Not
much of a surprise when the St. Louis Blues are coming off a game in
which they allowed seven goals in a 7-4 loss to the Utah Mammoth,
they’re going to tinker with the line combinations once again as
they head on the road for a quick two-game trip, beginning Saturday
against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesar’s Arena in Detroit (6 p.m.; FDSNMW, ESPN 101.1-FM).
The
most notable change is something that carried over from Thursday, and
that’s Dylan Holloway playing on the fourth line with Oskar
Sundqvist and Nick Bjugstad.
Holloway,
who has just a goal and an assist in seven games this season, hasn’t
found his footing as of yet coming off abductor muscle surgery to his
hip that resulted last season April 5 against the Pittsburgh
Penguins.
“I
think he’s just thinking too much,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery
said prior to last Tuesday’s game against the Los Angeles Kings.
“When he’s just playing hockey, he’s naturally on top of pucks.
It doesn’t matter what zone it is, and he just has the puck. It
could be one against three and he’s coming out with it or he’s
sneaking through people because of his speed and skill and right now
I think he’s thinking, and when you think on the ice, you look
slow. Not that he looks slow because he’s such a gifted skater, but
he looks slower than usual.”
And
even though Pavel Buchnevich scored his first goal on Thursday on the
power play, he doesn’t have an even-strength goal this season, and
neither does Robert Thomas, who did have an assist Thursday for his
400th
NHL point.
Also,
Matthew Kessel draws back in after sitting on Thursday, for Logan
Mailloux.
And
with a back-to-back set coming up Monday in Pittsburgh and a return
game at home Tuesday against these Red Wings (5-3-0), who were
ambushed 7-2 against the New York Islanders on Thursday, Jordan
Binnington starts Saturday, and it’s likely that Joel Hofer gets
Monday’s start, and Binnington again sees the Red Wings Tuesday.
The
Blues have won each of their first two road games, 4-2 against the
Calgary Flames Oct. 11 and 5-2 against the Vancouver Canucks Oct. 13.
“Yeah, we’ve got to try to string some wins together here and pile some points up while we can,” Blues forward Nathan Walker said.
–
– –
Blues
Projected Lineup:
Jake
Neighbours-Robert Thomas-Jimmy Snuggerud
Mathieu
Joseph-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou
Pavel
Buchnevich-Pius Suter-Nathan Walker
Dylan
Holloway-Oskar Sundqvist-Nick Bjugstad
Cam
Fowler-Colton Parayko
Philip
Broberg-Justin Faulk
Tyler
Tucker-Matthew Kessel
Jordan
Binnington will
start in goal; Joel
Hofer will be the backup.
Healthy
scratches include Alexandre Texier and Logan Mailloux. Alexey
Toropchenko (lower/upper-body soreness) remains day to day.
–
– –
Red
Wings Projected Lineup:
Emmitt
Finnie-Dylan
Larkin-Mason
Appleton
Alex
DeBrincat-Marco
Kasper-Lucas
Raymond
Andrew
Copp-J.T.
Compher-Michael
Brandsegg-Nygard
James
van Riemsdyk-Michael
Rasmussen-Jonatan
Berggren
Ben
Chiarot-Moritz
Seider
Simon
Edvinsson-Axel
Sandin-Pellikka
Albert
Johansson-Jacob
Bernard-Docker
John
Gibson
will
start in goal; Cam Talbot
will
be the backup.
Healthy
scratches include Elmer Soderblom
and Travis Hamonic. Patrick
Kane (upper body) is out.
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