The Blues must win today. Period. Down 2-0 to the Canucks in this best-of-seven series, they are facing elimination.

Lose tonight and they have no chance at all. If they win, suddenly Game 4 Tuesday night at Scottrade becomes an epic battle.

Naturally, Job One is to actually score goals against Roberto Luongo. The Note needs to make the crease a battleground in this game.

Vancouver knows what it coming. The Canucks defense must become extra vigilant around the crease area, because David Backes and Co. will be visiting often.

Luongo has been as good as advertised. What boggles the mind is that two franchises, the Islanders and Panthers, opted to trade this guy.

Goaltenders like this come along once every 20 years for a franchise. Luongo is that good — and he’s always been that good.

Now he has a talented and seasoned team playing in front of him.

WILL IT GET ROUGH?

The Blues need to be more even more physical in this game. Given the Canucks’ adverse reaction to the last-minute mayhem in Friday night’s game, the Blues come harder from the first shift on.

B.J. Crombeen didn’t make any new friends. Neither did David Perron. Crombeen was chastised for not fighting earlier in the game, so there is a pretty good chance something might happen sooner than later in this game.

Hockey Guy’s advice: If the Canucks want to go, then the Blues should go. in fact, this might be a good time to put Cam Janssen to work.

Darcy Hordichuk is begging for a fight, so give him a fight. He wanted Crombeen, but B.J. is a more well-rounded player — with 11 goals in 66 games this season and an important checking line job.

Darcy has 17 goals in 375 NHL games, so his role, like Janssen’s role, is a bit different.

Since Hordichuk needled Crombeen for not fighting on the road in the first period of the game, then he must be ready to rumble on the road in this game.

The crowd at Scottrade would enjoy that and the Blues would feed off it. Normally this is not a great strategy for the visiting team, but Hordichuk is on record saying that answering such a challenge is mandatory.

ANDY MURRAY’S RANT

The Blues coach wishes he didn’t go postal at the end of Game 2, since the last-minute fracas wasn’t all that big of a deal. The Blues were frustrated and the Canucks certainly weren’t gong to get pushed around at the end of home-ice victory.

Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault, the former Blue, did nothing to earn that diatribe. Murray’s passion just spilled out.

RYAN JOHNSON SPEAKS

Who knew that the former Blue was the Next Mark Messier? Apparently he has become the voice of the Canucks and the conscience of hockey as well.

Apparently that is why Vancouver paid him the big bucks to jump teams as a free agent. Good for him. He was never going to get that sort of role in St. Louis.

NOT SO BIG UPSETS

Top-seeded San Jose didn’t expect to be down to Anaheim, although many experts liked that matchup for the bottom-seeded Ducks.Chris Pronger and Co. have been to battle before and they played very well down the stretch.

And Mike Keenan can’t enjoy being down 2-0 to the Blackhawks, although nobody who saw Calgary struggle late in the season is surprised at all.

In the Detroit-Columbus series, Old Friend Chris Osgood is playing exceptionally well after a dreary regular season. The Blue Jackets appear helpless against the Red Wings onslaught.

As Hockey Guy noted earlier, the Blues – and T.J. Oshie in particular – beat the life out of that team during the stretch run.

NHL JOB MART

We’re headed for a tumultuous off-season in the NHL, thanks to ownership and managerial upheaval at various franchises. Here is a quick look:

• The storied Canadiens franchise may be sold. Hence speculation that GM/coach Bob Gainey could depart after this season.
• The Avalanche fired GM Francois Giguere, who took the fall for Colorado’s extensive injury list and Tony Granato’s less-than-effective coaching.
• The Wild franchise needs a GM and a coach, after the exit of Doug Risebrough (fired) and Jacques Lemaire (quit).
• The Oilers unloaded coach Craig MacTavish, whose team faded down the stretch as the Blues made their charge. The Toronto Globe and Mail suggests the Devils coach Brent Sutter is the ideal choice for Edmonton, since he is pining for Alberta.
• If the Flames lose in the first round, after fading terribly late in the regular season, then Keenan could pay the price for that. The bald-headed despot is really embarrassing himself this spring.
• Thrashers coach Don Waddell would be in great peril if Atlanta had a strong, unified and active ownership group. But chaos reigns in that organization. Ilya Kovalchuk will demand positive change before he considers a contract extension.
• Stars owner Tom Hicks is in financial trouble and that franchise is at the crossroads. Co-GM Brett Hull was spared the axe during the regular season, but can he survive the summer?
• More offseason turmoil is expected in Tampa Bay, continuing the turmoil that characterized the Lightning’s regular season.

AROUND THE RINKS: Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke is making it known that he wants the first overall pick in this summer NHL draft. Since the Islanders own that pick — and the franchise is widely regarded as the most inept in modern NHL teams — Burke’s quest to land top prospect John Tavares is realistic . . . Old Friend Bill Guerin is having a blast with the explosive Penguins are doing hard time with the Islanders. He is a big reason why Pittsburgh jumped to a 2-0 series lead over the Flyers . . . Of the Western Conference teams that missed the playoffs, the Kings seem to be the one team executing a plan . . . The Peoria Rivermen are threatening to make a quick exit from the AHL playoffs. They trail their first-round series with Houston 2-1. They have scored just that one goal in the two losses. Sounds familiar.