You just had a feeling.
How could you not?
Facing your former squad, again, but this time in the building he once called home, Kasperi Kapanen, even playing his third game in four nights, second of back-to-backs with little juice in the tank, would have something.
Yes, it came in a losing cause, 4-2 against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena, the second loss in as many nights for the Blues (18-17-1), but in a game where it was going to be tough to dig deep and muster up enough juice to supply the tank for an opponent that's been sitting around since Wednesday, Kapanen was one of those players who had his tank as full as can be.
He always seems to bring the energy, the skating ability, the responsible play defensively, particularly on the penalty kill, but the frustration was finally shed, at least for one night.
Kapanen scored his first goal in 22 games since scoring Nov. 14 against the Tampa Bay Lightning. He did so at 10:31 of the third period when he went to the net and tipped in Scott Perunovich's shot from above the right circle to make it a 3-2 game and give the Blues a chance.
Kapanen took an errant puck to the face and finished with 16:34 of ice time with two shots on goal, a hit and a face-off win on his only attempt (the Blues were brutal on the dot against the league's top face-off team).
Yes, Robert Thomas could be the guy getting this every game for the Blues these days with the way he's playing, but for a guy that's seen the scoring tough to come by, Kapanen continues to play hard as well, which is a good thing to see from a veteran, especially to those he's setting an example to.
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