Well,
we’ll see what the St. Louis Blues are made of.
Especially
now with them missing two of their top forwards for Monday against
the Pittsburgh Penguins (6 p.m.; FDSNMW, ESPN 101.1-FM).
Robert
Thomas (upper-body injury) and Jake Neighbours (lower-body injury)
is each considered day to day, according to Blues coach Jim
Montgomery.
Thomas
played one shift in the third period and
departed due to an upper-body injury, believed to be something that
lingered from the previous game on Thursday against the Utah Mammoth,
and Neighbours, who leads the Blues with six goals, finished the game
Saturday but was in some pain after blocking a shot around the right
knee/leg area in the second period.
“We’re
missing two of our top nine forwards,” Montgomery told the media
after the morning skate, “so it impacts our depth of scoring, but
the mentality of our team’s going to be the same, we’re going to
check our asses off.
“We
brought in this extra depth for that reason, if we got injuries, two
players (Pius Suter and Nick Bjugstad) that we brought up the middle
and we can. We still have four NHL centers that have logged a lot of
NHL games.”
Alexey
Toropchenko, who has missed the past seven games with what the team
called upper- and lower-body soreness, will return to the lineup and
Alexandre Texier will enter the lineup. Also, defenseman Logan Mailloux will enter for Matthew Kessel.
“Torps
is one of those guys, I think he drew most of our penalties last
year,” Montgomery said. “That’s going to help, but his speed
and tenacity on pucks, he has a great stick, a top-end penalty killer
to add to our lineup.”
When
the team is coming off frittering away a four-goal lead on Saturday
against the Detroit Red Wings, allowing six unanswered goals in a 6-4
loss and falling to 3-4-1, it should serve as a wake-up call to many,
if not all.
They
get back on the ice tonight for the front end of their first
back-to-back set of the season in Pittsburgh against Sidney Crosby
and the Penguins, who are off to a solid 6-2-1 start to their season
(6 p.m.; FDSNMW, ESPN 101.1-FM) before a rematch with the Red Wings
Tuesday on home ice. The
Blues were 7-1-2 last season on the front end of back-to-back sets.
It
was really a tale of two games for the Blues Saturday, some of the
best they’ve played in this early season and then some very
befuddling play after a couple of unfortunate bounces went against
them late in the second play that turned a 4-1 lead into 4-3 heading
into the third period.
The
team is creating offense, as evidenced by some
of the numbers but it’s been inconsistent
for three periods, and when a mistake is made, or when the team
doesn’t commit to checking, it leads to catastrophic results.
“For
two periods last game, we checked really well,” Montgomery said.
“We created turnovers in all three zones, our habits were really
good, all five guys were connected. Our checking habits in the
offensive zone were excellent and it led to tons of opportunities. So
that I see coming. The next part is game management. We gave up those
two quick goals at the end of the (second). The second one should
never go in that made it 4-3. That’s on our stick twice in the
D-zone, we don’t have the poise and we’re not being a way out for
each other. And then in the third, we’re playing like a team hoping
to win, not playing to win, and that’s part of our attitude that
needs to change.
“When
you’re .500 going into the game and things haven’t gone your way,
the confidence isn’t there early in the year. That’s where we’ve
got to grow as a team and go out and take games, not wait for games.”
–
– –
Blues
Projected Lineup:
Pavel Buchnevich-Pius Suter-Jimmy Snuggerud
Mathieu Joseph-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou
Dylan Holloway-Oskar Sundqvist-Alexandre Texier
Alexey
Toropchenko-Nick Bjugstad-Nathan Walker
Cam
Fowler-Colton Parayko
Philip
Broberg-Justin Faulk
Tyler
Tucker-Logan Mailloux
Joel
Hofer will start in goal; Jordan Binnington will be the backup.
The
healthy scratch includes Matthew Kessel. Robert Thomas (upper body)
and Jake Neighbours (lower body) are out and day to day.
–
– –
Penguins
Projected Lineup:
Filip
Hallander-Sidney
Crosby-Bryan Rust
Anthony
Mantha-Evgeni Malkin-Justin Brazeau
Tommy
Novak-Ben
Kindel-Ville
Koivunen
Connor
Dewar-Blake Lizotte-Noel Acciari
Parker
Wotherspoon-Erik Karlsson
Ryan
Shea-Kris Letang
Mathew
Dumba-Harrison
Brunicke
Tristan
Jarry will
start in goal; Arturs
Silovs will
be the backup.
Healthy
scratches include Philip Tomasino and Connor Clifton.
Rickard Rakell (hand),
Kevin
Hayes (upper body), Rutger McGroarty (upper body) and Caleb Jones (lower body) are out.
St. Louis Blues Prospect Report (Oct. 26, 2025): Korotky, Dvorsky, Pekarcik, Kaskimaki All Pick Up Offensive Slack
Russian forward, a 2024 seventh-round pick, nets first KHL hat trick; Jiricek extended point streak to four games; Loof scores first AHL goal
For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.
