St. Louis Blues Host Colorado Avalanche, Look to Defeat Division Rival for First Time in 2015-16

On a night where the Blues will honor the unity among St. Louis’s professional sports teams, they’ll attempt to defeat the NHL team owned by the man who recently moved a team out of the city.

With only four games remaining on their regular season home schedule, the St. Louis Blues will host their second annual Cardinals night on Tuesday, so they’ll be wearing specially-themed Cardinals warmup jerseys, giving away limited edition Cardinals-Blues caps, and celebrating the unity between St. Louis’s two remaining professional sports teams.

Whether it’s coincidence or not (given several other actions that the Blues have taken in the wake of the Rams’ departure, it’s probably safe to assume that it’s not), the promotion takes place on the night that the Blues host the Colorado Avalanche, the NHL team owned by none other than Stan Kroenke, the man who enraged St. Louisans earlier this year when he publicly ripped the city, then moved the NFL’s Rams back to Los Angeles after a 21-year stint in St. Louis. Though it’s a near impossibility that Kroenke will be in attendance Tuesday, it will be fun to see what happens on a night dedicated to celebrating St. Louis’s greatness as a sports city.

On another note, the Blues will be looking to preserve a four-game shutout streak on Tuesday, as Brian Elliott returns to the net after giving way to Jake Allen on Saturday in Washington for the second game of this past weekend’s back-to-back. Elliott, who recently returned from a knee injury that cost him nearly a month, still hasn’t given up a goal since February 22, so it should be interesting to see if he can keep both his personal streak and the team streak alive against Colorado.

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Despite the fact that Colorado is on the outside looking in for a playoff spot, sitting three points behind the 8-seed Minnesota Wild with six games remaining, they’ve had the Blues’ number so far this season. In fact, the Blues have yet to defeat Colorado; they lost 3-1 to the Avs at Scottrade on December 13, lost a game 4-3 in overtime at Pepsi Center on January 6 thanks to a disastrous decision by Allen to vacate the net, then took a 2-1 shootout loss in Denver on January 22. If there’s an upside for the Blues to facing Colorado on Tuesday, it’s that the Avalanche already played on Monday night in Nashville, defeating the Predators 4-3 to snap a two-game losing streak.

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Forward Alexander Steen will return to the lineup against Colorado after missing the past 15 games with an upper-body injury. Though the Blues have been doing just fine without Steen, who is widely regarded as their top defensive forward, he should provide a solid boost at both ends of the ice against Colorado.

The club will once again be without defensemen Carl Gunnarsson and Jay Bouwmeester, who will miss their second and third games in a row, respectively. As a result, Petteri Lindbohm and Robert Bortuzzo will remain in the lineup.

Here’s how Tuesday night’s lineup is expected to look:

Next: Are Elliott, Allen the Blues' Best Goalie Duo Since 1968-69?

Jaden Schwartz–Jori Lehtera–Vladimir Tarasenko

Robby Fabbri–Paul Stastny–Troy Brouwer

Patrik Berglund–Alexander Steen–David Backes

Scottie Upshall–Kyle Brodziak–Ryan Reaves

Joel Edmundson–Alex Pietrangelo

Colton Parayko–Kevin Shattenkirk

Petteri Lindbohm–Robert Bortuzzo

Brian Elliott