GameThread for St. Louis Blues at Edmonton Oilers, Mar 23, 2013

Let's see... no Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tonight (poor kid has strep throat, which sucks), and a very not sharp Nikolai Khabibulin in net. Ok, then. It's almost as though the hockey gods want the fully healthy St. Louis Blues to win the game tonight -- and there's no reason for them not to.

Sure, Khabby has a 2.12 GAA and sure, he has a .935 SV%, but he's also played in a whopping four games this year. Un-sharp's a word, correct? If it's not, it is now, because that's basically him. Still, underestimate him at your own risk. He's 24-16-2-2 against the Blues in his career. He's let in a lot of goals -- his GAA is 2.75 lifetime against St. Louis -- but we all know a big component of winning is how many goals your team allows too. The Blues, for the most part, have kept that number reasonable this season, despite having a terrible team save percentage. How so? Low shots allowed.

If the Blues can limit shots allowed tonight, play a full game, and make sure that what shots allowed aren't in primo scoring areas (and fired by Taylor Hall), they should be fine. This is your gameday thread -- don't let the kids score, don't make Khabby look like a goalie 20 years younger, and win this game.

Get two points. Let's go Blues.