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Canadiens host slumping Blues

Mar 18, 2008 - 12:20 PM St Louis (29-32-11) at Montreal (40-24-9) 7:30 pm EDT

MONTREAL (Ticker) - The Montreal Canadiens are surging toward a berth in the NHL's postseason. That is not the case for the St. Louis Blues.

The teams, who meet for the only time this season on Tuesday, are headed in opposite directions as the regular season draws to a close.

Montreal, which is 7-3-0 in its last 10 games, is tied with Pittsburgh (41-24-7) in the Eastern Conference. The teams trail New Jersey (42-24-6) for conference's top spot.

Coming off his 3-0 shutout of the New York Islanders on Sunday, Jaroslav Halak is expected to get another start in net for Montreal. Still considered the backup to Carey Price, Halak has won all eight of his career starts at the Bell Centre.

The Blues have been playing like their nickname of late, posting a 1-8-1 mark in their last 10 contests. At 69 points, St. Louis has the third-lowest total in the NHL.

"We've got 10 games left and obviously we are out of it," All-Star goaltender Manny Legace said. "We've just got to have an attitude to go in and spoil some team's home-ice (advantage). That's got to be our goal. We might as well make it fun."

St. Louis has dropped 10 consecutive contests on the road, tying the club mark originally set in the 1981-82 campaign and equaled two seasons ago.