The Los Angeles Kings host the St. Louis Blues on Monday afternoon, hoping to enter their 12-day break on a high note. The Kings won't play again until Feb. 2.

They are coming off a 7-1 loss at the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday afternoon, the seventh time this season they've gone down by four goals or more.

"There's one more game on Monday and we've got to get ready," Kings center Anze Kopitar told reporters after the loss. "Each and every one of us has to make sure that we're ready for the puck drop."

The Blues are coming off a 3-2 win against the visiting Ottawa Senators on Saturday. St. Louis also has its league-mandated five-day break beginning next week, and that will come after three days off for All-Star weekend.

Before they can relax, however, the Blues need to play the Kings and visit the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday.

"It's important that we stay focused and not think ahead about the break and things like that," St. Louis coach Craig Berube told reporters after the Ottawa game.

"We've got L.A., that did not have a good outing (Saturday), so they're going to be a hungry team and they're a strong team. They're big. It's going to be a hard game, so we have to be ready."

Berube said forward David Perron likely would not make the trip. Perron did not play in the win against the Senators because of an upper-body injury that occurred Thursday in a 5-2 loss at the Boston Bruins, ending his career-high 13-game point streak. Perron has 17 goals and 18 assists.

Berube said forwards Tyler Bozak, Robert Thomas and Zach Sanford would make the trip out West.

Bozak has been out since Dec. 27 with a concussion, Thomas has been sidelined since Jan. 3 with an upper-body injury and Sanford has been out since Jan. 8 with a concussion.

The Blues are 6-3-1 in January and have scored at least three goals in eight of those games, while holding the opposition to two goals or less seven times.

"We're doing a real good job on both ends of the ice right now," Berube said. "We're defending well and our offensive zone time is really good and we're getting a lot of shots."

The Kings went 5-1-1 over the second half of December but haven't maintained that momentum in January. They're 3-5-1 this month to drop to 19-26-4 overall.

Getting off to stronger starts would help them significantly.

Los Angeles is 5-22-3 when allowing the first goal this season, 2-16-2 when trailing after the first period and 0-21-1 when trailing after two.

Avoiding the type of meltdowns that occurred against the Avalanche would also help. The Kings allowed six goals in the second period against Colorado, the first time they had allowed that many in a period since an 8-3 loss at the New York Rangers on Dec. 15, 1999.

Kings coach Willie Desjardins said he expects the team to respond against St. Louis.

"There are guys in there that take a lot of pride in what they do," Desjardins said. "Sometimes it doesn't show in games, but it doesn't mean it's not there. That's a proud group in there, and they'll rebound against St. Louis."

--Field Level Media