Road Music: 04/11 at Minnesota Wild

I Believe In Brian Elliott. Thankfully, it also appears that he's believing in himself, too. In fact, I think the whole team is on the Elliott Bandwagon. Confidence is at an all-time high, and like Panger says, why wouldn't it be? This 5-game win streak has really turned things around for the Blues. Not that long ago, on April 1st, Brian Elliott came in to the game to relieve an injured Jaroslav Halak. He stopped 19 of 20 shots, and earned the win for the Blues.

Since then, the Blues haven't lost a single game, going 5-0 down the stretch. Minnesota lost that game and has been 1-4-0 in that same span. And now, these two teams meet again. Our All-Star leads the way, but this time, Minnesota will be missing theirs.

All Star / Smash Mouth

The Enemy: I of course refer to Dany Heatley, the Fuckin' All Star. The very next game after our win, the Wild played the Sharks. Heatley got in a scuffle with Marc-Edouard Vlasic that resulted in Heatley missing the rest of the games since. He had surgery Tuesday and will be out for the remainder of the season. Dany leaves the team in the middle of a death spiral. The team is in danger of dropping out of the playoff picture; they've gone from leading the NW Division as a 3 seed, to now holding the 7th spot, 3 points ahead of #8 Detroit. Notably, the Wild are having problems in scoring goals. They're going to miss his 11 goals (3rd on the team) and 21 points (6th on the team).

The overall points leader is captain Mikko Koivu (9-24-33), with the money men Zach Parise (team leading 15 goals, 15-17-32 overall) and Ryan Suter (4-25-29) right behind. In net, expect Niklas Backstrom: 20-11-2, 2.39 GAA and .915 SV%. He has started 32 of 39 games, and I don't see the Wild turning to anyone else while in the shape they're in now.

Further Reading:

Hockey Wilderness

Russo's Rants (beat writer's blog)

Final Verse: The game starts at 7:00 St Louis time. The TV broadcast is on Fox Sports MW, and the radio call is back on KMOX 1120 AM. The GDT should drop shortly before the puck. Until then, consider this your pregame warmup. Gather here, make your social plans for tomorrow's game (HINT HINT), let us know how you weathered the storm Wednesday night, and never forget who the Fuckin' All Star is...

The ALL STAR on the lockout.... parody (via OttawaGh0st4)

LGB!!!!

-CrossCheckRaise