(3-10-22) Rangers-Blues Gameday Lineup

By LOU KORAC
ST. LOUIS -- As expected, Pavel Buchnevich will not be in the lineup for the Blues (32-17-7) against the New York Rangers (36-15-5) on Thursday (7 p.m.; BSMW, ESPN 101.1-FM) due to concussion protocol.

Buchnevich was injured with 4:52 remaining in the third period of a 4-1 loss against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday after taking a hit from Senators forward Austin Watson.

Buchnevich, who is third on the Blues with 46 points, tied for second in goals with 19 and fourth in assists with 27, did not practice on Wednesday and was not on the ice for the morning skate today and will be replaced on the lineup by Logan Brown.

"He feels a little bit better today," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "That's basically all I can tell with you that right now. ... We lose a real good player, I think, in all aspects of the game. He's in penalty kill, power play, 5-on-5 play, he's been a very good player, a 200-foot player. 

"It's tough. We don't want to lose a player like that for sure, but 'Brownie' will come in and do the job."

Brown has been a healthy scratch the past seven games and will center a line with Brandon Saad and Ivan Barbashev.

"He's going to be motivated to perform," Berube said. "I've got him with Saad and Barbashev, veteran guys. They've got to get the puck deep for him and he can go to work in the offensive zone. That's where his best assets are, down low. He's got skills and getting opportunities around the net, big body."

Brown has three goals and three assists in 18 games this season.

"You can see his enthusiasm, so I think he'll create a spark tonight," Saad said. "I think he's a big part of our team, he has a lot of skill, a lot of size when he's using it so I think it will be fun to see him tonight."

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Defenseman Marco Scandella returns after missing the past 11 games with a lower-body injury.

Scandella, who has been skating with the team off and on -- more so on recently -- will be paired with Colton Parayko, moving Niko Mikkola to the third pair with Robert Bortuzzo and making Jake Walman a healthy scratch.

"It's not fun watching games, being part of the team, not going on the road the last road trip," Scandella said. "It's fun being back with the boys, practicing, being part of the group. 

"We took our time with it, I think we were smart about it, collectively the team and myself and now I know I'm ready to go."

Scandella hasn't played since a 7-4 home loss against the New Jersey Devils on Feb. 10, but the injury occurred before then.

"I think it was a little bit of both," he said. "Definitely there was an incident in the New Jersey game that didn't help, but it was something that was lingering for a while and we had to take care of it before we got to a point where I wasn't going to even be able to move. Happy that we're at that point now that we're good and we're back at it."

Berube wants a different look at his d-pairings, feeling the Mikkola-Parayko pair has gone a bit stale.

"I just think Mikkola and Colton are not as sharp as they were and Scandy's played well with Parayko before," Berube said. "He's just coming off an injury, so it's just moving some guys around and seeing what he can do there with Parayko."

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Forward Oskar Sundqvist, who had off-season surgeries on both hips and left knee, will sit out a second straight game with an undisclosed lower-body ailment.

Sundqvist has been skating the past two days but the team feels they need to manage his time and minutes on the ice.

"We're just giving him some time to heal up here," Berube said. "We'll see by the weekend, OK?"

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The Blues announced on Wednesday that Scott Perunovich will have surgery on his left wrist and be re-evaluated in eight weeks, thus putting the defenseman on the sideline for the remainder of the regular season.

The 23-year-old had six assists in 19 games in his NHL debut season and hasn't played since Jan. 15 against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

"It's tough, you feel for him and us too obviously," Berube said. "We lose a player. He came into camp and he had a great camp. We wanted him to go down and play and he tore up the American League, and we got him up here, he played some time, dropped off a little bit but that's normal. He's got a lot of ability moving the puck and vision, things like that."

Perunovich missed all of last season with a shoulder injury.

"A lot of bad luck with the surgeries and hasn't been able to put together a bunch of games, but he's just got to deal with it and get ready when he gets back," Berube said.

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The Blues are looking to put an end to a season-long four-game losing skid (0-3-1) and get a rematch against the Rangers, who beat the Blues 5-3 in New York March 2.

"It's more about us than our opponent," Saad said. "Obviously we haven't liked the way we've played. Tonight's a good test for us against a good hockey team in our own building to kind of make a statement, so we're looking to get back on track here.

"I think it's just a commitment, playing the right way and doing the right things. There's times where you're going to get frustrated and maybe try and do too much, but for us, we're successful as a team and that's how we're going to come out of this thing. For us, it's just turning our brains on and playing smart hockey.

"I think we know we have to be better, but at the same time, you're going to have adversity throughout a season. It's only going to make you stronger. For us, it's focusing on getting back to our team game. There's going to be frustrations and adversity in a season and you can't let that faze you because it's a long hockey year. For us it's just looking to get back on track."

The Blues have scored just four goals the past 10 periods of hockey going back to the third period against the Rangers when they led 3-2 heading into the third and were outscored 3-0.

"For me, the last three games offensively, we're not there at all," Berube said. "We're not getting into the offensive zone enough because we don't manage things properly and just want to put pucks in deep and go to work. We're not putting the other team in tough enough positions to force them into bad puck plays in their own end and turning pucks over. I just don't think we're getting any slot shot attempts. We were probably tops in the league before these last three or four games. That's something we addressed today. We've got to get the puck to the middle of the ice more and get some more shots. We've got to get our shot attempts up. But in saying that, you've got to make sure that you get to the offensive zone enough and doing a good job.

"It's a bad stretch right now. You've got to get out of it, you've got to work hard, you've got to compete hard and you've got to play together as a team, and you've got to simplify things. It's got to be more of a simple mindset right now. We've got to make the other team defend more than they are, that's the bottom line.

"We're just not doing what we're supposed to do. We're not in sync right now doing the things that were making us successful before. ... We're not consistent for 60 minutes right now. We're not pushing for 60 minutes."

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The Blues' projected lineup:

Brayden Schenn-Ryan O'Reilly-David Perron

Jordan Kyrou-Robert Thomas-Vladimir Tarasenko

Brandon Saad-Logan Brown-Ivan Barbashev  

Mackenzie MacEachern-Tyler Bozak-Alexei Toropchenko

Marco Scandella-Colton Parayko

Torey Krug-Justin Faulk

Niko Mikkola-Robert Bortuzzo

Ville Husso will start in goal; Jordan Binnington will be the backup.

The healthy scratch is Jake Walman. Pavel Buchnevich (concussion protocol), Marco Scandella (lower body), Oskar Sundqvist (lower body) and Scott Perunovich (wrist) are out with injuries.

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The Rangers' projected lineup:

Chris Kreider-Mika Zibanejad-Alexis Lafreniere

Artemi Panarin-Ryan Strome-Dryden Hunt

Tim Gettinger-Filip Chytil-Julien Gauthier

Barclay Goodrow-Jonny Brodzinski-Ryan Reaves

Ryan Lindgren-Adam Fox

K'Andre Miller-Jacob Trouba

Patrik Nemeth-Braden Schneider

Igor Shesterkin will start in goal; Alexandar Georgiev will be the backup. 

Healthy scratches include Libor Hajek, Greg McKegg and Morgan Barron. Kaapo Kakko (upper body) and Kevin Rooney (upper body) are out.