Suter to make Blues debut, paired with Kessel; Faulk makes preseason debut; Hofer to get two periods in goal
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Preseason game No. 3 is upon the St. Louis Blues and it will be a third straight game away from home when they face off against the Columbus Blue Jackets at 6 p.m. at Nationwide Arena (stlouisblues.com, Blues App, Victory+, ESPN 101.1-FM).
It'll be another game in which the Blues will debut some players tonight, most notably what is likely to be the third defensive pairing of Ryan Suter, who will make his Blues debut after signing as a free agent this past summer, and Matthew Kessel.
It'll be a sampling of the mentor and the student paired together, with Suter being 39 (going on 40) and the 24-year-old Kessel, who has played 89 fewer games (41) than Suter has played Stanley Cup playoff games (133). Suter has played in 1,444 regular-season games in his career.
"I've been able to watch him for a long time," Kessel said of Suter. "He's got a lot of games in the NHL. It's a lot of fun. It's great to be able to be lined up with him here in camp and hopefully the start of the season. We haven't played a game yet, but excited for that when we get out there. He's someone I'd like to emulate my game after. He's a hard defenseman, plays a simple game, takes care of the d-zone, makes easy breakouts and snaps the puck up to the forward quick. It's been great being able to skate with him."
Coach Drew Bannister has liked the trajectory of Kessel's game since entering the NHL and feels there's a benefit of playing a veteran to help grow Kessel's game.
"Watching 'Kess,' I've probably had the opportunity to see him twice on the ice with me, I think he looks really good," Bannister said. "I think he's someone that's ready to take the next step and I think right now with 'Sutes' there, that's somebody that's a proven NHL player that's been around for a long time and that's been around for a long time and been through the ups and downs. For us, I think it's a great pairing because we'd like to see 'Kess' take the next step of consistency in his game and I think 'Sutes' is a good guy there to help him through that."
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Justin Faulk will make his preseason debut tonight and will be paired with Tyler Tucker.
Faulk dealt with a pair of nagging lower-body injuries last season that limited him to 60 games and it certainly affected his play, limiting the 32-year-old to a career-low two goals.
"What I can tell you about Justin and what we missed last year was just the leadership qualities in the dressing room but on the ice and that goes along way with our group," Bannister said. "Play-wise, we know who he is as a player, he's an important player for us and it was difficult when we didn't have him last year.
"'Flack' obviously had some injury issues towards the end of the season and I think right now he's feeling pretty good and as far as he's concerned, I'm concerned, I think he's ready to go and looking forward to having him here on the ice."
Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou each will also make his preseason debut tonight
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Blues projected lineup:
Zack Bolduc-Robert Thomas-Jordan Kyrou
Nathan Walker-Dalibor Dvorsky-Kasperi Kapanen
Zach Dean-Matthew Peca-Alexey Toropchenko
Sam Bitten-Nikita Alexandrov-Mathias Laferriere
Aleksanteri Kaskimaki is the extra forward
Tyler Tucker-Justin Faulk
Ryan Suter-Matthew Kessel
Scott Harrington-Hunter Skinner
Joel Hofer will start in goal and play the first two periods; Colten Ellis will be the backup and play the third period.
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Blue Jackets projected lineup:
Kirill Marchenko-Sean Kuraly-Yegor Chinakhov
James Van Riemsdyk-Luca Del Bel Belluz-Kent Johnson
Mikael Pyyhtia-Owen Sillinger-Gavin Brindley
James Malatesla-Jake Gaudet-Luca Pinelli
Ivan Provorov-Damon Deverson
Denton Mateychuk-Erik Gudbranson
Jake Christiansen-Cole Clayton
Elvis Merzlikins and Zach Sawchenko are the goalies.
