Moments like this from Tuesday night’s game gave the injury-battered Blues hope for the rest of the season:

Rookie T.J. Oshie, making his second bid to return from his high ankle sprain, turned his great defensive play into a sprawling outlet pass to linemate David Backes.

Up the ice Backes skated, with Keith Tkachuk to his left and just one Devils player back. Rather than risk a cross-ice pass on the choppy surface, Backes fired his a snap shot past New Jersey goaltender Scott Clemmensen.

This looks like a pretty good line. Ditto for the David Perron-Patrick Berglund-Brad Boyes line, which scored the first St. Louis goal Tuesday.

(Boyes converted a put-back after Jeff Woywitka ripped a slap shot on goal. Perron earned a helper on that play.)

Hockey Guy doesn’t want to jinx Backes, but that was his 11th goal of the season. With Paul Kariya likely to miss the rest of the season with his hip injury, the Note needs others to step up.

Backes can be one of those guys. So can Oshie, who has the skills to stick on one of the top two lines this season.

AT THE WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

Winger Simon Hjalmarsson, drafted 39th overall by the Blues in ’07, is putting on a show. He has four points in three games playing for Sweden, on a line with ’09 draft prospect Magnus Svensson-Paajarvi. Hjalmarsson has 22 points in 27 games playing for Boras HC this season.

He is just the latest Blues prospect cited by The Hockey News Hot List.

Of course, John Tavares was at the top of that list. He is tearing up the WJCs and building his case to be the first overall pick in the 2009 NHL Draft.

AROUND THE RINKS: The hot hockey rumors these days center on Panthers defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, who could be bound for Ottawa or Calgary. Of course, the Flames and Senators have apparently exchanged trade ideas, since the Sens may be willing to part with cornerstone pivot Jason Spezza – who still is playing up to expectations in Ottawa . . . HockeyBuzz.com also reports that the Islanders could win the Marian Gaborik if that team could somehow convince Gaborik to sign a long-term contract extension. The Penguins are interested in Gaborik, but apparently as a rental player. Montreal might be willing to offer Gaborik long money and let some of its pending free agents walk to make the cap dollars work next season . . . Brendan Shanahan is still skating and still looking for a new team, preferably back East . . . Mats Sundin is practicing with the Canucks, but he may not actually play for them until sometime next month . . . Yes, old friend Curtis Joseph is still in the league. And Toronto will give him back-to-back starts to see if he has anything left . . . Blue Jackets prospect Nikita Filatov is making the most of his time at the WJCs. He pumped home a hat trick to lead Russia to an 8-1 victory over Slovakia . . . If the Rangers start ditching guys, Petr Prucha might be worth a look. He has sat out 10- and eight-game stretches this season, but he has the skills to finish . . . Thrashers GM Don Waddell says he won’t trade Ilya Kovalchuk, despite rumors to the contrary, but Ilya’s unhappiness with this perpetually rebuilding team if obvious. He went eight games without scoring a goal . . . Pavel Kubina, the subject of much trade speculation in Toronto, sounds like he wants to stick with the Leafs. “The team is making strides. It’s fun for me to be around,” Kubina told the Toronto Sun. “Sometimes I feel younger than I am around these guys. We have a good group around here. I think this team is going in the right direction for sure.”