St. Louis Blues Morning Links: In The Land Of Lightning

Feb 14, 2016; Tampa, FL, USA; St. Louis Blues center Paul Stastny (26) passes the puck as Tampa Bay Lightning center Steven Stamkos (91) defends during the third period at Amalie Arena. St. Louis defeated Tampa Bay 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 14, 2016; Tampa, FL, USA; St. Louis Blues center Paul Stastny (26) passes the puck as Tampa Bay Lightning center Steven Stamkos (91) defends during the third period at Amalie Arena. St. Louis defeated Tampa Bay 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Good morning Blues fans! It’s back to the road the Blues go after ending their slump away from home in Dallas. Now they go further south to see if they can form a streak.

The St. Louis Blues have had trouble winning on the road. Though it took overtime and they played like crap much of the game, they got the job done in Dallas a couple days ago.

Now the question is whether they can get a little streak going with their final game before Christmas. The Tampa Bay Lightning stand in the way of that.

The Lightning are similar to the Blues at the moment. They are an immensely talented team, one that made the league finals just a couple seasons ago, but incredibly inconsistent.

If the playoffs started today, the Bolts would be on the outside looking in. Not exactly the position you want to be in.

While it is still early, Tampa needs to start picking up points. Things haven’t exactly gone well for them this year.

They re-signed their big name scorer, Steven Stamkos, only to see him go down with a potentially season ending knee injury. They’ve had other bumps and bruises along the way as well.

Former St. Louis Bandits coach, Jon Cooper is hoping his troops will eventually rally. They have not done it quite yet.

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The Blues are hoping that rally holds off for a day or two. St. Louis already took down the Lightning 5-4 in St. Louis but are hoping for a little lower scoreline this time around.

The Blues have been conceding far too many goals of late. A nice defensive game would be nice to see for a change.

St. Louis has only lost 11 times in their history to Tampa. Eight of those have come in Tampa though.

The last loss was in 2013-14. Another one might be due, but the Blues might be able to get some momentum rolling if they can hold that off one more night.

Here are your St. Louis Blues Morning Links to get your day started off right.

Paul Stastny had to miss most of the third period in Dallas due to an upper body injury. That same injury will likely keep him out of the lineup tonight. It is too late to call up reinforcements at center, so the Blues will be plugging the hole with a square peg again. (Post-Dispatch)

Speaking of players that will be asked to step up into Stastny’s void, Patrik Berglund is one. The often maligned forward started the season off very slowly statistically even when he was playing well in other areas. Luckily, the stats have started to come as they will be needed with injury shortages. (STLToday)

Keeping on the injury front, the Blues will not have to worry about facing fellow St. Louisan Ben Bishop. After an injury against the Detroit Red Wings, he will be on the shelf for some time. (NHL)

The St. Louis Blues have plenty of questions in front of them both right now and in the near future. Doug Armstrong is the man with the plan and answers to the queries. He did a Q and A with a local paper and covered a series of topics including the ever-present Kevin Shattenkirk topic. (Belleville News Democrat)

Fans fighting any disease need that extra pick-me-up sometimes, especially those dealing with the dreaded C word. While all sports have their great stories, hockey seems to come up with the extra special ones. Such was the case against Chicago, when a very special Blues fan got the treat of a lifetime and a few moments of peace in a grueling battle. (St. Louis Gametime)

It has taken Jaromir Jagr 44 years to reach the place his is in the NHL right now. All that talent has pushed him to the number two spot in career scoring. He knows he will stay at number two since he’s almost 1000 points behind Wayne Gretzky even now. (ESPN)

Have a great day Blues fans!