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). Blues, Devils in similar positions; Buchnevich, Saad swap spots; Binnington in goal 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. - - - 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. - - - 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. Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjAxOTA3NzAwODA2NzIyNzE5/thn_archive_main_hero_v3_1600x900.jpg]
