St. Louis Blues Morning Links: Smashville Going Down

Good morning Blues fans! It’s another gameday edition of your morning links. Today’s opponent is the enigma known as the Nashville Predators.

The St. Louis Blues are taking on their rivals, the Nasvhille Predators, for the fourth time this season. If history holds true, the Blues are going to win tonight.

St. Louis has just about every thing going for them. The Blues have been almost unbeatable at home. They currently only have two regulation losses to any team at home.

The Preds are just as bad as the Blues on the road. They only have five wins away from the Music City.

Also, the home team has won all three games in the season series so far. That all sets up perfectly for a Blues win. It probably means they will lose, but I don’t think they will.

If the team is not looking ahead to the Winter Classic, they should be poised for a solid game. Jake Allen has to know he needs a solid game heading into the outdoor showdown, so I would look for him to come up big.

The team also has some hot players right now. Robby Fabbri is coming off his first ever hat trick and has five points in five games. David Perron has points in three straight and four out of five.

St. Louis’ offense has been pretty solid of late too. They have not scored fewer than two goals in a game since December 11. That might not sound like too long ago, but seven games occurred in that time.

Conversely, you never know what you’ll get from Nashville. They are 3-3-2 over their last eight games.

They have blown teams out, lost badly and had tight games that went all the way to OT or a shootout. Sounds pretty familiar, right?

The only thing really separating these teams right now is the Blues’ dominance in St. Louis. Nashville is great at home too, but four less wins and three more losses mark the difference.

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It should be an entertaining game. These two teams have traditionally played tight, hard-fought contests. The last few have been different with larger scorelines, but the games have still been good.

While the Blues have not needed to score first to win this season – they have one more win when scoring first than they do when not – the first goal will be important. If the Blues get the goal first, look for them to run off.

If Nashville scores first, all bets are off. With St. Louis fresh off a win and Nashville having lost to Chicago last night, I still expect a win.

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

The St. Louis Blues came up with some pretty big news on their off day. in a surprising move, they inked defenseman Robert Bortuzzo to a two-year deal. Bortuzzo was playing lights out before his injury, so that might have played a part. (Arch Authority)

The goaltenders are breaking out the special stuff for the Winter Classic. Jake Allen is taking a page from his soccer counterparts and going for bright colored pads that really draw the eye. His partner, Carter Hutton went for a very local, baseball theme for his mask. (St. Louis Game Time)

Before we were awarded the Winter Classic, the joke used to be with St. Louis’ luck we’d have rain and a 50 degree day. Well, we were partly right. The forecast is rain (possible storms) and 60 degrees. Needless to say it is throwing a wrench in plenty of plans and bringing up lots of contingencies. (STLToday)

Normally NBC sticks to their broadcast crews whether we like it or not. Given his ties to the area and affinity for baseball, it only makes sense that one of NBC’s key broadcasters is returning to help cover the Winter Classic in St. Louis. (Post-Dispatch)

Nashville will still be without one of their key defenders for tonight’s game against St. Louis. P.K. Subban’s injury has left the team with a lot of questions. (Predlines)

St. Louis again added some flavor to the latest US World Junior contest. This time the city featured one of the scorers in a win that kept the US unbeaten heading into their final group game against Canada. (ESPN)

It seemed like Daniel Alfredsson played forever. So much so that you could forget that he even retired. Nobody will forget if they visit Ottawa now though as the team retired his jersey. (NHL)

Have a great day Blues fans!