(11-12-26) Blues-Mammoth Gameday Lineup

The return of Logan Mailloux for the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday not only brought back into the lineup an up-and-coming blue liner the team has invested in and believe in but it also brought with it some stability in stabilizing a unit that had been playing players out of sorts for a bit.

The 3-2 win on Tuesday over the Detroit Red Wings saw all six defensemen play a fair amount of minutes and spread throughout the group, with Philip Broberg leading the way at 24:50, Colton Parayko at 21:59, Justin Barron at 18:20, Mailloux at 18:09, Cam Fowler at 17:44 and Brandon Carlo at 16:58.

It was just the third time this season the Blues utilized their defensemen where all of them played 16 or more minutes; they're now 2-1-0 in those games.

You’re not taxing the top-end guys, like Broberg, into playing 27, 28, 29 minutes a night and gives coach Jim Montgomery the luxury of using each and every pair in all situations.

“Any one of those pairings were confident (Tuesday) night against any line,” Montgomery said. “So you just kind of roll them, they all get into the flow of the game, they all feel a part of it. They all shared the ice pretty well.

“… There’s a lot of confidence in our D-corps, I do know that.”

It’ll be more of the same when the Blues (8-8-2) look to keep the winning going taking on the Utah Mammoth (10-8-1), who currently hold the second wild card out of the Western Conference, at 8 p.m. (Blue Note+, ESPN 101.1-FM) at Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

It’s not a knock on Theo Lindstein and/or Adam Jiricek, each who began the season in the NHL but have since been assigned to Springfield of the American Hockey League. But getting Mailloux back with Broberg, where that pair had a good amount of success to close last season, get Parayko and Barron together and especially Fowler with Carlo, who had solid chemistry throughout training camp, could see more normalcy on the back end.

“Guys that were here did a great job while he was out so credit to them, but he’s a big part of our team and obviously he’s been itching to get back in the lineup,” Fowler said of Mailloux. “He was excited, we were all excited to have him back. He provides a lot of energy in this locker room on and off the ice. Definitely happy to have him back.

“Any time you get somebody back that has a little bit of experience back there, it definitely helps out. I thought our plug-and-place lineup as we were going on did a good job. He’s a big part of our team. He gets to play with ‘Broby.’ Those guys are going to play big minutes for us and they’re the future of this team, so any time you can get a spark like that back in the lineup, obviously we all feel it. I think for him it’s nice to get the first one out of the way too and now he can get back into more of a rhythm.”

Mailloux looked good in his return; he didn’t make it onto the scoresheet but also didn’t look out of sorts either after missing 17 games with a broken right hand.

“I thought he was really good,” Montgomery said. “He was aggressive, he was skating. There’s a little rustiness as you would expect in certain areas. He’s just going to keep getting better, so it was a really good job. He was physical, he was in people’s faces, he was making plays, he was jumping offensively, killing plays defensively.”

Fowler probably played with more different partners than any of the blue liners, including both Jiricek and Lindstein, but the Blues could use an influx from him and get it with the more reliable defensive partner in Carlo so Fowler can be more aggressive offensively.

“We can bring a lot of experience back there,” Fowler said of he and Carlo. “Obviously both have been doing it for a long time. For him the way that he can use his reach and his stick to defend is similar to Parayko and the way he can take time and space away. That allows me to try and create a little more offensively, which I’m trying to do. I think we just work well with one another and we have a great relationship too. How our brains are wired are similar. We want to bring the best out of each other so it’s been a good combination so far.”

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Blues forward Dalibor Dvorsky will get right back into the lineup on Thursday after being benched for a large chunk of Tuesday’s game. He played just 6:36 and didn’t play after the 13:48 mark of the second period but was right back out there on a line with Pavel Buchnevich and Connor McMichael, switching in and out of the center ice position and wing.

“We believe in him,” Montgomery said. “He’s a big part of us. Not only because he’s a first-round pick, but he’s a talented young man that we all enjoy coaching. He’s a really good teammate. It’s just a matter of time. It’s all part of the process.”

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It’s the first matchup of the season between the Blues and Mammoth, and the Blues could really use a divisional victory. Since a 4-0 win on opening night against the Dallas Stars, the Blues have dropped five in a row in divisional road games and have been outscored 23-10.

Utah is coming off a 5-3 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday and will be playing the second of back-to-back games.

“Fast, talented, come at you line after line, power play’s excellent,” Montgomery said of the Mammoth. “They’re a good hockey team.”

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Blues Projected Lineup:

Dylan Holloway-Robert Thomas-Jimmy Snuggerud

Jake Neighbours-Mason McTavish-Jonatan Berggren

Pavel Buchnevich-Dalibor Dvorsky-Connor McMichael

Alexey Toropchenko-Pius Suter-Ross Johnston

Philip Broberg-Logan Mailloux

Justin Barron-Colton Parayko

Cam Fowler-Brandon Carlo

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

Healthy scratches include Aleksanteri Kaskimaki and Calle Rosen. Tyler Tucker (knee) and Dillon Dube (neck) are out.

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Mammoth Projected Lineup:

Clayton Keller-Nick Schmaltz-Daniil But

Jack McBain-Vincent Trocheck-Lawson Crouse

Anders Lee-Barrett Hayton-Kailer Yamamoto

Liam O'BrienKevin Stenlund-Michael Carcone

Mikhail Sergachev-Mackenzie Weegar

Dmitri Simashev-Andrew Peeke

Artem Duda-Nick DeSimone

Karel Vejmelka is projected to start in goal; Sebastian Cossa would be the backup.

Healthy scratches could include Ben McCartney and Gregor Biber. Dylan Guenther (upper body), Logan Cooley (upper body), Maveric Lamoureux (shoulder), John Marino (upper body) and Nate Schmidt (upper body) are out.

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