ST. LOUIS -- The philosophy for St. Louis Blues coach Ken Hitchcock is simple: earn a shutout one game, start the next.

So there's no debating who's in goal when the Blues host the Detroit Red Wings tonight: Brian Elliott.

After a 19-save performance, including some acrobatic ones in the waning seconds of Saturday's 3-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday, Elliott earns another game in a big Central Division showdown instead of No. 1 Jaroslav Halak, who's also played solid.

"For me, a shutout ... you've got to reward. That's just the way I feel," Hitchcock said. "I think for us, the goaltending is also a product that we're not giving up odd-man rushes, we're not giving up easy scoring opportunities, we're not giving up breakaways. If you play in the zone, I think both guys are good. But no goalie looks good when you're giving up a ton of odd-man rushes. We've got to eliminate them and if we do that, then we give ourselves a chance every night."

Elliott, who leads the NHL with a 1.49 goals-against average and is second in save percentage (.946) behind Minnesota's Josh Harding (.948), is 6-1 on the season and gives the Blues (8-7-1) a nice 1-2 punch these days.

"We kind of push each other in practice," Elliott said of himself and Halak. "I try to stop every puck that comes my way. Having two guys is great for the team."

Halak is only 2-6-1 on the season and his current numbers (2.78 GAA and .882 save percentage) don't crack the League leaders. But considering he once sported a season-low 3.53 GAA and .835 save percentage, the players are noticing the confidence both netminders have.

"Let's talk about our goalies. A 1-2 punch ... they've been playing great," winger Alex Steen said. "The way our goalies have been playing the last little while has just calmed everything down in the D-zone. I think we've played some pretty good hockey."

Added Hitchcock, "It looks like we've got two guys that can play. It's a good feeling."


In an effort to get their second line going a bit, Hitchcock won't move anyone onto it, just switch a couple wingers.

Patrik Berglund will stay in the middle, but the Blues will move Chris Stewart to the left side and Matt D'Agostini to the right against Detroit.

The move is in hopes of getting the line scoring on a consistent basis, despite the trio getting scoring chances.

"We practiced with it two days ago and really liked it," Hitchcock said. "For whatever reason in the game against Tampa, Dags ended up on the right side a lot. He showed great speed and the ability to bring the puck to the net.

"For me, it doesn't matter whether Stewy plays right or not. When you've got a quick stick like he does, which you need to play on the off-wing, he's effective either way. For me, it's more for Dags."

The two players have no preference on moving.

"It's no different," said Stewart, who played left wing in Colorado. "It's a little easier to attack when you're on your off-wing there as opposed to cutting to your back end there. It's a little easier to protect the puck. It shouldn't be any difference.

"We're playing with poise, getting opportunities off the rush too. That's always a good thing. It's just a matter of time before we start capitalizing."

D'Agostini and Stewart would up playing opposite sides in Saturday's 3-0 win over Tampa Bay.

"It's not that much of a change," D'Agostini said. "We're reading off of each other during the game. ... I've moved from left to right, right to left before during the season, so it's not a big change.

"We've played well the last couple games. We've been playing in the offensive zone most of the time, but we just haven't been able to bang that many in yet. The law of averages, they'll go in sooner or later."


The Blues will insert winger Chris Porter into the lineup tonight in place of enforcer Ryan Reaves. It will be Porter's first game under Hitchcock and first since Oct. 30 at Edmonton.

"I've watched him in practice. He's got great speed. He gets after it," Hitchcock said of Porter. "We're looking at this being a really quick game. Detroit just drops the puck and plays. There's no stuff after the whistle. They play as hard whistle to whistle as anybody in the National Hockey League.

"We just feel like we're going to need to play with tempo tonight to match theirs and we think Porter has a chance here. But this is, for me, a look. I don't really know much about him as a player. I'd like to look at him because he's looked very good the past two practices. He's looked like he's dug in and bit and wants to play some hockey. So I want to give him that opportunity to see what he does."

Porter's been a healthy scratch the last five games and has no points in seven games played.

"I've been working hard," Porter said. "When your name's called, you have to go out and perform. That's what I plan on doing tonight. ... My game is based around speed and physicality. Hopefully, I can bring that tonight. Obviously Detroit carries the puck. They don't like to dump the puck too much. I'll have to be good defensively. Hopefully, we can minimize their chances offensively and play in their zone all night."


Upon further review, Blues defenseman Kent Huskins does in fact have a fracture in the left ankle that he injured in a game Oct. 28 in Calgary, and will be out the next eight weeks.

