Game 44: Avalanche At Blues, Preview And Open Thread

Colorado Avalanche	8:30 pm ET / 6:30 pm MT	St Louis Blues
22-20-1	January 15, 2009	16-23-3
45 points	Nationwide Arena	35 Points
11th in West	Columbus, OH	15th in West

Sorry for the late delay - my lambada class ran late...

It's not quite a battle of the titans. You know how your Avalanche have been faring this year, and the Blues have the worst record in the Western Conference. For the 2nd straight game, the Avs face a team that's arguably more banged up than they are. Check out who the Blues have on IR: Paul Kariya, Eric Brewer, Andy MacDonald and the other SOS. Oh, and they have that dude who was injured in a duel with a golf cart. Jay McKee just returned to the lineup Keith Tkachuk was questionable, but it looks like he's going to play. *Yawn*

The Avs are just 2 points behind the 7th place Coyotes in the standings. With Edmonton and Minnesota also at 45 points and playing each other, one of them will be vaulting past idle Columbus into a playoff spot tonight for sure. If the Avs win and Phoenix loses to Vancouver in regulation, the Avs would be in 8th (they have a game in hand on the Coyotes). However, the Avs are just 4 points behind the Canucks right now, so we actually want Pheonix to win. It hurts my head to be doing this stuff right now. And I'm sure I've got all that wrong anyway, so just ignore this entire paragraph.

Peter Budaj gets the nod for the Avs. I don't know if it's official or not, but goaliepost says that it will be that Manny Legace guy.