Blues defenseman Shattenkirk to return Saturday

HAZELWOOD, Mo. -- After an arduous practice Friday when the St. Louis Blues wanted to put Kevin Shattenkirk through one final test, the defenseman made it unanimous along with doctors, training staff and coaches.

"I'm ready to go," Shattenkirk said regarding his return to the lineup.

Shattenkirk will return when the Blues host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; FS-O, FS-MW).

Shattenkirk, who has 40 points in 49 games, has been out of the lineup since sustaining an abdominal injury Feb. 1 at the Washington Capitals that required surgery. Shattenkirk has missed 25 games, and the Blues (46-21-7) are 14-8-3 without him.

After using the past three days to ramp up the intensity of his off-ice and on-ice workouts, getting knocked around in a full-scale practice by teammates was the final hurdle.

"It's kind of that time now that really the only way to get back into game shape is to start playing games," Shattenkirk said. "I felt good out there. It was nice to just be back with the team and get the speed of the game back a little bit. … I'm excited about it.

"I've done what I've had to do rehab-wise. It's time to just get back into it. It may not be pretty to start, but you really have to get those experiences back in and get that mindset of playing games to really get back up to speed."

Blues coach Ken Hitchcock confirmed Shattenkirk's availability, along with that of defenseman Carl Gunnarsson, who missed the past two games with an upper-body injury.

For the first time since the acquisitions of defensemen Zbynek Michalek and Robert Bortuzzo at the 2015 NHL Trade Deadline, the Blues will have their full complement of eight defensemen to select from with eight regular-season games remaining.

"We'll play [Shattenkirk] with [Barret Jackman] the first game and we'll see how he does," Hitchcock said. "So they'll play in the third pair and Gunnarsson will go back with [Alex] Pietrangelo and then we'll keep [Jay] Bouwmeester and Michalek together as a pair.

"The last two or three games, [Jackman] has really played well. They played all of last year together. Eventually we're going to need [Shattenkirk] playing more minutes. We'll get a gauge here after the Monday game against Vancouver how much more we can play them. But between the stuff he's going to get on the power play, between 4-on-4 and stuff like that, we should get him 18-plus hopefully moving forward."

With Shattenkirk having missed seven-plus weeks, there are not any great expectations placed upon him. Shattenkirk was playing at a high level when he was injured and the idea will be to ease him back and eventually get him at top form when the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin.

"That's the mentality now is to really just push it every day," Shattenkirk said. "I'm not done. I still have to continue to do that. I think that was, over the last week, one thing that changed for me is having mentally to kind of have the confidence to do that and feeling like I can, where in the past, it was like holding myself back. This week was really good."

Shattenkirk will play on the right side with either Bouwmeester or Gunnarsson, but if needed the Blues can go with seven defensemen in the lineup and insert Bortuzzo, who Hitchcock has raved about, and play 11 forwards.

"Right now we're leaning [toward six]," Hitchcock said. "Again we'll see how [Shattenkirk] feels in the morning [Saturday]. If he came through today fine, you're not going to get knocked around any more than you were today. Today was a real fast, game-like practice. We went 50 minutes full bore. He says he feels real good. So if he feels good tomorrow, we'll stay with six. If he's a little bit leery, then we'll probably go with seven."

Shattenkirk, who is five points off tying a career-high set last season, has the perfect partner to break back into the lineup.

"We've had some success and some good chemistry in the past, so if that's what shapes up tomorrow, we're both comfortable," Jackman said of Shattenkirk. "He's going to be trying to feel his way into the game again and I'll be right there to try and talk as much as possible and protect him a little bit.

"It's really just going to be about communication. We were talking about it out there already that he's just got to kind of trust his instincts but also learn to listen again and take information from other guys on the ice as well."

Gunnarsson, who had three stints of injuries that forced him to miss a total of 29 games, has skated the past two days after taking four days off. He was injured in the second period last Saturday against the Minnesota Wild.

"Yeah, I felt pretty good today," Gunnarsson said. "It was good to have a couple days off and come in here and have a good practice. It was nice. I had yesterday and today on the ice, so it was good."

The Blues, who entered Friday one point behind the Nashville Predators for first place in the Central Division with one game in hand, will play six of their final eight regular-season games at home.