Not only forward lines, defensive combinations have also been switched up in effort to spark some consistency
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Jim Montgomery had the ‘ol line blender out again in practice on Wednesday.
And it wasn’t just the forward lines this time around.
The St. Louis Blues coach mixed up his three defensive pairings as well after a 2-1 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday:
It looks as though Logan Mailloux will be back in the lineup, with a veteran safety net in Cam Fowler.
“It’s very similar to the forward lines. We switched it up because we’re not generating much,” Montgomery said. “I don’t see us breaking the puck out easily as pairs, I don’t see us generating much offensively as pairs. Maybe switching guys up using guys that haven’t played with each other, it frees them up creativity-wise offensively and defensively it makes them a little more assertive.”
Montgomery was not pleased with Tuesday’s game, and under normal circumstances, the coach could come back the next day with a different outlook after taking a step back and watching game film. That was not the case this time.
“We didn't start on time, our effort and execution, we didn't look better after we were watching (on film),” Montgomery said. “A lot of times you lose a game and you think your team was worse than they appeared and you watch the game back and your team's better than you thought, that wasn't the case.”
That’s why the team came out for practice on Wednesday with hard 2-on-2 drills and it was battle, battle, battle throughout.
“We wanted a high-paced practice,” Montgomery said. “We wanted to make sure that we were putting ourselves in tough areas to battle through stuff, to win puck battles and have to make plays. And we were also working on our defending. Defending hard, trying to create turnovers. All those drills had that purpose.”
One of the featured lines was reuniting Pavel Buchnevich, Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou back together. Last year, that line scored eight goals for and three against at 5 on 5 and had a Corsi-for plus of 37 (173-136) according to naturalstattrick.com.
“Their ability to elevate. When they elevate the three of them together, there’s a game last year we did that in Utah and they scored the game-winning goal,” Montgomery said. “Probably match them up against (Clayton) Keller’s line that’s on fire right now scoring all kinds of points. And they’re going to have a job to do for us tomorrow night.”
The reasoning of not going to that trio often in the past, according to Montgomery, is it seemed to skew the lineup in one direction and it becomes more predictable. Now with more balance throughout, they will see if it’s sustainable, especially Thomas and Kyrou together producing.
“I think they can, yes, but I think consistently they haven’t produced at the level that you’d like them,” Montgomery said. “And I think we have more depth this year that maybe we can sustain that, but a lot of times, everyone can load up and stop that line the last couple years. Not last year but previous to that. But now that we’ve developed other offensive players like (Dylan) Holloway and you have (Brayden) Schenn that’s always produced and you have (Jake) Neighbours and you have (Jimmy) Snuggerud, guys that have produced at this level now, we’re a little more dynamic. Maybe this can be something that can survive.”
And the addition of glue guys that check and play physical like Oskar Sundqvist, who is expected to make his season debut Thursday against the Utah Mammoth, will be a great benefit to the fourth line.
“He looks really close,” Montgomery said of Sundqvist, who suffered a lower-body injury Oct. 5. “We’ll see how he feels after a hard practice like that and if there’s no issues, he’s going to play tomorrow night.
“Any time you miss two guys (including Alexey Toropchenko) who check really hard that the details and habits are really at the top of our team, it really affects the momentum your team brings. I thought our fourth line in the first period last night was our best line. So they did their part, but when you add a couple more players like that, you just have more lines that can roll over and keep the bus rolling.”