Let's Go Blues

The Game

The Calgary Flames will try and end a five-game winless streak when they begin a four-game road trip against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Thursday.

The Flames are 0-4-1 in their past five games, outscored 18-5, including two shutouts, after going 4-1-0 in their previous five.

The Blues seek their ninth win in 12 games (8-1-2). They ended a three-game winless streak (0-1-2) with a 3-1 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.

Forward Troy Brouwer, who signed a one-year, $750,000 two-way contract with St. Louis on Wednesday, was expected to play but will not because of visa/immigration paperwork needing to be finalized.


Players to watch

Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in nine games against the Blues.

Blues forward David Perron has 31 points (15 goals, 16 assists) in 37 games against Calgary.


They said it

"The mindset is we've got to come into this road trip, and it's a huge road trip for us. I don't think there's a better team and a better challenge for us than the one we're going to be playing tonight." -- Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk

"They were a real good team last year, and I think they're still a good team. They're just trying to find their way right now a little bit." -- Blues coach Craig Berube on Calgary


Flames projected lineup
Johnny Gaudreau -- Mikael Backlund -- Elias Lindholm
Matthew Tkachuk -- Sean Monahan -- Andrew Mangiapane
Milan Lucic -- Derek Ryan -- Dillon Dube
Zac Rinaldo -- Mark Jankowski -- Michael Frolik
Mark Giordano -- Rasmus Andersson
Noah Hanifin -- Michael Stone
Oliver Kylington -- Brandon Davidson
David Rittich
Cam Talbot
Scratched: Alexander Yelesin, Tobias Rieder
Injured: Sam Bennett (upper body), Austin Czarnik (lower body), Travis Hamonic (lower body), TJ Brodie (medical episode)

Blues projected lineup
Jaden Schwartz -- Brayden Schenn -- Tyler Bozak
Ivan Barbashev -- Ryan O'Reilly -- David Perron
Zach Sanford -- Robert Thomas -- Oskar Sundqvist
Mackenzie MacEachern -- Jacob de la Rose -- Klim Kostin
Colton Parayko -- Alex Pietrangelo
Jay Bouwmeester -- Justin Faulk
Vince Dunn -- Robert Bortuzzo
Jordan Binnington
Jake Allen
Scratched: Carl Gunnarsson, Troy Brouwer
Injured: Vladimir Tarasenko (shoulder), Alexander Steen (ankle), Sammy Blais (wrist)

Status report
Hamonic will not play Thursday but could join the trip at any time. ... Neither team held a morning skate. ... Yelesin, a defenseman, was recalled from Stockton of the American Hockey League on Wednesday but will not play. … With Blais out, Barbashev moves up to the second line. ... De la Rose will return after being a healthy scratch the past two games.

Stat pack
Tkachuk has no points in his past three games after having 10 points (six goals, four assists) in his previous seven. ... Lindholm has no points in his past five games after having 11 points (five goals, six assists) in a nine-game point streak. ... The Blues are 11-0-5 in games decided by two goals or fewer.

theohall wrote:Thanks for covering... totally forgot... oops! (just realized I forgot Tuesday's also. Time to put the Blues calendar on my phone with an alarm.)

glen a richter wrote:Got a bad feeling.

Blues - 0
Flames - 3

glen a richter wrote:

glen a richter wrote:Got a bad feeling.

Blues - 0
Flames - 3

So far, so wrong... thank the dark lord.