The RBC Center, formerly known as the Entertainment and Sports Arena, (ESA), is 10 years old this week. The Centennial Authority and team officials will be celebrating the milestone tonight as the St. Louis Blues take on the Carolina Hurricanes in the only match up this season between the two teams.
(The first 5,000 fans will receive free t-shirts.)
The Hurricanes have just returned home from a rough road trip and are currently riding a six game losing streak. They have concentrated this week on tightening up their game a bit so that hopefully they can bring their penalty minute averages down. The Canes are the most penalized team in the NHL.
In their last five games, the Blues lost to the Stars, Pens, and Coyotes, while beating the Wild and Ducks. Their most recent game was a 4-1 loss to Dallas on Saturday.
The Blues are led by (forever young) Keith Tkachuk and Paul Kariya.
Erik Johnson, the star defenseman who missed the entire season because of a golfing cart accident last year, is leading the team in assists.
Chris Mason will probably be in net while Cam Ward will be tending the crease for the Canes. Ward is lifetime 3-0-0 in three starts against St. Louis.
The Hurricanes have been mixing and matching the lines, trying to find some chemsitry that will score goals. Look for these lines starting out.
- Staal, Whitney, LaRose
- Cullen, Brind'Amour, Walker
- Jokinen, Sutter, Samsonov
- Yelle, Kostopoulos, Conboy
- Corvo, Wallin
- Pitkanen, Ward
- Alberts, Harrison
Tim Gleason remains out. He has not skated with the team this week because of an upper body injury so it looks like he is another week away. Tuomo Ruutu will be serving the second game of his three game suspension and will not play. Erik Cole skated with the team today for the first time in almost a month. He might be ready to return soon but will not play tonight.
The game starts at 7 and will not be televised locally. Watch it on Center Ice, or listen to Chuck on 99.9 The Fan. We will have the Live Game Thread running like normal starting at 6:30.
For Blues information, check out St. Louis Game Time, our SBN affiliate. If there are any updates before the puck drops, I will post them here.