The St. Louis Blues will look to stay hot with dads in the house when they wrap up a quick two-game road trip in the debut of John Hynes and the Minnesota Wild at 7 p.m. (BSMW, ESPN 101.1-FM).
The dad's trip got off to a good start with a 4-2 win against the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday to improve to 8-1-1 all-time with dads on trips since 2015 (10-1-1 if moms are included) and the Blues (11-8-1) will try to keep the Wild (5-10-4) grounded after the big shakeup on Monday when they fired coach Dean Evason and hired Hynes, formerly the coach of the New Jersey Devils and most recently, the Nashville Predators.
Minnesota has dropped seven in a row (0-5-2), last winning three weeks ago today (4-2 at the New York Islanders) and is desperately trying to stay relevant but it will be a tough climb from 30th in the league with just 14 points.
Only one change in the lineup is projected for the Blues, and that's inserting defenseman Scott Perunovich in after being a healthy scratch in Sunday's game, replacing Tyler Tucker after the Blues held an optional morning skate Tuesday.
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Some notes ...
* Pavel Buchnevich has 13 points (seven goals, six assists) his past nine games, 15 points (nine goals, six assists) in 13 career games against the Wild.
* Jake Neighbours has five goals in five games and is riding a five-game point streak (five goals, one assist).
* Robert Thomas has five points (two goals, three assists) in a three-game point streak and 17 points (seven goals, 10 assists) the past 13 games.
* The Blues are 10-0-0 this season when scoring first and are the only team in the NHL without any kind of loss when scoring first.
* The Blues are 4-1-1 their past six visits to Xcel Energy Center and 10-3-1 in their past 14 games against the Wild overall.
* Colton Parayko will play in his 598th game and will move into a tie with Chris Pronger for sixth on the franchise all-time list among defensemen for games played.
* The Blues are 10-for-28 in the past eight games on the power play against the Wild (35.7 percent).
* The Blues are 9-1-0 when scoring three or more goals in a game and 10-0-1 when allowing three or fewer goals.
* Despite struggling to score, Jordan Kyrou has a four-game assist streak and has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) his past 11 games.
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The Blues' projected lineup:
Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Jake Neighbours
Jakub Vrana-Brayden Schenn-Kasperi Kapanen
Brandon Saad-Kevin Hayes-Jordan Kyrou
Alexey Toropchenko-Oskar Sundqvist-Sammy Blais
Nick Leddy-Colton Parayko
Torey Krug-Justin Faulk
Marco Scandella-Scott Perunovich
Jordan Binnington is projected to start in goal; Joel Hofer would be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Robert Bortuzzo, Tyler Tucker and Nikita Alexandrov. The Blues report no injuries.
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The Wild's projected lineup:
Kirill Kaprizov-Marco Rossi-Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson-Joel Eriksson Ek-Matt Boldy
Marcus Foligno-Freddy Gaudreau-Pat Maroon
Brandon Duhaime-Connor Dewar-Vinni Lettieri
Jonas Brodin-Brock Faber
Jake Middleton-Jared Spurgeon
Alex Goligoski-Zach Bogosian
Filip Gustavsson will start in goal; Marc-Andre Fleury will be the backup.
The healthy scratch is Jon Merrill. Ryan Hartman begins serving a two-game suspension tonight. The Wild report no injuries.
