It’s extremely unusual to see an NHL team hold a full morning skate before the second game of a back-to-back, but that’s exactly what Blues Head Coach Jim Montgomery demanded following a disappointing 6-1 loss to the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night.
Montgomery is looking to dramatically change the team’s fortunes as it wraps up a quick two-game road trip with Thursday’s matchup with the Buffalo Sabres (6 p.m. CT, FanDuel Sports Network, 101 ESPN).
“We needed to talk, we needed to meet, we needed to go on the ice and work a little bit, because we didn’t work last night well enough as a group [in losing to Washington],” Montgomery said about making the team practice Tuesday morning.
Montgomery’s lineup changes for Thursday include bringing Alexandre Texier back into the lineup in place of Jordan Kyrou, Mathieu Joseph back in place of Oskar Sundqvist, and Matthew Kessel in place of Logan Mailloux.
Joel Hofer is expected to start in goal.
The projected lineup below is based on pregame warm-ups.
