(10-27-26) Canadiens-Blues Gameday Lineup

ST. LOUIS – Alexey Toropchenko has been itching to get back into the lineup, when when he knew he would miss some time due to a shoulder injury.

The forward gets his wish on Tuesday when he returns to action for the St. Louis Blues (5-5-1) in the fourth of a five-game homestand against the Montreal Canadiens (6-3-2) at 7 p.m. (Blue Note+, ESPN 101.1-FM).

Toropchenko was injured in the first period in the season-opener, a 4-0 win against the Dallas Stars and has missed the past 10 games; he was initially going to be re-evaluated in six weeks but returns in less than four weeks.

“I’m very excited,” Toropchenko said. “I’ve been working hard to get back on the ice. Obviously I was working hard on my shoulder and it feels good and I’m just ready to go more than 100 percent.

“I was hoping for good news after the injury and I got, still not good news. It’s still bad to be out of the lineup and I got lucky. I’ve been working hard and can’t wait to step back on the ice.”

Toropchenko will jump into the lineup on the fourth line with Pius Suter and Aleksanteri Kaskimaki making Otto Stenberg a healthy scratch.

“What he adds to our group is a couple areas that are sorely lacking when he was out of the lineup, is physicality on the forecheck and speed all over the place,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said of Toropchenko. “When we talk about being relentless, he’s a player that plays relentless.”

Toropchenko has been skating for the better part of a week and a half and has had no issues and is ready to take whatever contact comes his way.

“I’m not thinking about that,” he said. “As soon as my skates step on the ice, I just go as hard as I can and just mentally, I will be harder than last time. It’s not a problem for me.”

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The Blues will head into this matchup mixing up their defensive pairings, putting Brandon Carlo up top with Philip Broberg for the first time and re-acquainting Cam Fowler with Colton Parayko and having former Hab Justin Barron on his offside with Adam Jiricek.

The thinking?

“We felt that just in the last couple games, we’ve been having to manipulate the D-pairings in games and we think Carlo is our most stay-at-home defenseman, (Broberg) is the most on-the-go defenseman,” Montgomery said. ‘We’d like to see that pairing and it caused us to switch up the other pairings.”

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Jordan Binnington will start for just the fourth time this season and first time since Oct. 17, a 5-2 loss to the Nashville Predators.

Binnington beat the Canadiens twice last season and since Joel Hofer started the past three games, it was time to get Binnington into the net.

“Having worked with (director of goaltending) Davey (Alexander) for so long and me for quite a bit of time, you’re always impressed with how hard he works, how professional and how diligent he is at trying to get his game back to exactly where it was, or where it needs to be, whether he’s playing a lot or not playing a lot, and we’ve seen that a lot in practice,” Montgomery said of Binnington. “We’re going with Binnington today and (assistant coach Vinny Prospal) said, ‘Ha, he’s looked great in practice.’ That’s just the sign of a pro. He uses practice to get back in the games and that’s where he’s at and he’s earned it. I know the coaching staff and players (are) high on Binnington.”

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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

Alexey Toropchenko-Pius Suter-Aleksanteri Kaskimaki

Philip Broberg-Brandon Carlo

Cam Fowler-Colton Parayko

Justin Barron-Adam Jiricek

Jordan Binnington will start in goal; Joel Hofer will be the backup.

The healthy scratches include Otto Stenberg and Quinton Burns. Logan Mailloux (hand), Tyler Tucker (knee), Dillon Dube (neck) and Ross Johnston (lower body) are out.

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Canadiens Projected Lineup:

Cole Caufield-Oliver Kapanen-Juraj Slafkovsky

Alexandre Texier-Phillip Danault-Zachary Bolduc

Chris Kreider-Alex Newhook-Josh Anderson

Kirby Dach-Jake Evans-Florian Xhekaj

Lane Hutson-Noah Dobson

Mike Matheson-Alexandre Carrier

Kaiden Guhle-Arber Xhekaj

Jakub Dobes is projected to start in goal; Jacob Fowler would be the backup.

Healthy scratches could include Adam Engstrom and Owen Beck. Nick Suzuki (upper body), Samuel Montembeault (lower body) and Ivan Demidov (lower body) are out.

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