Flyers at Blues preview: Giroux-less Philly is playing out the stretch

It’s a very, very small sample size, but so far the Nick Leddy era is a rousing success. After a 5-2 win over the Capitals on Tuesday night that bumped the Blues back up to second in the Central Division, the team can add some more insurance against the Flyers tonight.

Philadelphia dealt Claude Giroux to the Florida Panthers shortly before the trade deadline, leaving the team captainless and fans saddened at the end of an era. The Panthers are clearly stacked to make a run for the Stanley Cup. The Flyers are 20-32-11 and in a firm 7th place in the Metro. Their -61 goal differential is the third worst in the league, behind Montreal and Arizona. They’ve won just seven road games all season.

This is not their year.

After a 6-3 loss in Detroit, the Flyers are in St. Louis for the first time since January 15th, 2020. The Blues have gone through a few roster moves since then; the most recent move was the deal acquiring Nick Leddy at the trade deadline from the Red Wings. Leddy and Colton Parayko were fine together on Tuesday night, with Parayko adding an assist in 24:46 TOI. Leddy, to his credit, contributed two shots on net and was handed 3:25 of time with the man advantage.

David Perron is riding a six game scoring streak that may easily become seven against Philly. Another goal tonight, and Perron’ll have the longest scoring streak for the Blues in sixteen years.

Yes, 2006 was 16 years ago. Feel old, everyone. Feel old.

Torey Krug is a question mark for tonight after leaving Tuesday’s victory with an upper-body injury. Vladimir Tarasenko and Robert Thomas are also both up in the air for tonight’s game.

The odds are in the Blues’ favor tonight regardless of who takes the ice - the Flyers have lost 13 road games in a row, and haven’t won outside of Philly since - seriously - last year.