In the morning skate before Game 2, Blues Head Coach Craig Berube had Buchnevich skating with Ryan O'Reilly and David Perron. Robert Thomas was centering Brandon Saad and Jordan Kyrou, while Tarasenko was on the wing with Ivan Barbashev and Brayden Schenn.
"Going from the first series and then to one game here, we need more balance," Berube said. "To get that, I moved some guys around to see if I can create some balance throughout our lines to score, get some opportunities to score and more attempts, things like that.
"Saad with the kids, they scored a goal in Minny and played together before and have been a good line. A little bit of a heavier line with Schenn and Barbashev and Tarasenko. The (Nazem) Kadri line is pretty heavy and it's a good line, so I need some heaviness there. Schenn and Tarasenko have a good past, they've been together before with (Jaden) Schwartz so there was some familiarity there. Basically Buchy hasn't scored a goal yet, so I'm gonna try something new with him."
On Wednesday, Berube said he would consider returning to 12 forwards and six defensemen, but after the morning skate Thursday, he confirmed the team would once again play with 11 forwards and seven D.
The Blues will be looking to even the best-of-7 series with the Avalanche before returning to St. Louis for Games 3 and 4.
"It's an exciting challenge, it's a hard place to win games," defenseman Robert Bortuzzo said ahead of Game 2. "The thought of grabbing one (win) on the road and going back to St. Louis is something we should embrace as a group. I think we will."
Below is a projected lineup based on the line rushes used in the morning skate.
