Blues @ Flames Gamethread

– Blues in town tonight fresh off a 3-0 loss to the Canucks. The good news is, Calgary will have the benfit of a tired opponent on the second night of a B2B for the second game in a row. The bad news is the Canucks won again and are just 3 points back – again.

– The issue of Pardy v Vandermeer is moot tonight since Roy will be out of the line-up and one of them (probably Vandermeer) will be deployed as a forward on the 4th line. I'll be watching to see if Phaneuf remains a "third pairing" guy this evening as well.

– The Blues are a fairly interesting team. They've been lousy for a few years and have built up a nice stable of youngsters as a result (Oshie, Berglund, Johnson, Perron). This season was probably more about injuries than anything else for this club, however, thanks to long term ailments to Erik Johnson, Paul Kariya and Andy McDonald. And even despite all the hurt and all the kids, St. Louis is actually in the running for the post-season thanks to an impressive last quarter run here.

– Random fact: David Backes is the only 20 goal scorer in the league with 150+ PIM.

– This would probably be a good game to play McElhinney, assuming getting Kipper some rest down the stretch is a goal of Keenan's. The Blues, as mentioned, will be tired, they're a lower tier opponent and are 21st in the league in terms of GF. Of course, we all know that's not going to happen.

by Kent Wilson