Can the Blues turn around a sinking ship?
To say that the Blues’ play as of late has been uninspiring is being very generous. Mired in their longest regulation losing streak since Craig Berube took over as coach, the pressure is on for this team to play as well as they did during the first three games.
Brandon Saad is still out for tonight, but the team has options, and they’ve chosen to exercise them. From stlblues.com, here’re tonight’s lines:
Forwards
Schenn – O’Reilly – Kyrou
Buchnevich – Thomas – Tarasenko
Neighbours – Brown – Barbashev
Toropchenko – Acciari – Pitlick
Defense
Krug – Faulk
Leddy – Parayko
Rosen – Bortuzzo
Goalie
Binnington
As you can see, Nathan Walker’s taking the night off, and Calle Rosen is going in with Robert Bortuzzo instead of Niko Mikkola. The usual pairings of Torey Krug/Justin Faulk and Nick Leddy/Colton Parayko are back together. Jordan Binnington gets the start.
Basically, the hopes for a win tonight hedge upon some very tiny, tiny changes in the lineup – and hopefully some changes in mindset too. Focus and playing the fundamentals is what’s going to get the Blues a win; if it doesn’t happen tonight, who knows how long the team’s leash will be.
This is your GameDay Thread. Comment like you’re ready for some hocus pocus.
Let’s do this. Let’s Go Blues