Blues goalie Brian Elliott says his plans over the NHL all-star break later this month included a trip to Wisconsin for some relaxation.

"I was going to some cold weather anyway, so why not make it a little colder," Elliott quipped.

Elliott is referring to his trip to Ottawa on Jan. 29 for the NHL all-star game, an invitation that was announced Thursday, however, the goaltender was unavailable for comment until today.

"It's pretty surprising," Elliott said. "Coming into the season, I definitely didn't have that on my mind. It's an honor and I have to obviously thankt he guy around me to get me to a spot where I was picked. There's a lot of deserving guys on this team, and I'm happy to represent the Blues there. I think it will be an awesome experience, and I'm going to try to soak it in as much as I can."

By coincidence, this year's NHL all-star game is in Ottawa, where Elliott started his career and had his ups and downs before being traded to Colorado last summer. The location is ironic to many and Elliott said he agrees.

"It's definitely weird," he said. "I've got a lot of friends up there and obviously (the Senators) have four guys being selected. I'll be able to hang out with them again, and I'm looking forward to that. There's a lot of good fans up there ... I think it'll be an exciting game, an exciting atmosphere. I'm looking forward to going back."

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INJURY UPDATES

After thinking that Alex Steen (concussion) and Barret Jackman (hip) would play Saturday against Minnesota, Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said today that Steen won't be back and Jackman will be a game-day decision.

"Steen, no for tomorrow...not good enough yet," Hitchcock said. "We'll probably keep him out until next week."

A setback?

"No, no, he's just not 'there' yet," Hitchcock said. "He's not there conditioning-wise, he's not there energy-wise, so we're just going at this thing carefully and we'll just wait for them to tell us (he's ready)."

Jackman has missed one game with a hip injury that happened in Tuesday's win at Montreal.

"Jackman we'll evaluate after the (morning) skate," Hitchcock said. "He's going to go on the ice and then we'll see how we go."

Meanwhile, Hitchcock said today that defensemen Kris Russell (groin) and Kent Huskins (ankle) will participate in tomorrow's morning skate. They've been skating on their own recently.

"They're not going to play obviously, but they're going to join the team," Hitchcock said.

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SHORTAGE ON DEFENSE

The Blues had planned to have a full practice today, but because of the team's shortage on healthy defenseman, Hitchcock elected to only send a select few players on the ice.

The Blues basically played with five defensemen against Vancouver, as rookie Cade Fairchild logged only 5:56 of ice time and none in the third period.

"It affects the next day, it doesn't affect the game," Hitchcock said. "These guys can play 25 minutes, but it does limit what you can do the next day. If this was a normal day, with our six that we play, we would have had a full practice today. But we overplayed them and that's just the price you pay right now to play with really five.

"We're hopeful that we can get Cade in more, but when you're in every delicate game like we are now, every one-goal game, it's hard to play a guy all the time. So we'll just have to muster through this. When we get back the six that we feel comfortable we can rotate the three pairs ... then we'll be able to do more on the off days."

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 ODDS & ENDS

- Jaroslav Halak will start in net Saturday against Minnesota.

- Jason Arnott, whom I'll be writing about in Saturday's Post-Dispatch, scored both Blues goals last night, giving him eight goals and seven assists in his last 20 games.

 - Andy McDonald (concussion) skated today but was still wearing the red no-contact jersey.