Ryan O’Reilly Out Vs. Blues

According to Colorado Avalanche Coach Joe Sacco’s pregame, Ryan O’Reilly will not play tonight against the St. Louis Blues. O’Reilly is suffering from a bruised foot, which was injured Saturday night against the Edmonton Oilers. Good news here is that testing came back negative on breaks and further damage, so hopefully he’ll be back soon.

Justin Mercier will fill in for Radar O’Reilly, who scored his first NHL goal recently in a tough loss to the Nashville Predators. While this isn’t ideal, it does give us an opportunity to see what this kid can accomplish in the future.

Also, Sacco mentioned that both John-Michael Liles and Ruslan Salei would be healthy scratches for tonight’s game. If you recall, Liles was scratched against the Oilers, and this all but announces the fact that Sacco has given up on JML. Unless someone gets hurt, I don’t see Liles staying around much longer. And I, for one, don’t think this is the right choice to make, but obviously my opinion doesn’t factor in here.

James Mirtle is claiming that both Liles and Marek Svatos are indeed on the block, with the Philadelphia Flyers potentially interested in JML. I might have to be a Flyers fan, after all, they take our unwanted children (Peter Forsberg, Ian Laperierre).

I realize Liles may be overpaid, and is viewed as a contractual burden. But he is young, offensive minded, and fits in with our system. It just seems to me that in a time of rebuilding and depending on a youth movement, you would want to jettison someone older who is making the same if not more. With this quickly seeming like a reality, I don’t imagine that Ruslan Salei is going to stick around much longer either.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the guy. But Rusty has been out all year, which has basically proven that we don’t exactly need him. He is also one of our slower players (maybe not as slow as Wes O’Neill), and he is getting up there in age (35). He ain’t no Chris Chelios though, that’s for sure.

Also, Craig Anderson will be the starting netminder tonight. Maybe Andy can shutout the Blues too and get back to working on those shutout minutes.

Joe Sacco’s strategy for the last four games before the Olympic break:

“We just want to continue to play well. Play hard. Come out with a good start here tonight against St. Louis and we know that it will be a grind tonight… We gotta make sure that we put our hardhat on and are ready to play tonight.”

Kyle Quincy on St. Louis:

“I think they’re underachieving a little bit. They got a great team on paper and they’re always a dangerous team and we’re ready for them tonight. We know we’ve got to be very good defensively or they’re going to score some goals on us.”

The Burgundy Boys last met up with the Blues in December,with Chris Stewart scoring 2 of 4 and Peter Budaj recording a shutout. While the perception of the Blues is that they’re a bad team (ranked 13th currently), they’re only 7 points out of 8th in the Western Conference, and  you better believe they’ll be buckling down and making a go at it.

Also, despite the varying positions, the Blues and the Avs are awfully similar in stats:

Marc Moser, Avs radio play by play man, said tonight he’ll discuss why Andy getting so many consecutive starts isn’t as bad as everyone thinks. You just need to tune in to catch it.

I’ll leave you with some Craig Anderson pregame:

Related posts:

1. Avs Shutout Blues On Road
2. Darren Haydar Goes To The Show + Game Notes *Updated*
3. Avs vs. Jackets Game Notes
4. Liles Benched, Anderson In Net
5. Avs Bag Another vs. Blues

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