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The Stats
| St. Louis Blues | Nashville Predators | |||
| Record | 21-14-2 | 11th | 15-17-8 | 24th |
| GF/Game | 2.78 | 10th | 2.35 | 27th |
| GA/Game | 2.62 | 16th | 2.58 | 15th |
| 5-on-5 SF/60 | 27.3 | 19th | 25.4 | 29th |
| 5-on-5 SA/60 | 24.1 | 2nd | 26.6 | 6th |
| Fenwick Close | 53.41 | 6th | 47.09 | 23rd |
| 5-on-5 Save % | .900 | 27th | .923 | 11th |
| 5-on-4 GF/60 | 8.2 | 6th | 6.1 | 16th |
| # of PP's/Gm | 3.11 | 22nd | 3.05 | 25th |
| 4-on-5 GA/60 | 5.4 | 7th | 7.8 | 26th |
| # of PK's/Gm | 3.35 | 14th | 3.00 | 2nd |
It's too bad for St. Louis that Brian Elliott realized that he was Brian Elliott again, and their goaltending numbers came back down to earth. The Blues are a pretty solid puck-possession group, but when shots keep leaking through, it undermines team performance.
The Preds are 1-1-1 against St. Louis this season, but they haven't met since a 6-1 road victory by Nashville on February 5th.
St. Louis Blues
St. Louis is one a steady course to the post-season, likely heading out on the road to face Anaheim or the winner of the Northwest Division in the opening round. That's a fair step back from last year's dominating performance during the regular season, which was followed up with a 2nd-round loss to the Los Angeles Kings in a sweep.
The Blues come into tonight's game riding a four-game winning streak, with the most recent being a 1-0 win at Detroit Sunday afternoon. The guy leading the way up front is Chris Stewart, who has enjoyed a healthy rebound from some disappointing goal totals in 2011-2012:
Nashville Predators
At this point, the main story line to watch is how the younger guys are performing, and what their chances are of earning a larger role at the NHL level in 2013-2014. Can Taylor Beck continue to produce offensively? Is Victor Bartley a legitimate option to man the 2nd pair with Kevin Klein next season? Might Austin Watson be ready for a 3rd- or 4th-line center spot, supplanting Nick Spaling?
It's also worth noting which veterans are playing well down the stretch, because after a slow start, David Legwand has piled up 16 points in his last 17 games to take over the team scoring lead:
While some fans embrace the notion that the Predators should slip as far down the standings as possible in order to land a high draft pick, I'm more in the "losing begets losing" camp. I want to see the team finish out the season strong, and given the NHL jobs which are on the line for next season, you can bet that most of the players have a lot on the line over these final weeks.