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The Blues have matched their season's best by winning 4 in a row. This would be a particularly timely moment to set a new high at 5 in a row. No coincidence that this happens at the same time Brian Elliott has had his best games in net, going 1.45 GAA / .952 Sv% in his last three. It seems the conditioning stint in Awesome Town did the lad some good. And there is absolutely no better time to get hot than Right Now. I've said before that I Believe in Brian Elliott. It'd be pretty sweet if Elliott could break free from his bad start and return to form again; and in doing so, lead this team into the postseason. Seize the moment, Brian, and run with it.
The Enemy: The Nashville Predators have fallen on hard times lately. They've lost 3 in a row (including both sides of a home-and-home series with Chicago) and have gone 4-4-2 in their last 10 games. They made two moves at the trade deadline. First, they sent Scott Hannan to San Jose for a conditional 7th round pick. Then, at the last minute, made a big move by shipping Martin Erat (even now, third on the team in total points) and a prospect to Washington for Filip Forsberg, a promising prospect currently in Sweden. It doesn't look like they are going to make the playoffs this year: they sit in 13th place with 38 points, and every single team in the Western Conference has games in hand over the Predators. Nashville is the only team to have reached the 40-game mark.
Not to say that they wouldn't relish the role of spoiler, though. I'm sure they'd like to right their ship by also causing the Blues to stumble on the way to the playoffs. Their goals leaders are tied at 11 each - Gabriel Bourque and overall points leader David Legwand (11-12-23). Captain Shea Weber is right behind with 8-15-23. Finally, in net I'd expect the always-troublesome Pekka Rinne. His record this year is 14-13-7, with a 2.32 GAA and .915 Save Percentage. The backup is the familiar Chris Mason (1-4-1, 3.55 / .866 SV%).
Further Reading:
Final Verse: The game starts at 7:00 PM St Louis time. The GDT should drop shortly beforehand. The TV broadcast is on FoxSports MW in St Louis, and on FoxSports MW Plus in other areas. Read all about it HERE. The radio call will be on KYKY 98.1 FM (Y98). Until then, this is your pregame warmup. Gather here, celebrate your love for all things fried, Tennessee Whiskey, and Tootoo-less. Also, enjoy this reminder of Shea Weber's powerful shot-
Puck goes through net (via r8man)
LGB!!
-CrossCheckRaise