St. Louis Blues backup goaltender Carter Hutton will start in place of Jake Allen, who has been pulled from three of his past five starts. Allen allowed three goals on 15 shots in 25:00 before being replaced in a 5-1 loss at the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday. Hutton is 4-5-2 with a 2.88 goals-against average and .894 save percentage in 16 games, and is 2-0-2 in his past four starts. "I feel like I'm playing good lately, even coming off the bench cold," Hutton said. "I think I've been solid. For me it's just business as usual tonight." Coach Ken Hitchcock made one change to his lineup, inserting fourth-line left wing Dmitrij Jaskin in place of Scottie Upshall, adding more size against the physical Sharks. Hitchcock said he could move Jaskin up during the game if need be. "We brought Jaskin in for that reason that if we need more size and weight on the ice we'll use him in that role," Hitchcock said. "So I think we've just got to read it and see how it looks." Hitchcock juggled his top three lines late in the second period against the Kings, and he'll open with the same look: Left wing Nail Yakupov will skate on the second line with center Jori Lehtera and right wing Vladimir Tarasenko. Left wing Jaden Schwartz will be on the top line with center Paul Stastny and right wing Alexander Steen. Left wing Robby Fabbri will skate on the third line with center Patrik Berglund and right wing David Perron. "We liked what we saw, and we want to see if there's some budding chemistry there, but we're pretty flexible too," Hitchcock said.