Huskins, who was initially diagnosed with the fracture by doctors in Calgary, then was looked at by doctors here who determined it was a deep bone bruise. Huskins skated Monday and had no problems with straight line skating. But when came down to turns, there were problems.

Blues trainers immediately sent Huskins to the hospital, where X-rays determined a fracture. Huskins will have a screw inserted Wednesday.

"They skated him hard yesterday in straight lines ... no issue," Hitchcock said of Huskins. "Then they started to do turns with him and there were issues. They did another test on him, and they found the fracture. They never found it skating the first time. They never found it skating ahead the second time, but on the turn part of the practice, it started giving him pain."

It means Ian Cole, recalled from the American Hockey League affiliate in Peoria, will be here for the near future.

"This obviously gives a guy like Cole a long-term opportunity here," Hitchcock said. "Hopefully, Ian takes advantage of it. We've got our seven (defensemen) here and this is what we're going to be going with."

ST. LOUIS -- New Blues coach Ken Hitchcock and his Red Wings counterpart, Mike Babcock, are friends -- good friends, as a matter of fact.

The two go back a long way with Team Canada. Babcock was the head coach and Hitchcock was an assistant for Canada's gold medal winning squad at the Winter Olympics of 2010.

The two have also coached against one another plenty in the Western Conference, with Hitchcock having stints in Dallas and Columbus.

"I worked with Hitch at the Olympics," Babcock said. "I got to know him good then. When he was let go in Columbus, he's a hockey junkie and so I talked to him a lot. When you talk to a guy a lot, he ends up knowing how you're thinking and how your team's playing. He's a smart hockey guy and he's going to do a good job here. They've got themselves a real good coach."

There was some discussion this past summer about Hitchcock joining Babcock's staff in Detroit as an assistant but that never materialized.

"We talked about it, but I think both of us felt that I still wanted to be a head guy," Hitchcock said. "I think he wanted to get young energy in there. I was probably too old for his staff. We talked about it, though.

"We're good friends. We went through the toughest experience you can go through in life, and that is to represent your country. We came out OK. We did it together. There was a good feeling amongst the staff and especially with Mike and I because we had a major responsibility game planning, scheming and stuff like that."
The Red Wings will be without Ian White indefinitely after the defenseman suffered a broken cheekbone during Saturday's 5-2 win over Dallas, the Wings' fourth straight win.

It means Mike Commodore, who's only played two games because of a knee sprain, will be slotted into the lineup and play on the third pairing with Jakub Kindl and Jonathan Ericsson moves to the top pairing with Nicklas Lidstrom.

"I'm thinking he'd be a good matchup guy," Babcock said of Ericsson. "Move the puck six feet at a time, and do what you do well: be physical, play hard."


In talking to Babcock in previous years, he's always been a big fan of the Blues.

"I just think they've been a good team here for a long time," Babcock said. "Probably a playoff team, but they've run into some injuries. It hasn't gone as good as they wanted.

"I thought Andy Murray did a good job with them, I thought Davis Payne did a good job and now 'Hitch' has got a more finished product here. It looks like they're deep in all positions. They're playing hard and they're playing what I think is right and well."

Here's how the lineups project for tonight's game between the St. Louis Blues and Detroit Red Wings at Scottrade Center:

BLUES
Alex Steen - David Backes - T.J. Oshie
Matt D'Agostini - Patrik Berglund - Chris Stewart
Vladimir Sobotka - Jason Arnott - Jamie Langenbrunner
Evgeny Grachev - Scott Nichol - Chris Porter

Carlo Colaiacovo - Alex Pietrangelo
Barret Jackman - Kevin Shattenkirk
Kris Russell - Roman Polak

Brian Elliott gets the start in goal; Jaroslav Halak is the backup.

The Blues are without winger Andy McDonald (concussion), winger David Perron (post-concussion syndrome), defenseman Kent Huskins (ankle) and winger B.J. Crombeen (shoulder). Defenseman Ian Cole and winger Ryan Reaves are healthy scratches.

RED WINGS
Danny Cleary - Pavel Datsyuk - Tomas Holmstrom
Valtteri Filppula - Henrik Zetterberg - Johan Franzen
Jiri Hudler - Darren Helm - Justin Abdelkader
Drew Miller - Cory Emmerton - Patrick Eaves

Nicklas Lidstrom - Jonathan Ericsson
Niklas Kronwall - Brad Stuart
Jakub Kindl - Mike Commodore

Jimmy Howard gets the nod in goal; Ty Conklin, who played for the Blues the last two seasons, will be the backup in his return to St. Louis.

