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Man, the Blues take a few days off, and other teams around them in the standings, like LA, Detroit, and Vancouver, win. The audacity. I guess that means that the Blues need to win tonight to keep pace. Thank goodness they're playing the Ryan Nugent-Hopkins-less (maybe) Edmonton Oilers.
The Blues have won five straight games against the Oilers, and in each game, Jaroslav Halak has been in net. He'll be back in there tonight, hoping to improve upon his 1.75 GAA. Last time the two teams met, the Blues fell behind 2-0 before Halak stopped the next 15 shots to win, 4-2. The Blues played from behind well that game, but that's because they were playing the Oilers. Imagine what could happen if they play the Oilers from ahead?
T.J. Oshie will be back in the game tonight; the Blues activated him off of the injured reserve and traded Matt D'Agostini to the New Jersey Devils to make some room. A full squad against an Oilers team with points in five of their last six? Very helpful.
The standings are a logjam, and thanks to not playing for a week they've fallen to seventh place in the West. A win'd bump them back up to fourth, which is where they'd probably rather be. Is it do-able tonight? Very much so -- a full 60 minutes isn't even necessary, but by God, it'd be preferable.