(10-13-26) Blues-Senators Gameday Lineup

The start of a three-game road trip will being a new set of challenges for the St. Louis Blues, who open against the Ottawa Senators from Canadian Tire Center in Kanata, Ontario at 6:30 p.m. (Blue Note+, ESPN 101.1-FM) on NHL’s Frozen Frenzy where all 32 years are in action.

The Blues (2-2-1) are coming off a come-from-behind 5-3 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, while the Brady Tkachuk-less Senators are off to a surprisingly 5-1-1 start, which included a 4-1 win at the New Jersey Devils on Monday.

The teams have a lot of numbers they’d like to improve in, but for the Blues, it’s been a strong start, especially on the penalty kill under new assistant coach Greg Cronin with a 14-for-15 start (93.3 percent), which is good for fourth in the NHL while overall, allowing 3.20 goals-per game which is overinflated by the 6-1 debacle loss to the Colorado Avalanche.

“Incredibly happy with our D-zone coverage and our tracking, very happy with our D-corps and their aggressiveness, 200-foot hockey,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said Monday. ‘Too inconsistent with our offensive habits of having someone at the net and having two on the inside. Our reloads have been inconsistent, which has led to less O-zone time as well and PK, very good; PP, not good enough. Goaltending has been good.

“I think our defensive sticks are vastly improved. We cause way more turnovers on forecheck, D-zone coverage, neutral zone. It’s been an emphasis of the staff, but again, a lot of that PK credit goes to Greg Cronin. He was brought here to improve our defensive habits and so far, he’s done an excellent job in it, and I know it’s a small sample size, but our players like the way we’re penalty-killing. They like the aggressiveness of it.”

The power play is 29th at 9.3 percent, which is just 1-for-11, also under a new assistant coach in Vinny Prospal.

On Monday, the Blues ran Adam Jiricek at the point on one unit, with Robert Thomas and Dylan Holloway on the flanks, Jake Neighbours on the bumper and Jimmy Snuggerud at the net front, while Cam Fowler ran the other point along with Connor McMichael and Mason McTavish on the flanks, Pavel Buchnevich in the bumper and Dalibor Dvorsky at the net front.

“It’s good to give penalty kills different looks and obviously we weren’t generating much previously,” Montgomery said. “Our last game on the power play, we only had one opportunity, but the chances were significantly better and the puck movement was better.”

The idea now is to draw more power play chances, with the team only averaging just over two per game.

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More to Saturday’s win included the fight Ross Johnston had with Blue Jackets enforcer Mathieu Olivier, one of the tougher customers in the league:

It came in the first minute of the second period with the Blues down 2-0 and now showing much jump.

Johnston gave his teammates no indication it was coming and feels it’s probably better that way.

“The game happens so fast,” Johnston said. “So many things can lead to certain things. I’m not necessarily a premeditated person. I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t thinking about it. I think you’re pretty aware of who every team has, so on, so forth. I don’t talk it up, I don’t brush it up. You brush it off when it goes wrong and doesn’t look good if you talk about it and it goes well, it still doesn’t look good. I don’t talk about it, things can happen in a game and it can come out of nowhere. Let things fall is what I’m trying to say.

“(Olivier’s) tough. He’s as tough as they come. He plays the game the right way, plays the game honest and plays a lot. I’ve got a lot of respect for a guy like that.”

Montgomery said he had no idea it was coming.

“I don’t know him well enough to know that yet, and it’s great to see,” he said. “I know I don’t want that job.”

Part of the job Montgomery did say he likes is Johnston’s ability to talk on the bench and on the ice that seems to spark his teammates.

“I don’t know, you get comfortable the older you get maybe,” Johnston said. “The teams I’ve been on, you see how they had success and you see certain plays that have success. I think I’ve seen both sides of that. I think being able to watch the game and seeing little plays, maybe give little IQ’s to help the team out, especially when it’s not going well is maybe where it stems from. Just trying to be a little bit vocal and if it gets too quiet, talk to the boys, keep everything light. We’ve been in every game we’ve played so far (except Colorado). Just got to keep rolling the way we have been.”

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The Blues did not hold a morning skate on Tuesday but did show off their projected lineup, and it appears Dylan Peterson will make his NHL debut in front of family and friends after being recalled from Springfield of the American Hockey League on Sunday.

Peterson is expected to move into the lineup for Zach Dean.

Also, Joel Hofer is expected to start in goal.

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Blues Projected Lineup:

Dylan Holloway-Robert Thomas-Jimmy Snuggerud

Connor McMichael-Mason McTavish-Jonatan Berggren

Jake Neighbours-Dalibor Dvorsky-Pavel Buchnevich

Ross Johnston-Pius Suter-Dylan Peterson

Philip Broberg-Adam Jiricek

Justin Barron-Colton Parayko

Cam Fowler-Brandon Carlo

Joel Hofer is projected to start in goal; Jordan Binnington would be the backup.

Healthy scratches could include Zach Dean and Theo Lindstein. Alexey Toropchenko (upper body), Tyler Tucker (knee), Logan Mailloux (hand) and Dillon Dube (neck) are out.

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Senators Projected Lineup:

Warren Foegele-Tim Stutzle-Drake Batherson

Andre Burakovsky-Dylan Cozens-Ridly Greig

Michael Amadio-Shane Pinto-Claude Giroux

Fabian Zetterlund-Stephen Halliday-Nick Cousins

Thomas Chabot-Jordan Spence

Tyler Kleven-Carter Yakemchuk

Hoyt Stanley-Jorian Donovan

Samuel Ersson is projected to start in goal; Linus Ullmark would be the backup.

Healthy scratches could include Hayden Hodgson. Jake Sanderson (undisclosed), Artem Zub (knee), William Eklund (ankle), Kurtis MacDermid (upper body) and Cameron Crotty (illness) are out. Nikolas Mantipalo (upper body) departed Monday night’s game and is questionable.

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