(9-26-22) Blues-Stars Gameday Lineup

By LOU KORAC
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Noel Acciari wants no part of the conversation anymore.

And for the record, he said he was tripped by Tyler Bozak in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final while with the Boston Bruins playing against the Blues in 2019.

Sure, Acciari has answered the question multiple times when he was with the Bruins afterwards and probably during his past three seasons with the Florida Panthers, but the Blues' newest free agent signing (signed a one-year, $1.25 million contract on July 13) wanted to set the record straight.

For those that can't recall, don't remember or simply have no clue what transpired, it was in the third period of Game 5 and the Blues holding onto a 1-0 lead. Acciari was upended by Bozak, no call was made, much to the dismay of the TD Garden crowd and probably everyone else in the building, the Blues would to on to get a goal from David Perron seconds later to take a 2-0 lead and win the game 2-1 to take a 3-2 series lead, eventually winning the Cup in seven games.

"This will probably be the last time I want to answer this, but I do think he did," Acciari said Monday morning. "Honestly when I hit my head, I don't remember coming to until later on the bench. It's over with, you can't go back. I want to get back there with these guys now. ... Now that I'm with them, we want to get back there together."

Acciari was brought in to help forge an identity on the fourth line, something he'll get the chance to do with the Blues.

"He's a good player, plays hard, gritty, battles, penalty killing and checking and things like that," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "He drives that side of the game.

"He's going to give some identity in that situation. He's going to be used as a penalty killer and go out and check."

Acciari, who scored 20 goals for the Panthers in 2019-20, is likely to be paired with Ivan Barbashev on the fourth line and whoever else steps into that role and wins a job. Alexey Toropchenko, who is rehabbing from offseason shoulder surgery, is a likely candidate but there are a host of others to battle for the position.

But after spending the past three seasons with the Panthers, Acciari couldn't help beat the Blues three years ago, so he felt like the next best thing will be to join them.

Acciari, 30, will make his Blues debut today at 7 p.m. when they play against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center.

"I think what made a good fit for me signing here was the style of play that they play," Acciari said. "I think that fits how I play. I had a lot of experience with this team and just seeing how relentless and how strong and good they are, I love joining it.

"We're going to play hard every shift. We're going to finish every check. We want to hem guys in their zone, whether it's their first line. If we keep them in their d-zone, they're not scoring. If we get that matchup, we want to be hard to play against and make them not want to come out against us.

"I want to score whenever I can. When it's there, I want to put it home. Every night I want to be effective in one spot, whether it's on the scoreboard, in our d-zone, whether it's blocking shots, finishing hits. I just want to make sure I do something every night for them."

Remember the identity the fourth line of Barbashev, Alexander Steen and Oskar Sundqvist created en route to winning the Cup? Perhaps that's an element that's been missing and the Blues would like to get it back again.

"I think it's nice to have an identity down there with those guys, your bottom-six type players on what we need on a given night to be successful," Berube said. "Those guys, they drive the culture. hard forechecking and physical play and penalty killing and checking and things like that. They're important guys to have."

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Forward Martin Frk will get a second look in a preseason game tonight.

Frk, who signed a one-year, two-way contract ($750,000 NHL/$500,000 AHL) after scoring 40 goals for the Ontario Reign of the American Hockey League last season, is one of the forwards battling for a bottom-six roster spot.

"There's a lot of guys fighting for spots," Berube said. "He's just got to do what he does best. He shoots the puck really well obviously. He's going to get a chance to do that again tonight on the power play or 5-on-5. He's just got to keep playing and working hard. He's got to play 200 feet of hockey. That's the most important thing. It's tough to have just specialty guys to play the game. You've got to be good defensively and need to play the right way."

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Forward prospect Keean Washkurak will have surgery on his left wrist and the Blues, who announced it on Monday, said the 2019 fifth-round pick will be reevaluated in 4-6 weeks.
Washkurak played in Saturday's 5-4 win over the Arizona Coyotes in Wichita, Kan. on Saturday but the injury did not occur then.

"I don't think so," Berube said. "I think it's been an ongoing issue. He gives you 100 percent, goes hard all over the ice and finishes checks. He's noticeable that way."

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Also making his Blues debut tonight will be goalie Thomas Greiss, who was signed to a one-year, $1.25 million contract to back up Jordan Binnington.

The 36-year-old spent the past two seasons with the Detroit Red Wings and will split tonight's game with 2019 third-round pick Colten Ellis.

"He's played that role before," Berube said of Greiss. "Our conversation with him is he's going to play games. We need him to win games and play good games for us. He's going to be used. The way we use our goalies here, so-called backups, they've played a lot of amount of games."

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The Blues' projected lineup:

Nathan Walker-Noel Acciari-Josh Leivo

Ivan Barbashev-Logan Brown-Martin Frk

Landon Sim-Hugh McGing-Will Bitten

Andrei Bakanov-Mathias Laferriere-Anthony Angello

Torey Krug-Colton Parayko

Tyson Galloway-Niko Mikkola

Marc-Andre Gaudet-Steven Santini

Thomas Greiss will start in goal; Colten Ellis will be the backup and play.

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The Stars' projected lineup:

Jacob Peterson-Roope Hintz-Joe Pavelski

Jamie Benn-Ty Dellandrea-Wyatt Johnston

Matej Blumel-Mavrik Bourque-Logan Stankoven

Riley Tufte-Riley Damiani-Marian Studenic

Esa Lindell-Nils Lundkvist

Thomas Harley-Jani Hakanpaa

Artem Grushnikov-Joseph Cecconi

Jake Oettinger will start in goal; Anton Khudobin will be the backup.