GDT #2: 10/11/14 | 7:00PM CST | v Flames | FSMW/Y98

[dmiles2186]

FLAMES (1-1-0) at BLUES (0-1-0)

TV: SN360, FS-MW

Season series: The St. Louis Blues went 2-0-1 against the Calgary Flames in 2013-14 thanks in part to the efforts of Vladimir Tarasenko, who had points in each game and finished the season series with two goals and two assists. The Flames have lost their past four trips to Scottrade Center.

Flames team scope: Calgary will try to make it two straight on the road after dropping their season-opener 4-2 to the Vancouver Canucks at Scotiabank Saddledome on Wednesday. The Flames rebounded from the loss to earn a 5-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday, with Mason Raymond contributing a hat trick. "Of course it is nice to contribute and be a part of the win," Raymond said. "But those two points were huge for us. It got us in the win column and trending in the right direction. Those two points are huge for us heading out on the road, especially after losing our first game at home." The road doesn't get any easier for Calgary, which has four more stops before returning home on Oct. 21.

Blues team scope: The Blues dropped their season opener when they lost 3-2 at home to the New York Rangers on Thursday. St. Louis never led, but the loss was the result of a bit of bad luck. Rick Nash's game-winner came after Alex Pietrangelo's clearing attempt hit a stanchion and fell to Martin St. Louis, who fed Nash for the winning goal with 1:50 remaining. "Tough way to lose a game," coach Ken Hitchcock said. Newcomer Paul Stastny scored a goal in his Blues debut but didn't practice Friday after sustaining a quad contusion against the Rangers. Hitchcock said he expects Stastny and forward Patrik Berglund (upper body), who also didn't practice, to be able to play Saturday, according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch. The Blues head to the West Coast for their next three games.

[gaijin]

Quad contusion? Wish I shared Hitch's optimism. Damn Rangers.

That said, Calgary is not in the same league as New York. I feel our first W of the season tonight.

2 points, please.

[drwoland]

Ugh "quad contusion".. y'all gonna trigger some form of PTSD over here.. I've had one of those before before. The net effect is basically a REALLY deep, painful, persistent dead leg. Collided with a guy playing soccer, and his knee hit me right in the middle of the outside part of the quad. Felt a little tight, but still rode my bike home from the game. Woke up at 4am that night covered in sweat, unable to bend my leg AT ALL; my upper thigh was at least 1.25 its normal thickness. Damn near passed out while waiting to be seen at a trauma center because I shifted weight in my chair and accidentally put weight on the leg. Over the next few days, my whole leg turned blue as the blood seeped out of the deep bruising and traveled down my leg. WAS NOT FUN. AT ALL.

I am pretty sure his isn't that bad (both because he is in MUCH better shape and because the contact in my case was much more direct and higher up the leg), but still, I bet he is not very comfortable. If they went far enough to actually call it a "contusion," I'm not sure it's worth the risk to play him, but WHO KNOWS. Don't listen to me, I'm a god damned bleeder.

Just bless 8 pound 6 ounce Baby Jesus it's not his knee.

[drwoland]

ALSO GO BLUES

Blues 4
Flames 1

[sseagle]

We need to score four...

[glen a richter]

Losing to a worse-than-last-year rangers team from the inferior conference at home was bad enough as it is, losing to the flames would be an epic disgrace. But that won't happen.

Blues 3, Atlanta Flames 1

[H-Town Blues]

I'm glad we dodged a bullet with Stastny.

Victory will be ours tonight.

[Jaykay]

Second game i can watch in a row, the blues need to keep me awake, score regulary, hit hard, and we'll be fine:

Blues 6 : 3 Flames

[glen a richter]

I'd say it looks like we got our playmaking center, but it is only Calgary. Still, this is really nice to see.

[STLADOGG]

We need to score four...

Well, that happened.

[dmiles2186]

Pretty much domination from start to finish. Blues could have scored 6-7 with some of their missed chances, but the game was never in doubt. It's a shame Ells didn't get his shutout. He was fantastic for the 2nd game in a row. I was really annoyed pre-game that Ott was bumped up to he top line, but he didn't do too many Steve Ott-like things to screw things up. We seemed a little sloppy when it came to penalties, but it didn't hurt us at all. Either way, we got 2 points against a team we should have got 2 points against. No we wait 5 days and do it again.

[cardsfan04]

Looked good last night for sure. I believe Stastny has a point on each of the first 5 goals of the season (1G, 4A). That's a pretty damn hot start.

[drwoland]

ALSO GO BLUES

Blues 4
Flames 1

What a great game that was to watch.

Also I don't know what's up with my brain, but every time I see 26 do anything, first thought is "damn Crombeen has gotten better at hockey!"

[cprice12]

Pretty much domination from start to finish. Blues could have scored 6-7 with some of their missed chances, but the game was never in doubt. It's a shame Ells didn't get his shutout. He was fantastic for the 2nd game in a row. I was really annoyed pre-game that Ott was bumped up to he top line, but he didn't do too many Steve Ott-like things to screw things up. We seemed a little sloppy when it came to penalties, but it didn't hurt us at all. Either way, we got 2 points against a team we should have got 2 points against. No we wait 5 days and do it again.

As I speculated in the offseason, Ott should be a much better player this year for us. Granted, he's not a top line guy by any means, but he should still be far better than last year.

[dmiles2186]

Pretty much domination from start to finish. Blues could have scored 6-7 with some of their missed chances, but the game was never in doubt. It's a shame Ells didn't get his shutout. He was fantastic for the 2nd game in a row. I was really annoyed pre-game that Ott was bumped up to he top line, but he didn't do too many Steve Ott-like things to screw things up. We seemed a little sloppy when it came to penalties, but it didn't hurt us at all. Either way, we got 2 points against a team we should have got 2 points against. No we wait 5 days and do it again.

As I speculated in the offseason, Ott should be a much better player this year for us. Granted, he's not a top line guy by any means, but he should still be far better than last year.

I don't disagree on him being a better player for us this year. I've made a vow to give him a chance, at least. I know it's not his fault he's put on the top line, but for God sakes he doesn't belong there. Either way, he stayed out of the way, for the most part. What I like is that now that we've got Lindstrom and Lehtera, among others, we're not seeing the likes of Ott on the PP, which is fantastic. Plus, Ott and Lapierre make a great PK combo. They were impressive last night.

[ViPeRx007]

We need to score four...

Awwwwww maaaaaan...I missed this.

Well, it sounds like we played good and got a win in a game where we should have done just that. That seems obvious, but it's these points that will make a difference in the end. It's fun to win against the big guys, and hopefully we'll have a lot of those to come, but you have to take care of business against the rest as well.

Stastny seems useful so far.

[ecbm]

Great game.

On a topic raised above: playing guys like Ott and Berglund on the top line is ridiculous. I've really about had it with Hitchcock and his juggling. If he doesn't know what his top line is now, WTF? Or is this just a thing where there's resistance to parking $6.3M per year in salary on the 3rd & 4th lines where it belongs?

[glen a richter]

What does playing Ott on the top line say to Stastny?

[dmiles2186]

What does playing Ott on the top line say to Stastny?

I think it's more about Hitch wanting to keep the Lindstrom-Stastny-Steen and Schwartz-Lehtera-Tarasenko lines together as anything. Hitch did this garbage with Ott down the stretch last year when Steen was hurt.

[ViPeRx007]

I think you're all looking too much into this. For one, it was the Flames. He could afford to mix some things up. Besides, it was probably just a way to not overuse some of the guys, like Stastny, in higher-intensity areas. I'm sure he's nursing a bit of an injury from the previous game.