The St. Louis Blues will have some different line combinations - and a personnel change - following a disappointing loss Wednesday at home to the Chicago Blackhawks.
Blues Head Coach Jim Montgomery said after Friday’s practice that he was going to “blender it up” regarding the forward lines.
Saturday’s matchup with the Dallas Stars (6 p.m. CT, FanDuel Sports Network, 101 ESPN) will see a new-look top line that features Dylan Holloway, Robert Thomas and Jake Neighbours, which makes for a new second line of Pavel Buchnevich, Pius Sutter and Jimmy Snuggerud.
Brayden Schenn is expected to center Jordan Kyrou and Mathieu Joseph.
“Just want to see different people,” Montgomery said. “You’re always going to go through a situation where we’re not generating enough offensively, we’re turning over too many pucks, it’s the way we are right now. I want to find more speed offensively, be a little more vertical on entries. We’re trying to put people together that compliment (each other) well. We thought we had that before, but the season is long, it might end up back that way in another two weeks. We know the way it has worked before.”
Montgomery is also making a change on defense, giving Matthew Kessel a chance to make his season debut in place of Logan Mailloux.
“We’re thinking the long game with Logan Mailloux,” Montgomery said. “Sometimes you need a reset, you go up in the press box, watch a game, see how much time you have, see how to take away time. And we’re going to work with him, we have a plan and when he gets back in the lineup, I don’t ever expect him to come back out.”
Below is a projected lineup based on Friday’s practice.
PROJECTED LINEUP
Forwards
Dylan Holloway - Robert Thomas - Jake Neighbours
Pavel Buchnevich - Pius Suter - Jimmy Snuggerud
Mathieu Joseph - Brayden Schenn - Jordan Kyrou
Alexandre Texier - Nick Bjugstad - Nathan Walker
Defense
Cam Fowler - Colton Parayko
Philip Broberg - Justin Faulk
Tyler Tucker - Matthew Kessel
Goalies
Jordan Binnington
