Back in October 2009, T.J. Oshie had a surprise appendectomy right before the Blues played the Dallas Stars. Tonight the Stars are without their leading scorer, Jamie Benn, because he had his appendix removed yesterday. That's kind of odd. Karma, she is a bitch.
The absence of Benn, who has been tearing it up this season, is compounded by the fact that Michael Ryder is out with a partially torn knee ligament. That puts two of the top four scorers on the Dallas roster on the shelf for the game tonight. Timing is good, yes?
It stinks that the Stars are having to deal with this, but it's kind of payback. In recent season the Blues were the team seeing guys go down with less frequent illnesses and injuries. Now St. Louis is mostly healthy (sorry, Alexander Steen and Andy McDonald) and other teams are dealing with injury problems.
By the way, anybody notice on Saturday that the Blues were really reluctant to rule Barret Jackman out, but it looked like a long shot that he would be healthy. And then he's out there like clockwork, missing only one game after having his clock cleaned by P.K. Subban in Montreal on Tuesday. Even if you're one of his critics, at least give the guy credit for pushing for a quick return and most likely playing through some serious pain.
Haven't seen the Blues starting goaltender yet. Opposition out of the playoff picture at the moment, a team that the Blues handled pretty easily in December usually means a Jaroslav Halak sighting. But Ken Hitchcock might be in the mood to get Brian Elliott on the ice against a non elite team.
Lots of home games coming down the pipe. Win more now so you don't have to win as many in March and April. This is your game day thread. Comment like each dick joke is another punch to the face of noted thespian Steve Ott.