Pre-Game: Capitals vs Blues

The Capitals return home to play St. Louis, before leaving for the weekend to face Atlantic Division rivals, Philadelphia and the New York Rangers. It will be the second game in a row that Washington has faced a club in last place in their respected division.

St. Louis comes in to the game with a mark of 12-15-3 and have lost their last four, giving up an average of over five goals in those games.

Goal tending has been a problem for the Blues who lost Manny Legace earlier this year to a mild concussion. With Legace out, Chris Mason has taken over as the starter, but is winless in his last six games played (0-5-1).

Brent Johnson should get the start against his former team...He dropped the last (and only) game he played against them early last season.

UPDATE Simeon Varlamov will start

Tarik is reporting that John Erskine is close to returning... And please take your time Johnny-boy. Even though Sean Collins committed two stupid penalties last game, still beats Erskine who has 10 penalties in 19 games this season.

The St. Louis Blues are the only team that Alexander Semin has not recorded a shot against...My prediction? That ends tonight. In two games played against the Blues (both losses), Sascha has a hooking penalty...and that's it.

Sergei Fedorov has played 88 games against St. Louis, good for second most against any team (Chicago with 96 GP). Feds has 28 goals and 50 assists against the Blues.

Viktor Kozlov has just one goal in 20 games against the Blues...St. Louis and San Jose (13 games played against) are the only teams that Koz has not scored multiple goals against in his career.

Matt Bradley played his first career NHL game against St. Louis way back in 2000. It was a 4-1 loss while he was still apart of the San Jose Sharks.

My last exam is tomorrow, and I am going to be on the road for the duration of the Capitals game, so no post-game for tonight's match, but I will do my best to attend every home game this winter break and post interesting stories/facts as much as possible. Thanks as always for reading!