(11-5-25) Blues-Capitals Gameday Lineup

The first win can be always the toughest to achieve once a losing streak sets in.

For the St. Louis Blues, it’s time to build now.

They trended in the right direction the past three games and finally shed the monkey off their backs with a hard-fought 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.

Now the Blues (4-7-2) want to build in the right direction after losing seven straight (0-5-2) when they kick off a quick two-game trip starting Wednesday against the Washington Capitals (6-5-1) at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. (6:30 p.m.; TNT, ESPN 101.1-FM).

The Blues, who are 8-2-1 the past 11 games against the Capitals, rallied from a 2-0 deficit, winning on a goal by Pius Suter with 1:23 remaining in the third period to complete the comeback.

“It felt good,” Blues center Robert Thomas said after the win Monday. “Guys have been putting in a lot of work. We’re building a foundation here to be more consistent. It was nice that it paid off. To go down two and just keep on pushing, keep on playing, that’s what’s made us successful in the past is just keep on trucking forward. We did that tonight and it was a big win, not only just to win but come from behind and win, it gives our group a lot of confidence.

“It’s tough (losing). I think just bringing some life, bringing some energy and in the fashion like we did it, coming from behind against a top team, that should bring us a lot of confidence. Moving forward, we’ve got a big stretch of games here, not too much time in between. Confidence and energy is going to be huge.”

That kind of resolve can go a long way.

“It’s really important. Even during this slide, may be hard to believe, but the belief in the room is that we’re a good hockey team,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “I talked about it earlier, there’s a lot of analytics pointing with the expected goals-for and against and what quadrant we were in the last 10 years. The quadrant that we’re in, we haven’t missed the playoffs. That’s why we felt a lot of good things. Now, that’s just one win. We’ve got to start building. We’ve got to keep building, because I think that we can be a really good hockey team if we keep building it the right way.”

It’s why the Blues continue to trust the process.

“You obviously keep going and pushing, pushing, pushing, but sometimes you start gripping the stick a little too hard,” Suter said after Monday’s win. “Maybe it loosened up a little bit. I think today was a really good game, stayed above guys and kind of let the game come to us. And then things opened up like the chances we got. It was kind of good to loosen the grip a little bit.

“We had so many chances, so to kind of just get through and get the two points to kind of kick-start this thing, it’s good for the confidence for everybody.”

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The Blues are making two lineup changes against the Capitals, with Nathan Walker returning after being a healthy scratch Monday for the first time, and in his place, Mathieu Joseph will be a healthy scratch for the first time this season.

Also, Logan Mailloux comes into the lineup for Matthew Kessel after being scratched the past two games.

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Blues Projected Lineup:

Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Jimmy Snuggerud

Brayden Schenn-Pius Suter-Jordan Kyrou

Dylan Holloway-Dalibor Dvorsky-Oskar Sundqvist

Alexey Toropchenko-Nick Bjugstad-Nathan Walker

Philip Broberg-Colton Parayko

Tyler Tucker-Justin Faulk

Cam Fowler-Logan Mailloux

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

Healthy scratches include Mathieu Joseph, Alexandre Texier and Matthew Kessel. Jake Neighbours (leg) is out.

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Capitals Projected Lineup:

Anthony Beauvillier-Dylan Strome-Alex Ovechkin

Aliaksei Protas-Connor McMichael-Tom Wilson

Sonny Milano-Hendrix Lapierre-Ryan Leonard

Brandon Duhaime-Nic Dowd-Justin Sourdif

Martin Fehervary-John Carlson

Jakob Chychrun-Matt Roy

Rasmus Sandin-Trevor van Riemsdyk

Logan Thompson will start in goal; Charlie Lindgren will be the backup.

Healthy scratches include Spencer Smallman, Declan Chisholm and Dylan McIlrath. Pierre-Luc Dubois (lower body) and Ethen Frank (upper body) are out.

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