Let's Go Blues

DUCKS (36-9-5) at BLUES (32-9-5)

TV: KDOC, FS-MW

Last 10: Anaheim 8-2-0; St. Louis 8-2-0

Blue Notes: Alexander Steen will return after missing 11 games with a concussion. T.J. Oshie has three goals in his last two games. Brian Elliott will start in goal and is 7-1-0 in his last eight starts, allowing 11 goals in that span.

Season series: The Anaheim Ducks handed the St. Louis Blues one of their four home regulation losses when they won 4-2 at Scottrade Center on Dec. 7. The Blues make their only visit of the season to Honda Center on Feb. 28.

Big story: The Ducks, who've been the NHL's hottest team since Thanksgiving, got no favors from the schedule-maker; they go from a 4-2 road loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday to St. Louis for the second half of perhaps the toughest back-to-back any team will face this season. The Blues have lost two of three following a seven-game winning streak.

Team Scope:

Ducks: Anaheim came to United Center as the second team in NHL history to have won 18 times in a 19-game stretch. The Ducks left with a two-goal loss to the defending Stanley Cup champions that ended their eight-game winning streak, their first defeat since Dec. 29.

"I don't think we played our best in the first two periods, and against a team like that you need to play for 60 minutes," Anaheim forward Kyle Palmieri said.

He's glad for the quick turnaround.

"They lost their last game in their own building, and that definitely will make them a little hungrier," Palmieri said of the Blues. "But that's the best part of hockey; we get to go back out there and do it again. Hopefully we'll get off to a good start and go from there."

Blues: St. Louis is getting reinforcements as it tries to bounce back from a 4-1 home loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday. Forward Alexander Steen, who was second in the NHL with 24 goals when he sustained a concussion on Dec. 21, will be back in the lineup after missing 11 games.

The Blues hope Steen can spark an offense that has scored four goals in three games.

"I think we're going to play him as much as he can handle," coach Ken Hitchcock said after practice Friday. "Hopefully he can get up to speed right away and play the minutes that he did before and contribute the way he did before because he was a huge impact player for us."

Who's hot: Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf scored a goal in Chicago and has four goals and five assists during a six-game point-streak. … Forward T.J. Oshie has all three of the Blues' goals in their past two games; he scored on a penalty shot against the Kings. Goaltender Brian Elliott is 7-1-0 in his past eight starts and has allowed 11 goals in that span.

Injury report: The Ducks are without goaltender Viktor Fasth (lower body) and defenseman Sheldon Souray, who had season-ending surgery on his right wrist Friday. Defenseman Luca Sbisa (wrist) was sent to Syracuse of the American Hockey League on Friday for a conditioning assignment. … Blues forward Maxim Lapierre (lower body) is on injured reserve.

glen a richter wrote:Where's the substitute flashchat link?

dmiles2186 wrote:Not good. Not good at all. That 2nd goal was awful. It was Patrick Lalime-esque, but I don't think Ells played poorly overall. The Blues still are playing like they're asleep. All teams go through slumps, obviously the Blues are doing so now. I still don't think that a bad stretch of 3 games means we need to trade for a $6mil per year goalie that's 33 year old, but that's me. The goaltending isn't the only problem. Ryan Miller isn't going to fix our offensive woes and our defensive breakdowns, is he? We're chasing the game, we're not finding open spots in the offensive zone, we've been screening our own goalies like crazy.

There's more than just the 'tending that's gone wrong the last three games. Hitch just has to get the team back to playing like the first 45 games.

ViPeRx007 wrote:I must have lost my good luck...

Lifetime in attendance record: 2-2-0

Prior to this week: 2-0-0
This week: 0-2-0

They made it a game in the third but it was too little too late. I have to admit I have a bad feeling about the prospect of playing the west coast teams come playoff time...

cardsfan04 wrote:

ViPeRx007 wrote:I must have lost my good luck...

Lifetime in attendance record: 2-2-0

Prior to this week: 2-0-0
This week: 0-2-0

They made it a game in the third but it was too little too late. I have to admit I have a bad feeling about the prospect of playing the west coast teams come playoff time...

I'm starting to have a bad feeling about playing a west coast team too. I mean, I'd love to chalk it up as a coincidence. But, 8 of our 10 regulation losses come against LA, Anaheim, Vancouver and SJ. That's a bit alarming. Might not mean much, but there's a major contrast in results against those teams and the rest of the league.

The good news is, if I understand the new playoff format, we will only face a team from that division if we finish 4th in our division (we won't), we win our division (and get matched with their 4th best team), or we meet in the conference finals. I'm not too worried about playing their 4th best team w/ home ice in the first round. And, if we get to the conference finals, I think we will likely be playing well enough that I won't be overly scared of them there either.