(12-21-23) Blues-Panthers Gameday Lineup

It didn't take long for Drew Bannister to begin the line shuffle himself, looking for a lineup that can get the St. Louis Blues (15-15-1) back on the right track.

After Tuesday's 6-1 drubbing at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Blues' interim coach is making lineup tweaks ahead of Thursday's matchup against Matthew Tkachuk and the Florida Panthers (18-11-2) at Amerant Bank Arena (6 p.m.; BSMW, ESPN 101.1-FM).

The tweaks mostly come at forward, where Jake Neighbours and Brandon Saad will flip in the lineup, and Sammy Blais re-enters on the fourth line after being a healthy scratch the past three games and five of the past six. Blais will replace Hugh McGing, who was assigned to Springfield on Wednesday.

Also, Joel Hofer will get the nod in net tonight after Jordan Binnington started the past five games and seven of the past eight.

Hofer, who relieved Binnington in the second period on Tuesday and made nine saves on 10 shots after Binnington gave up five goals on 23 shots, last started Dec. 8 at Columbus, a 5-2 loss.

It'll be interesting to see how Pavel Buchnevich, who remains on the top line with Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou, reacts after he was benched for the final 12-plus minutes of the game Tuesday after taking three hooking minors, the last which led to a Lightning power-play goal.  

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* Thomas has five points (two goals, three assists) the past three games and is the only skater to be averaging more than a point per game (32 points; 12 goals, 19 assists in 31 games).

* Blues center Kevin Hayes has five points (three goals, two assists) the past four games.

* Kyrou has four points (one goal, three assists) the past three games; he has six points (three goals, three assists) in four career games against Florida.

* Saad has three goals the past four games but had his three-game goal streak broken Tuesday.

* Blues defensive partners Torey Krug (three assists) and Justin Faulk (one goal, two assists) have combined for six points the past three games.

* The Blues are 3-0-1 the past four games against the Panthers, 5-1-1 the past seven and 2-0-1 the past three visits to Florida, 7-1-1 the past nine visits there since Feb. 8, 2011.

* One note unrelated to tonight's game but to follow along with the 2024 World Junior Championship right around the corner:

-- The Blues prospects have six prospects to follow along for the tournament: Dalibor Dvorsky and Juraj Pekarcik (Slovakia), Jimmy Snuggerud (USA), Otto Stenberg (Sweden), Aleksanteri Kaskimaki (Finland), and Jakub Stancl (Czech Republic).

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The Blues' projected lineup:

Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Jordan Kyrou

Jake Neighbours-Brayden Schenn-Kasperi Kapanen

Brandon Saad-Kevin Hayes-Alexey Toropchenko

Mackenzie MacEachern-Oskar Sundqvist-Sammy Blais

Nick Leddy-Colton Parayko

Torey Krug-Justin Faulk

Marco Scandella-Tyler Tucker

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

Healthy scratches include Nikita Alexandrov and Scott Perunovich. The Blues report no injuries.

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The Panthers' projected lineup:

Evan Rodrigues-Aleksander Barkov-Sam Reinhart

Carter Verhaeghe-Sam Bennett-Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Luostarinen-Kevin Stenlund-Nick Cousins

Ryan Lomberg-Steven Lorentz-Will Lockwood

Gustav Forsling-Aaron Ekblad

Niko Mikkola-Brandon Montour

Oliver Ekman-Larsson-Dmitry Kulikov

Sergei Bobrovsky will start in goal; Anthony Stolarz will be the backup.

The healthy scratch is Josh Mahura. Anton Lundell (illness) and Jonah Gadjovich (illness) are out.