(3-21-24) Blues-Senators Gameday Lineup

No loss is a good loss, especially when it's in the case for the St. Louis Blues, who are trying to chase down a Western Conference wild card spot.

But in the case of their 4-3 loss against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday, it's one of those losses the Blues (36-30-3), whose four-game winning streak came to a halt, can live with considering they didn't just flat-out play poorly. They actually played a pretty darn good game against one of the upper-echelon teams in the league.

Now as they open a mini two-game road trip beginning today against the Ottawa Senators (28-35-4) at 6 p.m. (BSMW, ESPN 101.1-FM), the focus once again has to be on bagging points, as many as they can, with just 13 regular-season games remaining and four points behind the Vegas Golden Knights for the final wild card spot.

"Guys are playing with confidence again, which was lacking or struggling when we were going through that little stretch in 10 days or two weeks where we were fighting our game," St. Louis interim coach Drew Bannister said. 'We've seemed to find it back here and we'll just keep moving forward.

"... I thought we generated a lot of offense [Tuesday]. I thought against a good team that plays fast, I thought at times we made pretty good puck decisions. We were able to get it to the goal line when we needed to and we got some pretty good chances off the cycle and guys were getting to the net. There's a lot of pucks directed towards the net, the chances were there for us. We'd certainly like to see us cash in on a couple of those extra chances that we had, but offensively, I thought our guys played well."

If there's such a thing as a good, or OK loss, that was it. The timing just stinks since it's late in the season, and the Blues had a chance to move within two points of Vegas, which lost 5-3 against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.

"I thought we played pretty well," said Blues forward Nathan Walker, who had a goal and an assist Tuesday. "We shot ourselves in the foot a little bit in the first with the turnovers, but besides that, I thought we played pretty well.

"You play one of the top teams in the league and you're right in the thick of it until the end of the game, that's always a good sign. Definitely would have been nice to get the two points, but I think we have to keep our heads up high, walk out of here and back to work.

"I think we just really came together as a team and did the right things, whether it's managing the puck at both blue lines and managing the clock. I think we really did a good job of that these past few games here."

The Blues, who doubled up the Senators 4-2 on Dec. 14 in Bannister's debut after replacing the fired Craig Berube, will need to find a way again. They can ill-afford to at this point consecutive losses.

"Just keep the confidence going," Blues defenseman Nick Leddy said. "We didn't get the outcome [Tuesday], but I thought we did a lot of good things."

"It’s how we respond from this now," captain Brayden Schenn said. "We had a good stretch of four games. Obviously, would have been nice to come away with some points (against the Avalanche), but we’re playing a whole lot better. Now is the chance, obviously you can be mad about this one, but we put it behind us and we go on the road here, and we’ve got to win two hockey games. That’s the reality of it, and you can’t dwell on a tough loss."

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There will be a couple lineup changes for the Blues for the game, with defenseman Torey Krug, who did not practice Wednesday but was not expected to miss the game.

Well, Bannister confirmed to reporters this morning that Krug has a lower-body injury and will likely miss the game, and in his place will be veteran Marco Scandella, who was in Krug's spot alongside Justin Faulk at practice on Wednesday.

Scandella, who last played on March 9 against the New York Rangers, has been a healthy scratch the past five games; he has two goals and six assists in 59 games this season.

Also, Zach Dean, the 2021 first-round pick (30th overall) of the Vegas Golden Knights, will make his NHL debut just 15 minutes south and across the Ottawa River from where the forward played his junior hockey with the Gatineau Olympiques of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Dean, acquired on Feb.27, 2023 from the Golden Knights for Ivan Barbashev, has sat out the past five games after being recalled March 11.

"Sometimes it's just good to throw them into the fire kind of thing and let them learn," Bannister said of Dean. "But I think the time spent here has allowed him to become more comfortable with how we do things day to day. We haven't had a ton of skates either, which it's always nice to get into some skates. [Wednesday] was a day where he was able to practice with a line here and feel a little bit more comfortable. For [tonight], at least it gives him a little bit of a heads up to prepare himself to play."

Dean will replace Oskar Sundqvist, who will be a healthy scratch and will miss his first game this season, along with Krug. The Blues will be down to nine players (Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou, Kevin Hayes, Schenn, Brandon Saad, Alexey Toropchenko, Leddy and Colton Parayko) who have played in every game thus far this season.

Also as expected, Joel Hofer will get the cage tonight against Alton Forsberg, meaning Jordan Binnington will likely start Saturday afternoon against the Minnesota Wild.

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The Blues' projected lineup:

Brayden Schenn-Robert Thomas-Jake Neighbours

Brandon Saad-Pavel Buchnevich-Jordan Kyrou

Zack Bolduc-Kevin Hayes-Kasperi Kapanen

Alexey Toropchenko-Zach Dean-Nathan Walker

Nick Leddy-Colton Parayko

Marco Scandella-Justin Faulk

Scott Perunovich-Matthew Kessel

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

Healthy scratches include Oskar Sundqvist, Sammy Blais, Nikita Alexandrov and Tyler Tucker. Torey Krug (lower body) is likely out.

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The Senators' projected lineup:

Brady Tkachuk-Shane Pinto-Drake Batherson

Mathieu Joseph-Tim Stutzle-Claude Giroux

Ridly Grieg-Zack Ostapchuk-Dominik Kubalik

Boris Katchouk-Mark Kastelic-Parker Kelly

Jake Sanderson-Artem Zub

Thomas Chabot-Erik Brannstrom

Jakob Chychrun-Jacob Bernard-Docker

Anton Forsberg will start in goal; Joonas Korpisalo will be the backup. 

The healthy scratch could be Angus Crookshank, who was recalled from Belleville of the American Hockey League earlier in the day. Travis Hamonic (lower body) is a game-time decision. Giroux (illness) did not participate in the morning skate and will be a game-time decision. Josh Norris (upper body), Matthew Highmore (upper body), Zack MacEwen (lower body) and Rourke Chartier (upper body) are out.