The Nashville Predators were on the road for what seemed like the better part of eternity. They’ve had a chance to sleep in their own beds, eat their own food, and probably say “hello” to their families. But they don’t have much time to recuperate from a successful 2-1-1 road trip when the Blues come calling for the first time this year. They start off Nashville’s five-game homestand tonight.
The St. Louis Blues
Everything is coming up Bacon. Dammit, I mean Blues.
As was foretold, the Blues are one of the leading powers in the Western Conference Central division. Through 13 games so far they are 9-3-1 with 19 points, only one point ahead of Nashville with one more game played. Even with injuries to Paul Stastny, Jaden Schwartz, and Kevin Shattenkirk, the Blues have one, stayed up in the standings, and looked every bit as dangerous as they did last year in the regular season.
They even found a rallying cry.
If St. Louis wasn’t a waste hole where good cuisine goes to die, I’d be more concerned at the implications of parading a pig around when bacon is on everyone’s mind. Ryan Reaves gets it.
This is proof that for all the effort sports teams are putting into their social media, with their GIFs and their topical references and their personalities, that marketing is undermined by a typo.
#RoarBacon will be fueling the Blues, though most of that energy will actually just be residual adrenaline from their 6-5 OT comeback in Chicago. Vladimir Tarasenko ended the night with his seventh goal of the season, and is making his new extension look like a smart, smart idea. Alex Steen is right on his scoring tail.
Jake Allen gets the nod tonight, and seems to be setting himself up to pull away from Brian Elliot. The Blues have almost evenly split their starts job this season, and right now the stats say Allen is the better of the two. That in no doubt is a factor of Elliot allowing four goals on 15 shots in Chicago. Yoink.
Allen came on in relief and stopped all but one of the 28 shots he faced, and got a big boost because of the win. Five of his last games have ended with a save percentage above .930%.
Scott Gomez and Martin Havlat round out the “Holy crap! Those guys are still in the leauge?!” roster.
The Nashville Predators
Tonight is Hockey Fights Cancer night in Smashville, and the Predators will be wearing these bad boys:
. @PredsNHL #HockeyFightsCancer auction is OPEN. 11/7 game will feature specialty jerseys. https://t.co/JqoHbpDuNs pic.twitter.com/p2fGuSiNPu
— #HockeyFightsCancer (@PredsNHL) November 5, 2015
Each will be signed and auctioned off for charity. If you are wanting to donate but don’t have the funds to try and secure a Rinne jersey, you can make a direct donation to the 365 Pediatric Cancer Fund right here. There will also be mystery pucks for sale, auctions and much, much more. View everything that’s going on at the Predators website here.
The #HockeyFightsCancer auction is NOW OPEN! Visit https://t.co/JqoHbplToS or text “PREDS” to 52182 to view all items & bid. #STLvsNSH
— #HockeyFightsCancer (@PredsNHL) November 7, 2015
This may be the perfect opportunity for Filip Forsberg to get back in the goal column. Forsberg only has two points in his last six games, and zero goals in his last eight. In his career, he’s scored four goals and four assists against the Blues alone, including this beauty last year against Blues legend Martin Brodeur:
My favorite part of this is how John Kelly and Darren Pang are in the middle of gushing about Brodeur’s comeback and how hard he’s been working when he gets scored on.
Going to go all in and say Forsberg notches a pair tonight, and Barret Jackman assists on one of them. We’ll save the Jax goal prediction until he’s actually back in St. Louis.
Pregame Entertainment
It’s not very often you get to link to two Iron Maiden songs from the same epic live concert in a row. So I’ll take advantage of that now.
Drink of Choice
I gotta hand it to St. Louis: their food may be awful, their city depressing, and their geographical location more confusing than convenient, but they do make a great beer.
Get you a Schlafly Pale Ale or Kolsch and enjoy the game. What, did you think I meant Budweiser?
Important Stuff
Back in the Bridge at 7 p.m. local time. FS-TN and 102.5 The Game with your calls.