The St. Louis Blues have points in each of their last three games and will look to keep that going as they continue their season-long five-game road trip on Monday night against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden (6 p.m. CT, FanDuel Sports Network, 101 ESPN).
Based on the morning skate, the top three forwards lines are expected to remain the same, although a handful of changes deeper throughout the lineup are expected.
Logan Mailloux will be making his return to the lineup after a short stint with the Springfield Thunderbirds. In five AHL contests, Mailloux scored twice.
“I think he had a good tour of duty there in Springfield,” Blues Head Coach Jim Montgomery said. “He feels good about his game, got a lot of touches, got a lot of minutes, now he’s excited. You can tell just by the way he’s skating out there and the smile on his face.”
Mailloux was skating with Cam Fowler, meaning Tyler Tucker is paired with Justin Faulk for Monday’s matchup.
“I just want to have a young player with a vet on the bottom two pairs,” Montgomery said of the defensive pairing changes. “We’ve got our No. 1 pairing [in Philip Broberg and Colton Parayko] – it goes out there, shuts the other team’s top line down. But we think Faulk and Fowler have the ability to raise the levels and make [the younger guys] better, more complete pros with the game management on the bench and all that stuff.”
Other changes include Oskar Sundqvist returning to the fourth line in place of Nick Bjugstad, centering Alexey Toropchenko and Nathan Walker.
Joel Hofer will start in goal.
