Funny story at the Blues’ morning skate today:Two Blues players, who wanted to remain anonymous, took a cab to Joe Louis Arena. The ride is literally 2 minutes to the rink. At most, the cab driver deserves $10.Well, one player handed the cabbie a $20 and asked for $10 back. The cabbie muttered something about having to give a $10 back and the player asked what he said.

The cabbie said: “I just took the Blues coach to the rink a little while ago and he gave me a $20.”

The player got his $10 back and said the coach must be a big tipper.

When the two players got to the rink, they asked Andy Murray about giving the cabbie a $20 for the short ride.

“What are you talking about?” Murray says. “That wasn’t me.”

The players surveyed the locker room and found out that it was . . . Keith Tkachuk.

The cabbie thought Walt was the coach and not a player. Believe me, that is some serious ammo in the locker room . . . especially because today is Walt’s 36th birthday.

The Blues will meet Detroit for the second time in four days tonight. I wrote Tuesday that the Blues played “another solid game” against the Wings. Well they did . . . up until the third period.

The game was tied 1-1 until the third period, when Detroit got a power-play goal from Johan Franzen for the win.

Murray wasn’t happy with the Blues’ determination level in the third period. The Blues had just three shots on goal - they missed four shots and had four others blocked.

“We need to match their level that we didn’t have in the third period,” Blues coach Andy Murray said this morning. “We need to be smart with our discipline. We can’t be running around . . . we need to be real focused on our discipline. It’s not like we haven’t beaten them before, so we know what we need to do.”

The Red Wings lead the season series 4-3, so the Blues could pull even in the final meeting of the season between the teams.

As Murray alluded to, the Blues can’t be running around tonight. That happened on Tuesday, and the refs called unsportsman-like conduct penalties on both teams.

I asked Murray if he said anything after King and Downey were whistled for unsportsman-like conduct. (For those of you that didn’t see it, when the penalties expired, King and Downey skated toward their benches. King, though, detoured to the Wings’ bench and tapped Downey on the shoulder, looking for a fight. Nothing happened).

“The only thing I said to DJ when he chased (Downey) across the ice was, ‘You can’t do that . . . this is the NHL . . . you can’t do that,’” Murray said. “To me, if they would have given him an unsportsman-like for that, it was warranted. You can’t chase a guy across the ice right to their bench. The play is going to our zone and you’re chasing a guy that’s going off and isn’t going to fight you anyway? They should have given him an unsportsman-like in my opinion. I just said you’ve got to get after one of their defensemen. Make Downey have to respond to you.”

Tonight’s game should have a different look. Detroit’s Aaron Downey won’t be in the lineup, and neither will the Blues’ Cam Janssen.

Darren McCarty - yes DARREN MCCARTY - will make his return to the Red Wings’ lineup, and Dan Hinote is healthy enough to return for the Blues.

The McCarty story is amazing. The Wings signed the troubled forward to a one-year contract on Feb. 25 and after a rib injury, he’s ready to go. He last played an NHL game a year ago with Calgary, and the last time he played with Detroit was four years ago.

“Obviously, hockey-wise, I’ll be a little bit nervous, but whatever reaction there is and whatever emotion that I have, it’s going to be genuine,” McCarty said.

The Red Wings are expecting a rare sellout with the longtime fan favorite back in the lineup.

“It’s great to see a name like McCarty back in the lineup,” Hinote said. “He’s done a lot for the Detroit organization and a player that I looked up to when I was coming up through the ranks. To go what he’s been through and battle your way through hell to get back in the NHL, it’s a testament to his character. It’s no big surprise . . . playing against him, you realize he’s that type of guy. It’s great to see his name back on that board.”

The Blues expect McCarty to be “wired up” and hope they can bait him into some penalties.

“He’s going to run around, he’s going to hit,” Hinote said. “But that’s right up our alley, too. That’s the game we want to play. So more power to him and it’s going to be a fun night.”

Hinote says he’s thrilled to be in the lineup himself. He has missed the last 14 games with a muscle strain in his side.

“He’s champing at the bit and deserves to get back in there,” Murray said. “He’ll give us some grit, too. He’s worked hard at it and he’s such a warrior for us, so we want to get him in.”

Hinote had a great comment about fighting his way back into the lineup with six games left to play on a team not in the playoff hunt.

“There’s never nothing to play for,” Hinote said. “So many people made sacrifices for us to be where we are today. To not care about these games, or not give a full effort because you’re out of the playoffs would be an insult to all those people. That’s just never going to happen. No matter if there was one game left or two games left, I’d work my butt off to get back in. The window to play professional sports is so small. You never know when it’s going to be your last game. Every game matters that much more. I’m glad to be back.”

On defense, Jay McKee is healthy and will play tonight. Roman Polak will be sent back to Peoria.

Manny Legace will start in goal for the Blues.

Tonight, Detroit will honor former Blues captain Dallas Drake for playing in his 1,000th NHL game recently.

“You’ve got to be a little bit lucky to stay healthy for the most part,” Drake said this morning. “I’ve been fortunate to play for a lot of good organizations and I still love to play. That’s the important thing . . . if you still like to play and you can stick around for a few extra years . . . that’s what I’ve kind of done.”

Finally, I have this gem from Blues defenseman Matt Walker. Several of us were standing by the locker room door this morning, talking about movies we had seen recently. I recommended the Ben Stiller movie “The Heartbreak Kid” to whoever would listen to me.

Walker walked by us and said: “I don’t watch movies on the road. It’s too heavy carrying the VCR everywhere.”

JR