(3-7-24) Blues-Devils Gameday Lineup

Blues, Devils in similar position in wild card standings in respective conferences; Bannister shuffles up top six; Perunovich back in; Binnington in goal

With a stagnant offense, St. Louis Blues interim coach Drew Bannister will give his top six a tweaked look entering the third game of a five-game road trip on Thursday against the New Jersey Devils (6 p.m.; ESPN, ESPN 101.1-FM).

Brandon Saad will move up to play with Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou, and Pavel Buchnevich slides down to skate with Brayden Schenn and Jake Neighbours to try and infuse something from a stagnant, inconsistent offense.

The Blues (32-27-3) enter the game six points behind the Nashville Predators and Los Angeles Kings for the two wild card spots in the Western Conference. And much like their counterparts in the New York Islanders on Tuesday, who are battling for a wild card spot and third place in the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference, the Devils (30-28-4), playing the second game under interim coach Travis Green after Lindy Ruff was fired on Monday, are eight points behind the Detroit Red Wings and Tampa Bay Lightning in the wild card in the East.

Other lineup changes for the Blues include Jordan Binnington, 2-0-1 with a 1.59 goals-against average and .949 save percentage his past three starts, will be back in goal, and Scott Perunovich replaces Tyler Tucker on the blue line.

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The Blues' projected lineup:

Brandon Saad-Robert Thomas-Jordan Kyrou

Jake Neighbours-Brayden Schenn-Pavel Buchnevich

Zachary Bolduc-Kevin Hayes-Kasperi Kapanen

Nathan Walker-Oskar Sundqvist-Alexey Toropchenko

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 Sammy Blais, Nikita Alexandrov and Tyler Tucker. The Blues report no injuries.

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The Devils' projected lineup:

Timo Meier-Nico Hischier-Tyler Toffoli

Jack Hughes-Erik Haula-Jesper Bratt

Chris Tierney-Curtis Lazar-Dawson Mercer

Kurtis MacDermid-Tomas Nosek-Alexander Holtz

Jonas Siegenthaler-John Marino

Kevin Bahl-Brendan Smith

Luke Hughes-Colin Miller

Nico Daws will start in goal; Akira Schmid will be the backup.

Healthy scratches include Simon Nemec and Nick DeSimone. Dougie Hamilton (pectoral muscle) and Vitek Vanecek (lower body) are out; Ondrej Palat (lower body) is questionable.