The Red Wings are without injured defenseman Ian White (cheekbone), Todd Bertuzzi (sinus infection) and Jan Mursak (ankle). Healthy scratches include winger Fabian Brunnstrom. Defenseman Brendan Smith, recalled from Grand Rapids after White's injury, will serve the last of a five-game suspension tonight after receiving the suspension in the preseason for a hit to the head on Chicago's Ben Smith.

DALLAS -- As the Florida Panthers get set to face the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center, one of the big storylines for Kevin Dineen's club in tonight's matchup could be how much production the Panthers get from the blue line.

That's because through its first 17 games, Florida has gotten 48 points from its defensemen. Brian Campbell leads the way with 16 points and currently leads the team with 15 assists, but Dmitry Kulikov has also done his part with his 12 helpers, second on the club.

"Yeah, that's something that we pride ourselves on. The League is a very hard-working, defensive league. It's hard to score goals," Dineen said. "We have to have more than one layer to have success. And certainly our D has been very productive not just on the score sheet but keeping us in the offensive zone. They've done a good job."

Panthers winger Kris Versteeg, who currently leads the team with 8 goals, has definitely noticed a huge positive difference with the likes of Campbell and Kulikov contributing on both ends of the ice.

"They make a lot of great plays on power plays and on 5-on-5 they make it easy on everyone coming up the ice. They can make a difficult pass at times and they can make a simple pass at times, too," Versteeg said. "They've been big for us. We're going to need their success going forward for us to be successful."

And it never hurts getting such solid production from the back end, especially from the perspective that it takes some pressure off the offensive guys to produce more.

"It definitely helps," Versteeg said. "Our defense is a big part of this team. Whether it's from the offensive and defensive perspective, we've got a really solid D core."

Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan is well aware of the considerable impact that Campbell, Kulikov and the rest of the Florida rearguard could have on tonight's contest and expects his Stars to be ready to handle such a challenge.

"Those guys just give them such a dynamic," Gulutzan said. "They can move up on the play. They're not afraid to involve themselves on the rush. They can improvise pretty well and make plays. They can ramp up the pace a little bit and can go."

But the Stars coach offered a simple solution when asked how they can help minimize the damage Florida can do from the blue line tonight.

"We're going to have to be making sure we play a little bit of a grinding game, a little harder on those guys so they're not up on the play all the time," Gulutzan said. "We're going to have to be wary of those guys. I know how they play. They're going to play hard."

Florida heads into tonight's game after a 3-2 home loss to the Flyers on Sunday. And considering the Panthers are 6-3-0 on the road this year, tying them with several other clubs for most road victories in the league, getting away from home is never a bad thing.

Dineen even offered a lighthearted take on why his team has been so much better on the road than at home so far this year.

"I think undercoaching [has been the difference]," Dineen said. "You get home and you start matching lines. You get on the road, we roll them and that seems to help. That's something that we talked about at the beginning of the year that we wanted to have a solid road record. We've met a few tests but tonight will be a great one for us."
   
   
   

DALLAS -- After ending last week's road trip with back-to-back losses, the Dallas Stars return to the ice tonight looking to return to the win column against the Florida Panthers at the American Airlines Center, a building they are 6-1-0 in so far this season.

However, the Stars (11-5-0), who continue to lead the Pacific Division with 22 points, will be without gritty center Steve Ott, who continues to be bothered by a hip pointer and will miss a sixth consecutive game.

Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan had termed Ott a game-time decision after practice on Monday, but after the morning skate, it was clear he wouldn't play.

"Otter's not going tonight. He'll be ready for Friday," Gulutzan said. "He's pleading his case to go tonight but it's better for us long-term than to rush him back when he's about 85 percent."

In his absence, Adam Burish will continue to skate on the Stars' second line alongside captain Brenden Morrow and center Mike Ribeiro, a role he has held since Ott last played Oct. 29 against the Devils.

The Stars have won two straight at home this season and have fallen only once in their own arena, a 5-3 loss to the Kings back on Oct. 27. And given they come off consecutive road losses to the Red Wings and Penguins, it's definitely good to be back on their home ice.

"That road trip started off real good and then, the last two games didn't go our way. It's always good to get back here and get settled," Gulutzan said. "It was good that we had the Sunday off when we came back. I think we had a good day off and a good practice yesterday and we're ready to go here tonight."

Florida comes into this one off a 3-2 loss to Philadelphia on Sunday night and the Panthers are just 2-2-3 at home so far this season. But on the road, it's a different story, as Kevin Dineen's club is 6-3-0, tying them for most road wins in the League.

