ST.
LOUIS – Jordan
Kyrou got
the message, and the St. Louis Blues forward is ready and willing to
forge ahead.
Kyrou
will be back in the lineup on Saturday when the Blues (5-8-2) open a
four-game homestand against the Seattle Kraken (6-3-4) at 6 p.m.
(FDSNMW, ESPN 101.1-FM).
After
being a healthy scratch in a 3-0 win against the Buffalo Sabres on
Thursday, a move that got the attention of not only the Blues’
locker room, their fans and outside the city parameters, Kyrou goes
back in and will skate with Robert Thomas and Brayden Schenn.
“I’m
just trying to focus on getting ready tonight, next game,” Kyrou
said.
“Obviously big win from the guys last game and we needed that. I’m
just ready to go tonight.
“I just need
to work harder. Obviously I’ve got to be a little better. I’m
just going to go out there and try to work tonight and just play my
game. … I think I can be a lot better. Go out there, work and just
play hard.”
To say it was a
wakeup call to the group is an understatement, but one that most
certainly got everyone’s attention. But the Blues expect Kyrou to
come back with a vengeance.
“There’s
really no other way,” said Blues forward Mathieu Joseph, who was a
healthy scratch Wednesday against the Washington Capitals but came
back with a goal and two assists Thursday. “Jordan is such an
important part of this team. Not just because of his God-given
ability to score goals and possess the puck but also skate in terms
of the player he is for a team and how much of an impact he has for
our top six and nine. Obviously you want him to be at his best. I’m
really positive he’s going to have a strong game tonight.”
Blues coach Jim
Montgomery also feels the same way but made a decision at the time
that he felt was best for the team.
“That’s
what you hope for is that you get a response like Joseph did,”
Montgomery
said.
“He was very determined. You could see intensity in his eyes.
“It’s
a privilege to get to wear
the Blues uniform, it’s a privilege to play games in this league,
and that’s the kind of response you want is what Mathieu Joseph
gave us.
“I’m
not going to get into specifics about my players. Everybody has a
role and a responsibility on the team. When you don’t live up to
your standard, you risk the chance of coming out of the lineup. It
could have been a lot of guys. That’s just the way I ended up
making my decision.”
Kyrou
was taken aback by the choice.
“A
little bit,” he
said.
“Just trying to focus on today and ready for tonight’s game.
“Obviously
things haven’t been going our way this year, as a group. Obviously
I can try to be better and just try to lead a little more by
example.”
Montgomery said
he appreciated the way Kyrou handled the situation.
“It’s a hard
situation. I thought he handled it like a pro,” the coach said. “I
thought he worked really hard in Buffalo. The reports that I got from
the assistant coaches is that he really worked. And he supported his
teammates well. This morning, he showed up and he’s in a good frame
of mind, and I’m giving him an opportunity to respond and I expect
him to be good tonight.
“I
think just his speed, attacking defensemen creates anxiety on the
other team, puts them on their heels. That’s what we expect from
him is to put teams on their heels. Because of that, because of the
way he strips people from behind when he’s reloading and he’s
being tenacious on pucks.”
– – –
The question
begs to be asked then that if Kyrou could get scratched, what about
other players? One in particular is Pavel Buchnevich, who is yet
without a goal at even strength this year and drawing the ire of fans
with each passing game.
“I think
defensively, he’s been good,” Montgomery said. “On the penalty
kill, he’s been doing his job. Offensively, he’s not up to the
standard that we expect from him.”
Thomas is
another player that had some ice time sliced Thursday. He didn’t
play the final 9:18 of the second period before returning back to his
regular shifts in the third.
“I want him to
dig in, I want him to be the player that’s really good and playing
the right way in all three zones,” Montgomery said. “He’s
coming back from an injury, we just played three in four. When you’re
coming back and you’ve been out for a while, there’s a
conditioning aspect, so I’ve got to be mindful of his minutes.”
– – –
Coming off a
27-save shutout on Thursday, Joel Hofer will start in consecutive
games for the first time this season.
“I’ve
always thought that if a goalie has a shutout, he should start the
next game unless you’re on a hard back-to-back with travel and less
than 24 hours and you’ve given up like 40 shots, that’s a hard
back-to-back for any goalie,” Montgomery
said.
