Blues at Coyotes
THE STORY: Ken Hitchcock knows when he has a good thing going. As a result, the St. Louis Blues coach refuses to ride exclusively with one goaltender when he can get more mileage out of two. Therefore, while Brian Elliott may lead the NHL in both goals-against average (1.52) and save percentage (.954), Jaroslav Halak is also seeing regular ice time. “One of the things that happens when you’ve got two good goalies, and then you decide to stretch out one, the other guy suffers,” Hitchcock reasoned. “Then you end up with one goalie and hoping that he doesn’t get hurt because the other guy has lost his mojo. We don’t want to do that. We’ve got two good guys going and we want to keep them both going.” Hitchcock, per usual, didn't divulge the starting netminder for Friday's road contest against the Phoenix Coyotes. St. Louis had won five of its last six prior to Wednesday's 3-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche. For its part, Phoenix has dropped three of its last four at home to hover at the NHL's version of .500 (7-7-2) at Jobing.com Arena.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, FSMW, FSAZ+
ABOUT THE BLUES (19-10-4): Quality goaltending aside, the Blues continue to be undone by their 30th-ranked power play. The Blues went 0-for-4 with the man advantage on Wednesday. Former Blue Jay McClement netted the winner to drop St. Louis to 3-1-3 on the road since Hitchcock took over as coach. C David Backes now shares the team lead with T.J. Oshie and Alex Steen by recording his 11th goal of the season.
ABOUT THE COYOTES (18-13-3): G Jason LaBarbera made a spot start in place of the injured Mike Smith and turned aside 37 shots in a 4-3 win over the struggling Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday. Lauri Korpikoski's third goal in four games proved to be the winner as Phoenix collected its second straight victory. D David Rundblad made his Coyotes' debut after being acquired from Ottawa and collected an assist.
OVERTIME:
1. Prior to the game, the Coyotes will induct former captain Keith Tkachuk into the team's Ring of Honor. The four-time Olympian will join Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Hull, Thomas Steen, Dale Hawerchuk and Teppo Numminen.
2. St. Louis C Vladimir Sobotka (ankle) is expected back after the Christmas break while RW B.J. Crombeen is roughly 10-14 days away from a return to the ice, according to Hitchcock.