Dallas defenseman Nicklas Grossman sees a much improved Florida team and expects a real battle tonight in the Lone Star State.

"I think like every game, it's going to be a tough game. They're looking real good this year, especially with the new additions they made on the back there and the recent trade they had," Grossman said. "They have a good team, no question about it. They've got lots of speed, lots of skill guys. We've got to expect a hungry team coming in, so we've got to be ready."

Tonight's game will be the first for Stars third-line winger Radek Dvorak since coming over from Florida in the offseason. The veteran forward did say it might be a bit weird to face one of his former clubs, but added his focus is where it needs to be.

"It's just another game for us. Obviously, I spent a lot of time in Florida but the most important thing is we have to be sure we go about our game tonight no matter who we play," Dvorak said. "We just need a couple of points tonight and we have to do our best to achieve that."

PITTSBURGH -- The Colorado Avalanche's jerseys had a slightly different look for their game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. One of them now features a 'C' on the front.
 
Milan Hejduk officially made his debut as Colorado's captain today after coach Joe Sacco waited until nearly one-quarter of the way through the season to make his choice.
 
"He's won a Stanley Cup, he knows how to win and what it takes," Sacco said. "I didn't have a certain date in mind; it was just when we felt it was the right time."
 
As it turned out, that time was the start of a two-game road trip, to Pittsburgh and Minnesota.
 
Sacco may have required some time to reveal his selection, but to him, it was an obvious one. Hejduk, who has 364 goals and 769 points in 927 NHL games -- all with the Avs -- was chosen 10 years after helping Colorado last win the Stanley Cup.
 
"He's a leader by example," Sacco said. "He's not going to be the most vocal guy, he's not going to be yelling and screaming -- that's not his identity as a person. But he does lead by example on and off the ice by the way he conducts himself, the way he handles himself, his preparation for both practices and games."
 
Sacco added, "He's been an Avalanche now for his 13th year. He's what we want our younger players to be."

Here is what the lineups could look like when the Wild and Blue Jackets meet tonight at Nationwide Arena in Columbus

BLUE JACKETS
Rick Nash - Jeff Carter - R.J. Umberger
Vinny Prospal - Mark Letestu - Ryan Johansen
Antoine Vermette -  Samuel Pahlsson - Derek Dorsett
Matt Calvert - Derek MacKenzie - Jared Boll

Fedor Tyutin- Nikita Nikitin
Marc Methot - James Wisniewski
John Moore - Grant Clitsome

Steve Mason will start in net, with Curtis Sanford backing him up.

WILD
Dany Heatley - Mikko Koivu - Devin Setoguchi
Cal Clutterbuck - Matt Cullen - Pierre-Marc Bouchard
Darroll Powe - Kyle Brodziak - Nick Johnson
Colton Gillies - Warren Peters - Brad Staubitz

Nick Schultz - Nate Prosser
Clayton Stoner - Marek Zidlicky
Justin Falk - Jared Spurgeon

Niklas Backstrom will start in net, with Josh Harding the backup.

For more on tonight's game, check out the preview here.

BOSTON -- The Milan Lucic-Ryan Miller collision from Saturday night's Boston Bruins-Buffalo Sabres game has become a hot-button issue around the League.

There was no shortage of talk about it in both dressing rooms this morning at the TD Garden after the Bruins and New Jersey Devils completed their morning skates. Lucic had a hearing with the NHL on Monday but received no supplemental discipline. During the Bruins' win, he was assessed a two-minute minor for charging.

Boston coach Claude Julien was asked about a possible alteration to the rule about contact with the goaltender or the possibility of limiting a goaltender's ability to move out of his crease.

"There's a difference between a hit and a collision. And that's always going to be a gray area in everybody's minds," Julien said. "Some people are going to call certain things a hit, some people are going call it a collision. I mean, as far as I'm concerned as a coach, I'll abide by any rule they want to put in there. If they say you can't touch him at all, then it's you can't touch him at all. If they keep the rule the way it is, then let's keep the rule the way it is.

"I know for a fact that if Milan had intended on hitting him, he would've never got up. We all know how hard he hits. So that speaks for itself."

New Jersey netminder Johan Hedberg will be tasked with facing the Bruins tonight. He doesn't think goaltenders have a right to expect special treatment.

"That's what I don't think is right. You have to respect the game in the game, too," he said. "You can't expect the rules to protect you at times. That goes for everybody, including us as goaltenders. Who knows, the guy might be coming in full-blast, he looks away, he doesn't see that you're out there and you've got to make sure that you're ready for it. I think it's part of the game."

