Let's Go Blues

BLUES at SHARKS

(Best-of-seven series tied 1-1)

TV: TSN, NBCSN, RDS, FS-MW (HD), CSN-CA (HD)

Big Story: The Sharks, who needed a win on the final night of the regular season just to secure the seventh spot in the Western Conference, return home with a much-needed split of the first two games in St. Louis.

Team Scope:

Blues: St. Louis will be without starting goaltender Jaroslav Halak for Game 3, as he was forced to leave Saturday night's 3-0 win at the Scottrade Center due to a lower-body injury. Halak was hurt when Blues defenseman Barret Jackman collided with his goaltender early in the second period.

With Halak out, Brian Elliott will get the start for St. Louis. Elliott is coming off a phenomenal season that saw him go 23-10-4 with a 1.56 goals-against average and .940 save percentage.

"We're lucky because we've been a two-man rotation since Day 1 here," coach Ken Hitchcock said. "You don't expect something like this to happen but it does. We're lucky we're in the situation we're in. We have two good goalies, a 1 and a 1A literally. Both guys have played in pretty much every building and both guys have played well in every building. For us, we don't miss a beat."

Sharks: More than 130 penalty minutes were handed out during Game 2, and San Jose knows it must remain focused on the task at hand -- victories -- if it hopes of ousting the second-seeded Blues. Sharks coach Todd McLellan said Sunday that he liked the way his team responded to what transpired Saturday night, but wins are more important.

"There's a lot of emotion in playoffs," McLellan said. "We see that in each of the games played. At the end of the day, you've got to score more goals than the other team. You don't get to move on for winning the scraps and being in the penalty box more. We've got to control our emotions, we've got to focus our attention on the task at hand and not get wrapped up in all the other stuff that happens."

Injury Report: Halak is currently the only injured player on the Blues' roster. … Sharks forward Dominic Moore suffered a broken nose in the final moments of Game 2, but is expected to play Monday night.

Stat Pack: The Sharks are 1-for-7 on the power play in the series. They went 1-for-15 via the man advantage against St. Louis during the regular season.

Puck Drop: "If [the Blues are] going to take some penalties, undisciplined penalties, we have to make them pay for it. [Saturday] night, we weren't as good as we were in Game 1. We were a little disjointed, so we'll look at fixing that." -- Sharks coach Todd McLellan

goon attack wrote:So, people are saying we should let off their jugular?
No franking way. Full speed ahead. Pummel them early and often.

thedoc wrote:

goon attack wrote:So, people are saying we should let off their jugular?
No franking way. Full speed ahead. Pummel them early and often.

We didn't say that, just said be smart about it.

STLADOGG wrote:Somebody please hurt Thornton anybody(preferably Allen). Go out there with a steel chair and concuss that prick.

cprice12 wrote:

STLADOGG wrote:Somebody please hurt Thornton anybody(preferably Allen). Go out there with a steel chair and concuss that prick.

Burns needs to get his ass beat. Seriously.
What a cheap POS.

DaDitka wrote:

cprice12 wrote:I'm sure he's going to be slightly hesitant near the boards knowing we're looking to light him up.

thedoc wrote:

DaDitka wrote:

cprice12 wrote:I'm sure he's going to be slightly hesitant near the boards knowing we're looking to light him up.

That could be huge for us. Make him keep looking over his shoulder and not focusing fully on the game.

ibldbl wrote:Its nights like tonight that make me hate having to play west coast teams. Starts at 9:00

I love how at the end both linesman have to jump on Polak to control him while completely ignoring Braun, and he just slowly gets up and skates away with a "WTF did I just get in a fight with" look on his face.

Guess that's what he gets for sucker punching Langenbrunner.

Polak by destruction.