Thomas, Neighbours out with injuries, each considered day to day, Toropchenko returns; with first back-to-back set of season, Blues going to Joel Hofer, who has been pulled in his past two starts at home with Detroit on deck at home Tuesday
Well, we’ll see what the St. Louis Blues are made of.
Especially now with them missing two of their top forwards for Monday against the Pittsburgh Penguins (6 p.m.; FDSNMW, ESPN 101.1-FM).
Robert Thomas (upper-body injury) and Jake Neighbours (lower-body injury) is each considered day to day, according to Blues coach Jim Montgomery.
Thomas played one shift in the third period and departed due to an upper-body injury, believed to be something that lingered from the previous game on Thursday against the Utah Mammoth, and Neighbours, who leads the Blues with six goals, finished the game Saturday but was in some pain after blocking a shot around the right knee/leg area in the second period.
“We’re missing two of our top nine forwards,” Montgomery told the media after the morning skate, “so it impacts our depth of scoring, but the mentality of our team’s going to be the same, we’re going to check our asses off.
“We brought in this extra depth for that reason, if we got injuries, two players (Pius Suter and Nick Bjugstad) that we brought up the middle and we can. We still have four NHL centers that have logged a lot of NHL games.”
Alexey Toropchenko, who has missed the past seven games with what the team called upper- and lower-body soreness, will return to the lineup and Alexandre Texier will enter the lineup. Also, defenseman Logan Mailloux will enter for Matthew Kessel.
“Torps is one of those guys, I think he drew most of our penalties last year,” Montgomery said. “That’s going to help, but his speed and tenacity on pucks, he has a great stick, a top-end penalty killer to add to our lineup.”
When the team is coming off frittering away a four-goal lead on Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings, allowing six unanswered goals in a 6-4 loss and falling to 3-4-1, it should serve as a wake-up call to many, if not all.
They get back on the ice tonight for the front end of their first back-to-back set of the season in Pittsburgh against Sidney Crosby and the Penguins, who are off to a solid 6-2-1 start to their season (6 p.m.; FDSNMW, ESPN 101.1-FM) before a rematch with the Red Wings Tuesday on home ice. The Blues were 7-1-2 last season on the front end of back-to-back sets.
It was really a tale of two games for the Blues Saturday, some of the best they’ve played in this early season and then some very befuddling play after a couple of unfortunate bounces went against them late in the second play that turned a 4-1 lead into 4-3 heading into the third period.
The team is creating offense, as evidenced by some of the numbers but it’s been inconsistent for three periods, and when a mistake is made, or when the team doesn’t commit to checking, it leads to catastrophic results.
“For two periods last game, we checked really well,” Montgomery said. “We created turnovers in all three zones, our habits were really good, all five guys were connected. Our checking habits in the offensive zone were excellent and it led to tons of opportunities. So that I see coming. The next part is game management. We gave up those two quick goals at the end of the (second). The second one should never go in that made it 4-3. That’s on our stick twice in the D-zone, we don’t have the poise and we’re not being a way out for each other. And then in the third, we’re playing like a team hoping to win, not playing to win, and that’s part of our attitude that needs to change.
“When you’re .500 going into the game and things haven’t gone your way, the confidence isn’t there early in the year. That’s where we’ve got to grow as a team and go out and take games, not wait for games.”
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Blues Projected Lineup:
Pavel Buchnevich-Pius Suter-Jimmy Snuggerud
Mathieu Joseph-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou
Dylan Holloway-Oskar Sundqvist-Alexandre Texier
Alexey Toropchenko-Nick Bjugstad-Nathan Walker
Cam Fowler-Colton Parayko
Philip Broberg-Justin Faulk
Tyler Tucker-Logan Mailloux
Joel Hofer will start in goal; Jordan Binnington will be the backup.
The healthy scratch includes Matthew Kessel. Robert Thomas (upper body) and Jake Neighbours (lower body) are out and day to day.
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Penguins Projected Lineup:
Filip Hallander-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Anthony Mantha-Evgeni Malkin-Justin Brazeau
Tommy Novak-Ben Kindel-Ville Koivunen
Connor Dewar-Blake Lizotte-Noel Acciari
Parker Wotherspoon-Erik Karlsson
Ryan Shea-Kris Letang
Mathew Dumba-Harrison Brunicke
Tristan Jarry will start in goal; Arturs Silovs will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Philip Tomasino and Connor Clifton. Rickard Rakell (hand), Kevin Hayes (upper body), Rutger McGroarty (upper body) and Caleb Jones (lower body) are out.
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