Hedberg and Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask both recalled instances where they were in a position like Miller was and got hit. Rask said he understands that sometimes these incidents with contact are unavoidable.

"Everybody knows it. That was just an accident," he said. "Everybody knows that you don't try to take a goalie's head off or anything. Things happen in the game. It's just part of the game and sometimes accidents happen."

As for Buffalo head coach Lindy Ruff's comment that by the League not suspending Milan Lucic it's declaring "fair game" on goaltenders, the Bruins didn't want to engage in much of a war of words.

"No comment on that. They can say whatever they want," Rask said.

Added Julien: "That's just talk. We're certainly not going to get into that. People get frustrated, people talk and you don't hold those kind of things against people like that. They're entitled to their opinion. And you just move along here. We can't react to everything that's being said out there. Everybody has their own opinion, and we're just happy it was dealt with the way it was and we're ready to move on."

The Bruins and Sabres next meet Nov. 23 in Buffalo.

PITTSBURGH -- Pittsburgh Penguins forwards Tyler Kennedy (concussion) and Steve Sullivan (lower-body injury) took part in the morning skate and will be game-time decisions tonight (7:30 p.m. ET, Versus, TSN2) against Colorado, but it appears as if both will play.
 
Kennedy has been out with a concussion since Oct. 15, while Sullivan sustained an undisclosed injury during a 5-3 loss at Carolina on Saturday.
 
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, as usual, took part in the morning skate but will not play after being ruled out Monday. The earliest he could play would be Thursday at Tampa Bay. Crosby hasn’t played since Jan. 5 against the Lightning.
 
Avalanche forward Brandon Yip (broken right arm) took part in the morning skate and got in some extra work afterward, but coach Joe Sacco said he won’t play in the first meeting between the teams since Pittsburgh's 3-2 overtime win Feb. 16, 2011, at the Pepsi Center. Kennedy scored the game-winning goal on a power play with 50 seconds remaining.
 
Penguins forward Pascal Dupuis left the morning skate after about 10 minutes with a cut on his face that required stitches, but will be in the lineup.
 
The expected lineups at Consol Energy Center:
 
AVALANCHE
Joakim Lindstrom - Paul Stastny - Milan Hejduk
TJ Galiardi - Matt Duchene - David Jones
Gabriel Landeskog - Ryan O'Reilly - Daniel Winnik
Cody McLeod - Kevin Porter/Jay McClement - Chuck Kobasew
 
Kyle Quincey - Shane O'Brien
Ryan Wilson - Erik Johnson
Jan Hejda - Ryan O'Byrne
 
Semyon Varlamov, 2-0 in his career with a 2.00 goals-against average against Pittsburgh during the regular season, is expected to be in goal, with Jean-Sebastien Giguere as his backup.
 
PENGUINS
Steve Sullivan - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Chris Kunitz - Jordan Staal - Pascal Dupuis
Matt Cooke - Richard Park - Tyler Kennedy
Arron Asham - Joe Vitale - Craig Adams
 
Brooks Orpik - Kris Letang
Paul Martin - Deryk Engelland
Matt Niskanen - Alexandre Picard
 
Marc-Andre Fleury (9-2-1) will be back in goal after backup Brent Johnson played against Carolina. Fleury enters tonight's games second in the League in wins (nine), sixth in goals-against average (1.87) and ninth in save percentage (.932).

For more on tonight's game, check out the preview here.

Here are what the lineups could look like when the Stars and Panthers play tonight in Dallas:

PANTHERS
Tomas Fleischmann - Stephen Weiss - Kris Versteeg
Evgeny Dadonov - Mike Santorelli - Tomas Kopecky
Sean Bergenheim - Marcel Goc - Marco Sturm
Tim Kennedy - Shawn Matthias - Matt Bradley

Erik Gudbranson - Ed Jovanovski
Brian Campbell - Jason Garrison
Mike Weaver - Dmitry Kulikov

Scott Clemmensen will make his season debut in goal tonight, with Jose Theodore the backup.

STARS
Loui Eriksson - Jamie Benn - Michael Ryder
Brenden Morrow - Mike Ribeiro - Adam Burish
Eric Nystrom - Vernon Fiddler - Radek Dvorak
Krystofer Barch - Jake Dowell - Toby Petersen

Stephane Robidas - Sheldon Souray
Trevor Daley - Nicklas Grossman
Adam Pardy - Mark Fistric

Kari Lehtonen will start in goal, with Andrew Raycroft the backup.

For more on tonight's game, check out the preview here.