The Blues, who have won eight of nine, are tied with the Nashville Predators for third place in the Central Division but hold the tiebreaker based on more regulation/overtime wins (38-34). They'll try to hold off the Predators without No. 1 center Paul Stastny, who will be out for at least a week. Stastny took a shot off his right foot in the first period and had to leave a 4-2 road win against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday. Coach Mike Yeo initially thought the injury was a tweak of something else, but an examination Wednesday showed that it was in fact related to being hit with teammate Vladimir Tarasenko's wrist shot. "Surprised [Wednesday] for sure," Yeo said. "It was interesting. He blocked a shot in the game obviously, left the game, and we assumed he left the game because of something else, so we didn't really think it would be a big deal. But obviously [Wednesday] we get some news that he's going to be out and we'll just have to deal with it now." For the Blues, it's a next-man-up mentality. "That's been the thought process all year," captain Alex Pietrangelo said. "You never want to see a guy like that, you don't want to see anybody get hurt, but Paul's such an important part in every aspect of our game. He plays in every situation, plays big minutes. Next man up is kind of the mindset you have to have at this time of the year." Jake Allen, who has a 1.72 goals-against average and .942 save percentage since Yeo took over on Feb. 1, will start.
