(3-26-22) Hurricanes-Blues Gameday Lineup

By LOU KORAC
ST. LOUIS -- It's no secret how the Blues have had their issues against lesser opponents, more notably as of late.

Tonight will not be the case. The Blues (35-19-9) face one of the top teams in the league in the Carolina Hurricanes (42-15-7), and there is no other choice than to get up for such an opponent.

And these are the teams the Blues usually are able to go toe-to-toe with.

The Blues and Hurricanes will will square off at 7 p.m. today (BSMW, ESPN 101.1-FM), and the good news for the Blues is they're facing the team with the third-most points in the league. They tend to rise to the occasion against quality opponents.

"You've got to be ready to work for sure, very hard-working team, puck pressure everywhere," Blues coach Craig Berube said of the Hurricanes. "They've obviously been real good for a couple years now. It'll be a hard game. We played them well there though in Carolina. It was a close game. We lost it late (3-2 on Nov. 13).

"You've definitely got to skate, you've got to win your puck battles. There's not going to be a lot of clean plays out there. You've got to be willing to chip and chase and go to work."

Carolina, despite their strong run of the season, have dropped five of six (1-3-2) after a 4-3 shootout loss against the Dallas Stars on Thursday, a game they clearly were the better team, outshooting the Stars 47-15 but had the game really stolen from them by the goaltending of Scott Wedgewood. 

The Hurricanes have outshot their opponents 132-62 the past three games, eclipsing 40 in each game.

"I haven't broken so many of their games down, but they're not in their end very often," Berube said. "They pressure the puck so hard in the offensive zone, they forecheck hard and they reload and their D are down on walls. You don't get out of your zone a lot. I don't believe that they're in their end that much.

"We've got to get to the offensive zone, but we've got to make sure we're getting the puck out of our zone with people skating and supporting and be able to get into the offensive zone and go to work and try to get some opportunities. You've  got to get pucks behind them."

But the Blues' unpredictability continues after their poor result on Thursday, a 5-2 loss against the Philadelphia Flyers, their sixth loss this month (0-3-3) against non-playoff opponents compared to their 3-2-0 record in March against playoff-eligible opponents.

"It seems like when we play certain opponents, we seem unpredictable at times," Berube said. "I think that record speaks for itself that we talked about. That's something that obviously needs to change."

As Berube put it postgame, arrogance seems to be the theme when it comes to how the Blues are viewing their opponents.

"Well he's right, yeah," forward David Perron said. "I think that's how it looks certainly, but for us, we've had meetings, we keep having meetings and we will until we figure it out, but it's pretty black and white. We talked about it again (Friday) what we need to do to have success. I think we've got to find a way to be excited for the next game like we will (today) and start to bring it, start building our game, realizing that we've got 19 games before playoffs. That's the only way we're going to have success. There's many little things that we can do better. I think it's pretty obvious watching, but now it needs to start happening."

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The Blues are fifth in the league in goals per game at 3.52, which is good, but now that games are getting tighter and more meaningful, perhaps they need to get used to playing lower-scoring games and be comfortable doing so.

"That's a good point. You're not going to score four goals all the time," Berube said. "You've got to win 2-1, 3-2. That's really the league, this time of year for sure.

"Boring, but just predictable more than anything from game to game. You put that Washington game together (a 5-2 win Tuesday), it's really a 60-minute really good game in a tough building against a good opponent that's been playing really good hockey. We come home and we go out in the first period and don't have much to really get anything positive out of it, right? Not a very good period. That's where this team's at a little bit."

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After a hard practice on Friday, Berube had a couple of one-on-one chats with a couple guys looking for a jumpstart, they include Ivan Barbashev and Pavel Buchnevich. 

Barbashev for different reasons, since the forward only played a team-low 7:52 on Thursday and his low for the season by roughly five minutes; he didn't play the last 13 minutes of the third period Thursday.

"Big part of our team, even when we won," Berube said. "We all know 'Barby' and how he played. He can play the game with his forechecking ability, the physical play and things like that, really drives our team. It did back then and I believe it does now. He has the capabilities to do that and that's what we need from him."

Barbashev's role has changed offensively, with 19 goals and 25 assists on the season, but after scoring 15 goals his first 38 games, Barbashev has just four in his past 24 games.

"It has changed to a certain extent, but it doesn't mean he still can't do that stuff," Berube said. "Yeah, he's producing for us, he's done a great job. He's an all-situational player right now for us, but that doesn't mean he can't bring that other stuff that we need."

For Buchnevich, since a stretch when he had nine points (three goals, six assists) in a five-game point streak from Feb. 10-19, he has one goal and two assists his past 11 games.

"He does a lot of good things still, even though he may not be producing," Berube said. "He's a very smart player, good defensively, has a great stick, killing penalties and things like that. Players all go through this confidence thing because they're not producing, right? He just needs to be more direct. He can get more pucks to the net. Like I told him, confidence will come, you've just got to work your way out of it. You've got to work and that's the bottom line. A player like himself, he takes it personally. He's not very happy right now with himself. He wants to help more and do more, and sometimes when you try to do too much, you do less. Just simplify your game and make sure you're working and doing the right things and be more direct, shoot more pucks. Sometimes he gets too cute."

As for Jordan Kyrou, who played 12:34 Thursday and was benched for the final 14:27, it's more direct that anything from the coaching staff. However, he did not get one of those chats Friday. He's had one previously in the near past.

"No, I left him alone," Berube said. "I think he realizes it. I think he'll respond and have a good game (tonight). That's what I believe.

"Just him using his assets to the best of his ability more than anything. Using his speed and attacking, doing things with the puck. He's just not engaged enough. That's the bottom line. He was in Washington. I thought he had a good game. He was skating, he competed and worked. Last game, he didn't reload hard, didn't use his speed, didn't attack. He's got to be more consistent that way."

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* Perron will put an eight-game point streak (10 goals, four assists) in the line tonight.

* Blues forward Brayden Schenn has five points (one goal, four assists) his past three games.

* Blues center Robert Thomas has six assists in four career games against Carolina.

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The Blues' projected lineup:

Brandon Saad-Ryan O'Reilly-David Perron

Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Vladimir Tarasenko

Ivan Barbashev-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou

Nathan Walker-Logan Brown-Alexei Toropchenko

Nick Leddy-Colton Parayko

Marco Scandella-Justin Faulk

Niko Mikkola-Robert Bortuzzo

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

Healthy scratches include Mackenzie MacEachern and Calle Rosen. Torey Krug (hand), Tyler Bozak (lower body) and Scott Perunovich (upper body) are out.

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The Hurricanes' projected lineup:

Teuvo Teravainen-Sebastian Aho-Seth Jarvis

Andrei Svechnikov-Vincent Trocheck-Martin Necas

Nino Niederreiter-Jordan Staal-Jesper Fast

Max Domi-Jesperi Kotkaniemi-Derek Stepan

Jaccob Slavin-Tony DeAngelo

Brady Skjei-Brett Pesce

Ethan Bear-Ian Cole

Antti Raanta will start in goal; Frederik Andersen will be the backup. 

Healthy scratches include Brendan Smith and Steven Lorentz. Jordan Martinook (lower body) is out.