(11-9-23) Coyotes-Blues Gameday Lineup

ST. LOUIS -- With the St. Louis Blues on their revenge tour this week against opponents they've already lost to, and the Arizona Coyotes next up on the docket today at 7 p.m. (BSMW, ESPN 101.1-FM), it's also Joel Hofer's turn to not forget.

Hofer will get the start in goal tonight for the Blues (5-5-1), who are 2-1-0 and conclude a four-game homestand tonight.

Hofer, who is 2-0-0 with a 1.51 goals-against average and .950 save percentage in his past two starts, will get the opportunity to exact some revenge after he was hit for six goals on 42 shots in a 6-2 loss against the Coyotes (6-5-1) here on Oct. 19.

"Of course. I don't forget," Hofer said. "Just looking to get the win tonight. That's basically my main key. However I need to do that, I'm ready to do.

"... I've liked how I've tracked the puck. I thought I've been reading plays well, trusting my feet, working through traffic and battling and try to do anything I can to stop the puck."

Hofer rebounded from that loss against the Coyotes by blanking the Calgary Flames 3-0 on Oct. 26 and 6-3 against the Montreal Canadiens last Saturday.

"He's obviously making the saves that we want him to make," Blues coach Craig Berube said of Hofer. "The last two games he's really shown his confidence and swagger as a goalie, watching him play the puck and things like that, big in net. He's a big guy and he's playing big. That's what I've liked about him."

About that swagger?

"I'm just trying to have fun in there," Hofer said. "That's the biggest thing for me when I'm having fun, I'm just playing loose and free and enjoying it. I'm playing in the NHL and it's a dream-come-true. Every day is a good day and grateful to be here."

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Scott Perunovich will in fact make his third appearance this season, first at home, tonight.

The defenseman will replace Tyler Tucker and be paired with Marco Scandella playing his off side.

He will quarterback the second power play unit and play for the first time under the 12 forwards/six defensemen role after playing in games at Calgary and Vancouver when the Blues skated 12/7.

"It's about positioning in the d-zone, understanding using his stick to his advantage," Berube said. "He's not an overly big guy, but using his stick to kill plays, that's going to be really important and then net front around the net, he's not always going to be able to box people out, but he's got to position himself to eat pucks and things like that, break pucks around our net using his stick again and just being a real smart defensive player."

Read Perunovich's comments here regarding being patient waiting for his turn to get into the lineup and how he's handled that thus far.

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What does Berube take away from the 6-2 loss against Arizona here three weeks ago?

"Not a whole lot," he said. "We didn't have much in that game from the get go. They outskated us in that game. We didn't have much going on in any part of the game. I don't take a whole lot out of that game from back then. Arizona's playing well. [Nick] Schmaltz and [Clayton] Keller, they're really good players and they've been tough on us. It's important that we're doing a good job against those two guys tonight taking time and space away from them playing them hard. We've got to do a real good job.

"We've got to play the game in the offensive zone tonight against this team and make them defend as much as we can to keep them from doing what they do well. They've got a great transition game and a rush game with those guys. They can really get you moving around in the d-zone with their speed and agility and stuff. It's important we're doing a good job in the other zone, making sure we're getting above things all night and killing plays before they get in our zone."

What the Blues want to do coming off a 5-2 loss against the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday is find a response in light of having a number of scoring chances but trailed throughout the game.

"You're probably thinking more (scoring chances) than we did," Berube said. "Our first period was really good, possession time, we had more possession time than them, created more chances and then taking the penalty set us back a bit and allowing that goal, but getting out of the period (down) 2-1, I wanted a push in the second. That's what I wanted, a big-time push, and other than the first shift with 'Sunny's line, there wasn't a push. We started turning pucks over. We were just soft coming out of our own zone, couldn't get off the ice and then made some tough line changes and things like that that allowed them to three-quarter ice us and put us in a tough spot. I thought we were on our heels that period pretty much the whole period even though we created some two or three good looks where we could have scored. But it's 50-50 hockey, you can't play 50-50 hockey. We've got to play the other way. That's the biggest message was, 'You're not going to have the lead all the time, but what are you going to do about it?' We need a bigger push when we don't have the lead. That's basically what it boils down to.

It boils down to a north-south game.

"One, directness, and two, just making hard puck plays more than anything," Berube said. "I thought we were light in those areas. And you've got to simplify sometimes. You've got to be chipping it up the wall and slashing and making sure we've got guys ... it's skating and just playing direct."

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The Blues' projected lineup:

Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Kasperi Kapanen

Brandon Saad-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou

Alexey Toropchenko-Kevin Hayes-Jakub Vrana

Sammy Blais-Oskar Sundqvist-Jake Neighbours

Nick Leddy-Colton Parayko

Torey Krug-Justin Faulk

Marco Scandella-Scott Perunovich

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

Healthy scratches projected to be Robert Bortuzzo, Tyler Tucker and Nikita Alexandrov. The Blues report no injuries.

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The Coyotes' projected lineup:

Clayton Keller-Barrett Hayton-Nick Schmaltz

Matias Maccelli-Nick Bjugstad-Lawson Crouse

Michael Carcone-Logan Cooley-Jason Zucker

Alex Kerfoot-Jack McBain-Liam O'Brien

J.J. Moser-Sean Durzi

Juuso Valimaki-Matt Dumba

Josh Brown-Troy Stecher

Karel Vejmelka will start in goal; Connor Ingram will be the backup.

Healthy scratches include Travis Boyd and Michael Kesserling. Travis Dermott (upper body) is out.