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The Blues look to stay perfect at home when they take on the Calgary Flames at the Scottrade Center (at least for now) at 7pm CST. They will be looking to build on their goal scoring barrage from Saturday night when they scored 6 on the Flames, getting a hat trick from David Perron.

The Flames on the other hand will be looking to build on their shootout win over the Blackhawks last night in Chicago by going back to Brian Elliott who stopped 32 of 34 shots and 7 shootout attempts. It will be Elliott’s first game against the Blues since being traded after last season. Blues fans may not remember but Elliott is 2-1 against the Blues with a 90.6% save percentage and a 2.67 goals against average but those games were a long time ago.

It also will be the first game for Matthew Tkachuk, son of long time Blue Keith Tkachuk, in St. Louis and against his dad's former team.

Last night the Flames finally enjoyed some power play success, converting on two of five chances. Of course, this will be a lot more difficult tonight as the Blues penalty kill success rate is more than 2x that of the Blackhawks.

For the Blues, Jori Lehtera remains on injured reserve while Ty Rattie and Magnus Paajarvi appear to be the odd men out at forward. Robert Bortuzzo is again expected to be in the press box. Carter Hutton is getting his second start of the season. Is that a result of Jake Allen’s play on Saturday? Only the coaching staff can answer that question. Hutton is 3-1-1 against the Flames with a 91.2% save percentage and a 2.50 goals against average.

I expect the lines to look like this to start:
Elliott
Engelland - Brodie
Hamilton - Grossman
Wideman - Giordano
Tkachuk – Stajan – Ferland
Frolik – Backlund – Bouma
Brouwer – Bennett – Versteeg
Chiasson – Monahan – Gaudreau

Alexander Steen - Paul Stastny - Robby Fabbri
David Perron - Jaden Schwartz - Vladimir Tarasenko
Dmitrij Jaskin - Patrik Berglund - Nail Yakupov
Scottie Upshall - Kyle Brodziak - Ryan Reaves
Bouwmeester – Pietrangelo
Gunnarsson – Shattenkirk
Edmundson – Parayko
Hutton

Jammer’s 9 NHL Nuggets:
1) Kari Lehtonen, Jakob Markstrom and Pekka Rinne are the top 3 save % starting goalies in the Western Conference, all above 92% (3 game minimum).
2) In addition to the three above, only Cam Talbot, Devan Dubnyk and Sergei Varlamov are above 90% (counting Chad Johnson as a backup). All of the other Western starters are below 90%. Compare that to the East that has 10 over 90%.
3) The Canadiens are the only team without a regulation loss.
4) Two D and Two rookies are in the tip 6 points per game in the NHL(Burns, Karlsson, Matthews and W. Nylander).
5) I’m sticking by my Zach Weresnki for Calder for the time being – 1.25 points per game and logging over 21:30 per game on defense.
6) You could have made a mint betting that Richard Panik, Matt Read, and Auston Matthews would be the top 3 goal scorers in the NHL as of 10/24/16.
7) Speaking of the Candiens, they are leading the NHL in goals for and goals against per game.
8) Two teams have a PK success rate over 95% - the Blues and New York Islanders
9) As odd, three teams have a PP success rate lower than 10% - the Islanders, Ottawa Senators and the Minnesota Wild. Is that more surprising than the Chicago Blackhawks terrible PK (46%)?

It’s a great day for hockey.
Fellow Hockeybuzz bloggers Nashville Predator's Paul McCann, Winnipeg Jet's Peter Tessier and Minnesota Wild's Dan Wallace have generously agreed to a friendly charity wager. We were hoping to do the whole division but don't have it fully represented yet. The blogger whose team finishes the highest the standings at the end of the year gets to pick a charity to whom the others donate in their name.

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