ST. LOUIS – The flu bug is running through the St. Louis Blues locker room these days and could affect the lineup when they host the Florida Panthers on Thursday (7 p.m.; FDSNMW, ESPN 101.1-FM). Joseph expected back from illness; Texier out sick; MacEachern to take warmups after being recalled on Wednesday; Hofer starts in goal Mathieu Joseph, who missed a 3-2 overtime loss against the Edmonton Oilers due to illness, was on the ice Thursday and is likely to play, saying he felt much better. Should be be good enough to go, Joseph will come in for Alexandre Texier, who will miss the game due to illness. Mackenzie MacEachern, recalled from Springfield of the American Hockey League in Wednesday, was on the ice Thursday morning and will take warmups just in case Joseph isn’t able to go. “We’ve got a little bit of a flu bug going around,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “So Texier will not be playing tonight. We expect ‘MoJo’ to be back in. I think we’re going to be OK, but we’re going to have ‘Mac’ take warmups. “For Joseph, he’s like [Colton] Parayko. He’s at three-and-a-half days really. It started in the evening so I think he’s going to be fine.” - - - As for the recall of MacEachern, who hasn’t played an NHL game since Dec. 30, 2023, Montgomery said, “His line with him and [Matthew] Peca have been dominant. They set the tone every game. He’s physical, he’s fast, he’s hanging onto pucks. They’re scoring goals down there. Typical ‘Mac,’ a guy that’s all-around, plays hard, plays the right way for his team.” - - - The Blues dropped a 2-1 overtime decision against the Panthers on Dec. 20 in Sunrise, Fla., a game that was tight-checking and one the Blues took plenty from. “I thought we played really well when we were there,” Montgomery said. “It was 1-1 right up until overtime and then [Aleksander] Barkov was special in overtime and then he finished the game. I think he was out there for 1:40 when he made the great play to draw the penalty, then he won it. “We played well. I think our chances, we really liked, and the odd-man rushes. Florida plays such an aggressive style that if you execute, you’re going to get odd-man rushes, but they’re OK with that because they’ve been doing it for two years now. They think that with their goaltenders and how good their defensemen are, they’ll be able to handle those odd-man rushes. But the plus side is they spend about 10 minutes in your own end with the puck because they’re so aggressive.” - - - Joel Hofer will get the start tonight, giving him a game before the 4 Nations Face-Off, which will be played from Feb. 12-20. The Blues will have one more game on Saturday against the Chicago Blackhawks before getting the two-week layoff. “We’ve kind of been going with this rotation,” Montgomery said. “He’s played well. The Colorado game (a 5-0 loss last Friday), we didn’t give him a chance. He’s been really good and he was really good in Florida when we played there.” - - - Blues Projected Lineup: Dylan Holloway-Robert Thomas-Pavel Buchnevich Jake Neighbours-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou Mathieu Joseph-Oskar Sundqvist-Zack Bolduc Alexey Toropchenko-Radek Faksa-Nathan Walker Cam Fowler-Colton Parayko Ryan Suter-Philip Broberg Nick Leddy-Justin Faulk Joel Hofer will start in goal; Jordan Binnington will be the backup. The healthy scratch is expected to be Mackenzie MacEachern. Alexandre Texier (illness) and Tyler Tucker (upper body) are out. Torey Krug (ankle) is out for the season. - - - Panthers Projected Lineup: Carter Verhaeghe-Aleksander Barkov-Sam Reinhart Mackie Samoskevich-Sam Bennett-Matthew Tkachuk Eetu Luostarinen-Anton Lundell-Evan Rodrigues A.J. Greer-Tomas Nosek-Jesper Boqvist Gustav Forsling-Aaron Ekblad Niko Mikkola-Dmitry Kulikov Uvis Balinskis-Nate Schmidt Spencer Knight will start in goal; Sergei Bobrovsky will be the backup. The healthy scratch is Jonah Gadjovich. The Panthers report no injuries. Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjA5MjcwNjk1MDQ0MDY0NDYy/subscribe2024-front-banner.jpg]
