(2-19-22) Blues-Maple Leafs Gameday Lineup

By LOU KORAC
It would be nice for the Blues going up against one of the top teams in the league in the Toronto Maple Leafs today if they could do so with a full deck on hand.

Unfortunately, they'll be missing one of their key pieces when the Blues (28-14-6) head to Scotiabank Arena to face the Maple Leafs (32-12-3) at 6 p.m. (BSMW, ESPN 101.1-FM) with Vladimir Tarasenko out of the lineup.

Coach Craig Berube confirmed after the morning skate that Tarasenko will be out with an undisclosed injury, sustained in a 3-2 overtime loss against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

"He's out tonight," Berube said. "(Happened) last game. Day to day."

In the third game of a four-game trip, the Blues will shuffle their lineup around a bit, moving Jordan Kyrou up to fill Tarasenko's slot with Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich, Oskar Sundqvist moving up to play with Brayden Schenn and Ivan Barbashev and both Tyler Bozak and Logan Brown re-inserted back in.

For Bozak, it will be his first action since Jan. Jan. 29 against Winnipeg; he's been a healthy scratch the past four games but he goes back into the lineup against the team he spent the first nine seasons of his NHL career with.

"It's obviously exciting, especially being back here (where) I have a lot of history," Bozak said. "It's fun to get back in, feel good and rested. Obviously might be a little rusty the first few shifts. I haven't played a while since before the break, but it's like anything. You get hurt from time to time or you're not playing and you come back, it comes back to you pretty quickly.

"Obviously it's hard (being a healthy scratch). Definitely never a spot you want to be in and never a spot I'd been in my career, so yeah, it was tough, but like I've said many times, we have a very deep team and that's a positive thing, especially when you get late in the season and throughout playoffs. It's inevitable that there will be injuries or there will be guys banged up and you're going to need guys to come in and play different roles at different times. I feel like we have a lot of guys that can do that."

Bozak has nine points (three goals, six assists) in 37 games this season and will center a line with Brown and Klim Kostin.

"When I talked you guys before about 'Bozie' sitting down, really it's not his play," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "He's been a pretty consistent player in his role, penalty killing and playing in that role as a fourth line center. Sometimes he's moved up, it depends on situations, but he's an experienced guy, played a lot of hockey in his career. He gives us a stable guy down the ice. I don't expect anything different out of him than I normally expect."

The Blues assigned Dakota Joshua, who took Bozak's spot the past four games centering the fourth line, back to Springfield of the American Hockey League in order to recall defenseman Calle Rosen, who Berube said, "we'll see" regarding to if he sill play tonight. Rosen wasn't at the skate this morning, but the recall, according to Berube, was so the Blues could have an extra d-man with Marco Scandella sidelined with a lower-body injury.

As for Brown, who's been a healthy scratch the past seven games, it will be his first action since Jan. 23 at Vancouver.

"'Brownie's just got to use his big body obviously," Berube said. "His skill set, he has good hands, he's got a good shot and he's got to get to that offensive zone and hang onto pucks and take them to the net and do the things he does and be responsible defensively. He's got to be strong on the walls in our own end and make good puck plays out of our own end."

With Tarasenko out of the lineup, Brandon Saad will step back into a role on the power play. Saad is tied with Buchnevich, Scnenn and Ryan O'Reilly for the team lead in power play goals with five.

"I think it's just being ready," Saad said. "It's nice to get an opportunity and hopefully we have some success tonight and contribute to a win."

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The Blues will have to do a much better job mustering up energy against a more formidable opponent tonight.

The loss to Montreal, which ended the Canadiens' 10-game skid (0-8-2), was discouraging enough, but it continued a bad trend of dropping points against some of the league's worst.

The Blues are just 3-2-1 against the four division cellar dwellers (Arizona, Montreal, Seattle and New Jersey).

"I think it depends on the situation and what team and things like that," Berube said. "Everybody gets excited to come to Toronto obviously. They're a great team and we all know that. They've got some high-powered offense and great players but coming to Toronto, I think everybody's always energized and excited to play. We have a number of people on our team that are from the Toronto area. I think that there's always good energy."

