(11-22-23) Blues-Coyotes Gameday Lineup

Jakub Vrana is on the outside looking in again.

The 27-year-old winger will be a healthy scratch for the third time this season when the St. Louis Blues (9-7-1) close out a four-game road trip against the Arizona Coyotes (8-8-2) at Mullet Arena on Wednesday at 8 p.m. (BSMW, ESPN 101.1-FM).

Vrana was a healthy scratch for two straight games last month against the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks before returning to the lineup against the Colorado Avalanche on Nov. 1. THN spoke with him regarding those missed games and it looks like he will have to circle back and have to recalibrate in order to get back into the lineup after playing just 9:37 of a 3-1 win against the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.

"We just need more from him," Blues coach Craig Berube told reporters. "There's certain areas of his play where, to me, I think he's waiting to score and not working. We need to get him working, we need him to be competitive in the battles and things like that. 

"He's got a great shot and he can skate, but I just don't see the skating enough and the work."

Jake Neighbours will move up and into a top six role tonight and play with Brayden Schenn and Brandon Saad, and Sammy Blais re-enters the lineup after sitting out Sunday.

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The Blues are currently in a wild card position and could be in a good spot heading into the Thanksgiving holiday, a spot teams typically look at where they're at in the standings to determine how they can line themselves up for moving forward.

While there's not much margin for error, if any, the Blues have won six of nine heading into their third matchup of the season against the Coyotes (they'll play for the fourth and final time on Dec. 2 in Arizona) and would feel really good about themselves if they can make it seven of 10.

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Some nuggets heading into tonight's game:

* Despite no points in his past two games, center Robert Thomas has 12 (five goals, seven assists) in his past 10 games.

* Forward Pavel Buchnevich has eight points (five goals, three assists) his past six games.

* Schenn needs one point for 600 in his NHL career.

* Defenseman Justin Faulk has five assists his past five games.

* St. Louis is 8-0-0 when scoring first this season, 1-7-1 when allowing the first goal; the Blues are also 7-0-0 when they score three or more goals in a game and 9-0-1 when allowing three or fewer goals this season. 

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The Blues' projected lineup:

Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Jordan Kyrou

Brandon Saad-Brayden Schenn-Jake Neighbours

Alexey Toropchenko-Kevin Hayes-Kasperi Kapanen

Sammy Blais-Nikita Alexandrov-Oskar Sundqvist

Nick Leddy-Colton Parayko

Torey Krug-Justin Faulk

Marco Scandella-Scott Perunovich

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

Healthy scratches include Jakub Vrana, Robert Bortuzzo and Tyler Tucker. The Blues report no injuries.

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The Coyotes' projected lineup:

Clayton Keller-Logan Cooley-Nick Schmaltz

Matias Maccelli-Nick Bjugstad-Lawson Crouse

Michael Carcone-Alex Kerfoot-Jason Zucker

Liam O'Brien-Travis Boyd-Jan Jenik

J.J. Moser-Sean Durzi

Matt Dumba-Michael Kesselring

Troy Stecher-Josh Brown

Karel Vejmelka is projected to start in goal; Connor Ingram would be the backup. 

Healthy scratches include Vladislav Kolyachonok and Milos Kelemen. Travis Dermott (upper body), Jack McBain (undisclosed), Juuso Valimaki (upper body) and Barrett Hayton (upper body) are out.