they’re not playing well defensively and they’re just having a tough go. You’ve got to fight, you’ve got to compete hard. Straight-legging it through the neutral zone after you already lost a battle in the offensive zone to get the puck away isn’t going to do it. 

Tyler Yaremchuk: I agree with you. I’m going to say St. Louis needs a win more. One, their streak is at five in a row, and they’re one point back from the Nashville Predators, granted they’ve played two fewer games. But you know that Preds team for them to make the playoffs this year they’re going to have to fight up until the end of the season. St. Louis was a team that was supposed to be right up near the top of that division and I know some models had them as the next best team to Colorado in that division. For them to just have six points through eight games, and as you said with Kyrou, they just look disinterested at times and that is wildly concerning.