The Blues are, however, 3-3-1 against the four division leaders this season (Colorado, Calgary, Carolina and Florida. Toronto currently sits third in the ultra-competitive Atlantic Division, three points behind Tampa Bay and six points behind Florida with two games in hand on each.

"They're lethal offensively, so for us it's limiting our mistakes trying to play in their end and make them come 200 feet doing what we do best," Saad said of the Maple Leafs. "They have a lot of firepower out there so being disciplined and then making them work for it."

The Blues and Leafs played Jan. 15 at Enterprise Center, and it was the Maple Leafs that came away with a high-scoring 6-5 win.

"We've got to be disciplined and do our best to stay out of the penalty box for sure," Berube said. "They've got a great power play, a very quick transition, offensive team that does some really good things in the offensive zone with the puck. You've got to check hard. You've got to be on top of people, we've got to protect the slot area, we've got to limit odd-man rushes, be disciplined and understand situations you're out there against. (Auston) Matthews and (Mitch) Marner are playing great hockey right now. We've got to do a good job of taking them away."

This is an opponent the Blues will have to be much better at in puck control than Thursday against the woeful Canadiens.

"I thought early on in the game, it looked like it was going to be a good night there," Berube said. "I think penalties really hurt there in the second period; that was a waste period with penalties, and the first period too. We got back-to-back penalties there too. I think that hurt us for sure. Third period was good. I thought we came out, we had 14 shots on net, we had some good o-zone time, some good power plays. I thought the power play looked better in the third period, but overall for two periods, we weren't on top of our game. I didn't think we were as connected as we were in Ottawa. It didn't seem like we got to the inside enough in Montreal. They did a good job of checking us. I said after the game, I give them credit. I thought they played a strong game. They kept us on the outside too much and we need to do a better job of getting on the inside."

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* Berube is coaching his 400th NHL game, 239th with the Blues which moves him into sixth all-time in team history ahead of Scotty Bowman; Berube coached the Philadelphia Flyers for 161 games.

* The Blues have won four straight games in Toronto, outscoring the Leafs.

* The matchup pits two of the top teams in the league in terms of special teams; The Leafs are No. 1 in power play at 31.8 percent, the Blues are second at 27.1 percent. The Blues rank fifth in penalty killing at 84.5 percent, the Leafs are sixth at 84.4 percent.

* Since Jan. 1, goalie Ville Husso is 8-1-1 with a 1.55 goals-against average and a .945 save percentage with one shutout.

* Schenn has eight points his past six games (four goals, four assists) and needs one goal for 100 with the Blues

* Buchnevich has a four-game point streak (one goal, six assists).

* Defenseman Justin Faulk has a five-game point streak (one goal, four assists), his longest as a Blue; it is tied for the second longest of his career (seven-game point streak in 2015-16 with Carolina, three goals, six assists).

* Saad needs one goal for 200 in the NHL.

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The Blues' projected lineup:

Brandon Saad-Ryan O'Reilly-David Perron

Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Jordan Kyrou

Ivan Barbashev-Brayden Schenn-Oskar Sundqvist

Logan Brown-Tyler Bozak-Klim Kostin

Niko Mikkola-Colton Parayko

Torey Krug-Justin Faulk

Jake Walman-Robert Bortuzzo

Ville Husso is projected to start in goal; Jordan Binnington would be the backup.

The healthy scratch is Calle Rosen. Vladimir Tarasenko (undisclosed) and Marco Scandella (lower body) are out.

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The Maple Leafs' projected lineup:

Michael Bunting-Auston Matthews-Mitch Marner

Alexander Kerfoot-John Tavares-William Nylander

Ilya Mikheyev-David Kampf-Ondrej Kase

Pierre Engvall-Jason Spezza-Wayne Simmonds

Morgan Rielly-TJ Brodie

Jake Muzzin-Timothy Liljegren

Rasmus Sandin-Justin Holl

Jack Campbell will start in goal; Petr Mrazek will be the backup. 

Healthy scratch includes Travis Dermott. The Maple Leafs report no injuries.