Blues looking to sweep season series against Ducks playing back-to-back games; team could be without Neighbours, Faulk after injuries Saturday
The St. Louis Blues get right back at it on Sunday when they play the second-to-last road game of the season against the Anaheim Ducks at 7 p.m. (BSMW, ESPN 101.1-FM).
The Blues (40-32-5) are going for the season sweep of the Ducks (25-48-4) after winning 3-1 at Honda Center on Nov. 19 and 4-2 at Enterprise Center on March 17.
The Blues are coming off a 3-2 overtime loss against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday after overcoming a two-goal third-period deficit to earn at least a point. But they have just five games remaining and trail the Nashville Predators by seven points for the second wild card in the Western Conference.
The Blues, who sat forward Kevin Hayes and defenseman Torey Krug on Saturday in favor of playing more of the younger players, will be without forward Jake Neighbours and defenseman Justin Faulk, each who left Saturday's game with an upper-body injury on basically the same sequence.
Neighbours was rocked with a hit by Chesterfield's Luke Kunin along the Blues bench in which the back of his head smacked backwards, and Faulk took exception to it and fought Kunin but did not return following the fight.
Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said following the game both players would be reevaluated Sunday. His update Sunday afternoon was that each player is day-to-day.
With that in mind, the Blues did not hold a morning skate with the 5 p.m. local time puck drop, and a lineup is fluid but here's a projected guess:
The Blues projected lineup:
Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Jordan Kyrou
Brandon Saad-Brayden Schenn-Alexey Toropchenko
Zach Dean-Kevin Hayes-Zack Bolduc
Nikita Alexandrov-Nathan Walker-Sammy Blais
Nick Leddy-Colton Parayko
Torey Krug-Matthew Kessel
Tyler Tucker-Scott Perunovich
Jordan Binnington will start in goal; Joel Hofer will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Kasperi Kapanen and Marco Scandella. Justin Faulk (upper body) and Jake Neighbours (upper body) are out; Oskar Sundqvist (torn right ACL) is out for the season.
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The Ducks' projected lineup:
Alex Killorn-Leo Carlsson-Troy Terry
Frank Vatrano-Trevor Zegras-Ryan Strome
Nikita Nesterenko-Isac Lundestrom-Jakob Silfverberg
Ross Johnston-Bo Groulx-Brett Leason
Cam Fowler-Olen Zellweger
Urho Vaakanainen-Radko Gudas
William Lagesson-Gustav Lindstrom
Lukas Dostal is projected to start in goal; Alex Stalock would be the backup.
Healthy scratches are projected to be Jackson LaCombe and Ben Meyers. Max Jones (upper body), Pavel Mintyukov (lower body), Mason McTavish (lower body) and John Gibson (upper body) are out.
