At the Rink: Blues at Canucks

VANCOUVER -- The Vancouver Canucks return home from a tough five-game Eastern Conference road trip, but still have to wait for reinforcements to an injury-ravaged lineup.

Top-pair defensemen Christopher Tanev and Alexander Edler skated together on Sunday morning for the first time after each missed six games with injuries. Fellow top-four defenseman Kevin Bieksa, who has been out since breaking his hand blocking a shot on Jan. 20, also skated before the rest of the team, but none of the seven injured Canucks will play against the St. Louis Blues on Sunday night.

That list also includes top-line right wing Alexandre Burrows and No. 1 goalie Ryan Miller, who is out four to six weeks with a knee sprain.

Despite the absences, Vancouver is 4-2-0 in its past six even after a disappointing loss to the last-place Buffalo Sabres on Thursday. The Canucks have held onto second place in the Pacific Division through the injuries, but only have a three-point lead over the Calgary Flames in the Western Conference Stanley Cup Playoff race.

“We stepped up as a unit, especially on the back end with a lot of new faces,” said defenseman Luca Sbisa, insisting they could not focus on the impending returns of injured players. “You can’t look too far ahead. You have to approach every game like it is the one game that gets you into that playoff spot so our only focus is tonight with the guys we have right now and get a win.”

That won’t be easy against a deep St. Louis team that has won the first two games of a five-game road trip. But the Blues have struggled early in recent games, and could be fatigued coming off a 2-1 victory against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night. It will be important, said Sbisa, to start strong, something the Canucks did well on their road trip but have often failed to do against tired teams at home.

“We just have to make sure we have that same intensity we have on the road,” Sbisa said. “On the road I don’t think you have that much to worry about. At home it seems like you worry about too many things you shouldn’t really worry about. It seems more eyes are watching you and you don’t want to let all those people down or something, that’s why sometimes we start a little hesitant at home.”

The Blues, who did not skate in Vancouver on Sunday morning, have won nine of their past 10 road games to reach 40 wins for the season, but Saturday was the first time in seven games they scored in the first period, and Ken Hitchcock admitted slow starts are a concern.

“I'm concerned about our slow starts,” Hitchcock said after the win in Edmonton. “I'm concerned about the way we play in our starts. We don't look like we get to our game near soon enough … and we're going to have to find a way to get into our game a little bit earlier."

Here are the projected lineups:

BLUES

Alexander Steen - David Backes - T.J. Oshie

Jaden Schwartz - Jori Lehtera - Vladimir Tarasenko

Dmitrij Jaskin - Paul Stastny - Patrik Berglund

Steve Ott - Marcel Goc - Ryan Reaves

Carl Gunnarsson - Alex Pietrangelo

Petteri Lindbohm - Jay Bouwmeester

Barret Jackman – Ian Cole

Jake Allen

Brian Elliott

Scratched: Chris Butler, Joakim Lindstrom, Chris Porter

Injured: Kevin Shattenkirk (abdomen)

CANUCKS

Daniel Sedin - Henrik Sedin - Zack Kassian

Shawn Matthias - Nick Bonino - Radim Vrbata

Ronalds Kenins - Bo Horvat - Jannik Hansen

Chris Higgins - Linden Vey - Derek Dorsett

Dan Hamhuis - Yannick Weber

Luca Sbisa - Alex Biega

Ryan Stanton - Adam Clendening

Eddie Lack

Jacob Markstrom

Scratched: Brandon McMillan

Injured: Ryan Miller (knee), Alexandre Burrows (lower body), Alexander Edler (upper body), Christopher Tanev (head), Frank Corrado (upper body), Kevin Bieksa (broken hand), Brad Richardson (ankle)

Status update: Hitchcock will speak to the media two hours before the game. Goalie Jake Allen is expected to start in Vancouver after watching Brian Elliott play against the Oilers on Saturday, but there was no word about other potential lineup changes involving the insertion of Butler, Lindstrom and Porter, who were all healthy scratches in Edmonton. … Canucks defenseman Corrado skated Saturday and Sunday and indicated he is ready to return if needed, but the rookie has not played and only practiced once since Feb. 1 so he will watch again against the Blues. … Edler skated Sunday for the first time since getting hurt on Feb. 14 but had no timeline for a possible return to even full practices. “I’m just happy to be back on the ice,” he said. “Felt pretty good so we’ll go from there.” … Vancouver forward McMillan cleared waivers but remains the team unless they need to move him to clear roster space for a move before the NHL Trade Deadline at 3 p.m. ET on Monday. “He’s a guy I still want to see how he fits in with our team,” coach Willie Desjardins said.

Who's hot: Blues center Stastny scored one goal and set up the other in the 2-1 win over Edmonton and has three points in his past two games. … Canucks right wing Kassian has four goals in four games since coming out of the press box to replace an injured Burrows on the top line with Daniel and Henrik Sedin, who both have six-game scoring streaks of their own. Daniel has one goal and seven assists in six games, and twin brother Henrik has three goals and seven assists over the same stretch.