‘He got a shutout, he played great, he’s the reason we won. He’s
the No. 1 reason why we won, he deserves the opportunity to get us
going on a roll.”
Hofer
has bounced back with two strong starts after three clunkers, two of
which he was pulled from.
“What
people don’t know about Joel Hofer is that he’s incredibly
competitive and he’s a tough-minded individual,” Montgomery
said.
“Adversity doesn’t set him back. It’s not woe is me. He works
harder, he digs in. I think that’s what we’re seeing. We’re
seeing someone that … yeah, maybe he had a couple starts that
weren’t his best. That’s not going to affect the way he attacks
his preparation for the next game. He believes in a process. He’s
not worried about the results. That’s where our team needs to get
consistently as well.”
–
– –
Blues
defenseman Philip Broberg continues to evolve in front of everyone’s
eyes.
The
blueliner played in a regular-season career-high 27:09 on Thursday
and had four blocks in the game and is becoming quite the shutdown
force for this defensive unit.
“He’s
our biggest impact player on our team right
now at both ends of the ice,” Montgomery
said.
‘He’s using his strengths from within the structure that we want
to play with, to support offense, to kill plays defensively. He has
the confidence to do stuff with the puck right now that not a lot of
our players have the confidence to do offensively. Our second goal,
it all starts with him. He kills the play at the blue line, he forces
them to dump it in, he goes back and gets it because his partner
holds up for him. He fakes one way, turns the puck up, sees what’s
in front of him, puts it off the glass, we get a 2-on-1, and the
2-on-1 gets a turnover, the puck comes back out, we get a quick-up
and we get the goal. It all starts with him.
“He attacks
hard areas. He’s attacking the net. We’ve seen him score two
wraparound goals this year. If you attack hard areas, scoring chance
areas, you’re going to draw more penalties. If we can get more
people doing that, hopefully we start getting four opportunities on
the power play instead of I think we’re averaging two.”
– – –
Speaking of
Joseph, he admitted that he wasn’t happy with being a healthy
scratch but the only way to prove those wrong and atone for sitting
is putting his head down and working as hard as he always does.
Joseph admitted it’s OK to be pissed off because it can fuel your
game.
“A hundred
percent. For sure,” he said. ‘I wasn’t happy obviously being
healthy-scratched on Wednesday. Watching the game, obviously not
happy. I had a little bit of a day off there, a little bit of a reset
and got to be ready for the next game. But the thing in this league
is you have to do it every night, day in, day out, night in, night
out. It was a good game, whatever, but there’s another one tonight
and you have to repeat that.
“I didn’t
feel like I really changed anything with my game. I’ve been playing
that way since the beginning of the year. I just really didn’t
really have any bounces my way since the start of the year. …
Obviously my response was good, but at the same time, I feel like I
really haven’t changed anything. I’ve just got to play like that
every night.”
– – –
Blues
projected lineup
Brayden Schenn-Robert Thomas-Jordan Kyrou
Dylan Holloway-Pius Suter-Pavel Buchnevich
Alexey Toropchenko-Dalibor Dvorsky-Jimmy Snuggerud
Mathieu Joseph-Nick Bjugstad-Nathan Walker
Philip Broberg-Colton Parayko
Cam Fowler-Justin Faulk
Tyler Tucker-Matthew Kessel
Joel Hofer will start in goal; Jordan
Binnington will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Oskar Sundqvist, Alexandre Texier and Logan Mailloux. Jake Neighbours (leg) is out.
– – –
Kraken
projected lineup
Jaden Schwartz-Matty Beniers-Kaapo Kakko
Berkly
Catton-Chandler Stephenson-Jordan Eberle
Mason
Marchment-Shane Wright-Ryan Winterton
Tye
Kartye-Ben
Meyers-Eeli
Tolvanen
Vince
Dunn-Adam Larsson
Ryan
Lindgren-Brandon Montour
Josh
Mahura-Jamie Oleksiak
Philipp
Grubauer will start in goal; Matt
Murray will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Cale Fleury and Jani Nyman. Joey Daccord (upper
body), Ryker
Evans (upper body), Frederick Gaudreau (upper body) and Jared McCann
(lower body) are out.
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