Blues with just one win in past seven games, looking to lock in on better third periods
ST. LOUIS -- It looks like another St. Louis Blues injured player is good to go.
Pierre-Olivier Joseph looks set to return to the lineup for the Blues (8-11-1) against the San Jose Sharks (6-11-4) today (7 p.m., FDSNMW, ESPN 101.1-FM) after the defenseman missed the past three games with a lower-body injury.
Joseph was injured in the second period of a 4-3 overtime loss against the Buffalo Sabres a week ago today and avoided a serious injury.
"It just happened so fast and I kind of felt something abnormal a little bit," Joseph said. "I'm glad that the results showed that it wasn't too big and I've been working hard with these guys to get back into it. I'm just happy to be good enough."
Blues coach Drew Bannister called Joseph a game time decision, and the d-man thought he would be paired with Justin Faulk.
"I think he's very close," Bannister said. "... We'll wait and see where he is tonight when we go and we'll make the decision then."
On Wednesday, Bannister gave the update that defenseman Philip Broberg started staking on his own, so the injury bug is slowly starting to alleviate itself.
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With the Blues in a 1-5-1 slide, they've been in a lot of games but third periods have been a bad omen.
In the past seven games, they've been outscored 15-3 in the third period.
"We have to have the mindset of playing to win those games," Bannister said. "With our confidence, we're sitting back waiting for good things to happen for us. We've got to push forward here and play to win. When we're in those situations, those one-goal games, those tie games, we've got to push through back and find ways. Once we do, I think our confidence is going to build and the bounces will start to go our way. But we've got to work for it."
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Blues captain Brayden Schenn and Faulk, each who had a maintenance day on Wednesday, skated on Thursday and good to go tonight.
Mathieu Joseph, who was a healthy scratch Tuesday, returns tonight, but Oskar Sundqvist, Alexandre Texier and Matthew Kessel look to be the healthy scratches.
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Blues Projected Lineup:
Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Jordan Kyrou
Brandon Saad-Brayden Schenn-Jake Neighbours
Zack Bolduc-Dylan Holloway-Mathieu Joseph
Alexey Toropchenko-Radek Faksa-Nathan Walker
Ryan Suter-Colton Parayko
Pierre-Olivier Joseph-Justin Faulk
Scott Perunovich-Corey Schueneman
Jordan Binnington will start in goal; Joel Hofer will be the backup.
Healhy scratches include Oskar Sundqvist, Alexandre Texier and Matthew Kessel. Nick Leddy (lower body) and Philip Broberg (knee) are out.
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Sharks Projected Lineup
William Eklund-Mikael Granlund-Fabian Zetterlund
Barclay Goodrow-Macklin Celebrini-Tyler Toffoli
Ty Dellandrea-Carl Grundstrom-Givani Smith
Klim Kostin-Alexander Wennberg-Luke Kunin
Jake Walman-Cody Ceci
Mario Ferraro-Timothy Liljegren
Jack Thompson-Jan Rutta
Yaroslav Askarov will start in goal; Mackenzie Blackwood will be the backup.
Healthy scratches could include Henry Thrun and Will Smith. Logan Couture (groin), Marc-Edouard Vlasic (upper body), Nico Sturm (upper body) and Vitek Vanecek (upper body) are out.
