Preseason Preview: Dallas Stars At St. Louis Blues

Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. The Blues've made a fight of every pre-season game so far, but lapses by the team have lead to less than inspiring goals against. It doesn't matter if it's the kids doing it or the regulars;Brian Elliott was hung out to dry on Thursday night.

It's just pre-season. A good number of the kids who played Thursday are no longer with the Blues. Ivan Barbashev has been loaned to the Mocton Wildcats. Sixteen players were just assigned to the Chicago Wolves: Rob Bordson, Terry Broadhurst, Jacob Doty, Benn Ferriero, Zach Pochiro, Ryan Tesink, Yannik Veilleux, Mathieu Brodeur, Joel Edmundson, Jani Hakanpaa, Niklas Lundstrom, Cody Beach, Pat Cannone, Sebastion Wannstrom, Jeremy Welsh, and David Shields. That means 36 guys are still remaining, including Ty Ratty and Robby Fabbri. Peter Mueller has made one hell of a case for sticking with the club this year.

This all translates into a lot of evaluative hockey to go. Sure, preseason may be unimportant for the standings, but for the guys who are left who aren't regular roster players, these games mean the world.

Puck drop is in Kansas City tonight at 7:00. Here's tonight's line-up, which is looking little by little more like an NHL roster. I'd say AHL and a half tonight.

GAMEDAY LINEUP:

Forwards: Patrik Berglund, Robby Fabbri, Dmitrij Jaskin, Maxim Lapierre, John McCarthy, Philip McRae, T.J. Oshie, Steve Ott, Chris Porter, Ty Rattie, Ryan Reaves, Paul Stastny

Defense: Jay Bouwmeester, Ian Cole, Jordan Leopold, Petteri Lindbohm, Brent Regner, Kevin Shattenkirk

Goalies: Jake Allen, Jordan Binnington