3 Keys: Blues at Avalanche, Game 1 of first round

No. 4 Blues at No. 1 Avalanche
10 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN1, TVAS, ALT, BSMW

Vladimir Tarasenko will return to the lineup for the St. Louis Blues when they play the Colorado Avalanche in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup First Round at Ball Arena on Monday.
The forward practiced Saturday and Sunday after missing the final six regular-season games, and eight of the last nine, with a lower-body injury. Tarasenko didn't make his season debut until March 6 after he had surgery on his left shoulder Sept. 17, 2020.
"He's been a good playoff performer for the Blues in the past and we'll need him tonight for sure," St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. "He looks fine to me and he's moving well, so that's good to see."
Tarasenko scored 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) in 24 games this season. He has scored 49 points (33 goals, 16 assists) in 74 Stanley Cup Playoff games, including 17 points (11 goals, six assists) in 26 games during the Blues' run to the Stanley Cup in 2019.
"He's a guy that can change the game with a flick of the wrist, so we're looking forward to having him back," forward Brayden Schenn said.
Teams that win Game 1 are 490-222 (68.8 percent) winning a best-of-7 NHL playoff series, including 7-1 in the first round last season.
Here are 3 keys for Game 1:

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1. Stepping up without Perron

David Perron, who led the Blues with 58 points (19 goals, 39 assists) in 56 games, will not play Game 1 after being placed in NHL COVID-19 protocol Saturday. St. Louis forward
Nathan Walker
and defenseman Jake Walman also are in protocol.
"You can't worry about who's out, you have to focus in on who's in and ready to play," Schenn said. "We're ready for the test. Obviously people are writing us off, but in our locker room we believe in ourselves."
Perron also led the Blues with 21 power-play points, and his six power-play goals were tied with Schenn for second, one behind forward Mike Hoffman (seven). Tarasenko is expected to take Perron's spot on the left side of the power play.
"We had to find a different look here," Berube said. "We'll see how that looks, and if we have to we'll adjust quickly. [Perron's] a top scorer on our team. We'll miss him in a lot of areas. He's been a real good player all year but we're getting [Tarasenko] back, so that's great news. We've been fighting injuries all year. It's no different right now. It's another player that's out. We just got to keep going and somebody will step in and do the job."

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2. MacKinnon returns for Avalanche

Nathan MacKinnon will play for the Avalanche after missing the last two games of the regular season, and four of the final five, with a lower-body injury.
"It is obvious he's one of our stars and a guy that really looks forward to this time of year," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said Saturday. "He's just such a big part of our hockey team, especially driving our offense."
MacKinnon was second on the Avalanche with 65 points (20 goals, 45 assists) in 48 games, one behind forward Mikko Rantanen's 66 points (30 goals, 36 assists) in 52 games. MacKinnon has scored 54 points (20 goals, 34 assists) in 40 NHL playoff games and his 1.35 points per game average is the highest among active NHL players to play at least 40 postseason games.

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3. Let's get physical

The Blues are hoping their physical style will help neutralize the Avalanche's speed during the course of the best-of-7 series.
St. Louis held a 181-150 advantage in hits against Colorado in eight regular-season games.
"That's part of our DNA in our game, so we're going to have to be physical," Berube said. "You're going to have to be hard on [defenseman Cale] Makar and [defenseman Samuel] Girard and MacKinnon, Rantanen and these guys. You've got to play them hard."
The Blues are 16th in the NHL with an average of 22.08 hits per 60 minutes. The Avalanche are 31st with 16.44.
"You have to play physical, fight for space out there," Bednar said. "That means not just on the forecheck and finishing checks but getting to the interior of the ice, which is going to be real important, and puck protection. We need to be in a pack a little bit because they like to put their numbers around the puck. They got a lot of big, long, heavy guys in there."

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Blues projected lineup

Jaden Schwartz -- Ryan O'Reilly -- Brayden Schenn
Ivan Barbashev -- Tyler Bozak -- Vladimir Tarasenko
Mike Hoffman -- Robert Thomas -- Jordan Kyrou
Kyle Clifford -- Zach Sanford -- Sammy Blais
Torey Krug -- Justin Faulk
Marco Scandella -- Colton Parayko
Niko Mikkola -- Robert Bortuzzo
Jordan Binnington
Ville Husso
Scratched:Klim Kostin, Dakota Joshua, Mackenzie MacEachern, Steven Santini
Injured:Vince Dunn (upper body)
COVID-19 protocol:David Perron, Jake Walman, Nathan Walker

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Brandon Saad -- Nazem Kadri -- Andre Burakovsky
Valeri Nichushkin -- Tyson Jost -- Joonas Donskoi
Alex Newhook -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- J.T. Compher
Devon Toews -- Cale Makar
Ryan Graves -- Samuel Girard
Patrik Nemeth -- Conor Timmins
Philipp Grubauer
Jonas Johansson
Scratched:Devan Dubnyk, Jacob MacDonald, Liam O'Brien, Jayson Megna, Dan Renouf, Kiefer Sherwood, Carl Soderberg
Injured:Bowen Byram (upper body), Matt Calvert (upper body), Logan O'Connor (lower body)

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Status report

Scandella did not practice because of a maintenance day but is expected to play. ... Dunn skated but the defenseman will miss his 12th straight game. ... Saad will play after missing the final 11 games with a lower-body injury. … Dubnyk was on the ice Monday for the second time since the goalie was removed from NHL COVID-19 protocol Friday.
NHL.com independent correspondents Louie Korac and Rick Sadowski contributed to this report