(1-18-21) BLUES NOTEBOOK

Berube mixes up lines following 8-0 loss; Bortuzzo goes to IR, 

Mikkola called up from taxi squad; first home game in 10 months

By LOU KORAC
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Following an 8-0 drubbing in Colorado Friday, it was pretty evident change would be forthcoming for the Blues.

And true to form, the forwards had a different look to them at practice on Sunday.

The coaching staff had a different look on each of the top three lines ahead of a four-game homestand that starts Monday with two games against the San Jose Sharks.

Zach Sanford was back in a familiar spot with Ryan O'Reilly and David Perron, Brayden Schenn and Jaden Schwartz were reunited and found a new linemate in Jordan Kyrou, and Robert Thomas was with Tyler Bozak and Mike Hoffman on the third line, while the fourth line of Kyle Clifford, Ivan Barbashev and Oskar Sundqvist.

"A little more balance," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "I think it makes us a little more balanced for sure and still tinkering with getting chemistry going. We like to use four lines, we like them to all be producing and doing good things. That's all really. I think there's going to be some tinkering going on for a bit, who knows, but if you look at it, these guys, the O'Reilly line, they've played together before, Schenn and Schwartz have played together a bunch, Thomas and Bozak and Sunny and Barby. These pairs have been together for quite some time."

The Blues showed up for work Sunday with a feeling something may change following one of the worst losses in team history but with no control over it. 

"I mean, it is what it is," forward David Perron said. "We just come and we see what happens. You kind of maybe think about it just for the reason that we hadn't scored as a line, but not just that, I think they started moving things around in the third and so if that's the decision, it doesn't matter for us. We just come here and we work as a team. We're going to play with a lot of guys throughout the year.

"... I think (Sanford's) a really good player. He's really coming into his own. I think he brings a familiar face for me and O'Ry also that we know what we're going to do. It's almost like we don't think anymore when the three of us are together. We just kind of go out and play. That kind of goes into our mentality of playing deep in the o-zone. I think we need to get O'Ry the puck as much as we can. I think as a line, if you don't score the first couple (of games) like we have, maybe you start pressing. The moment we get the first one out of the way, hopefully we just take off and having Sanny there will get some familiarity with us."

The defensive pairings remained the same other than Carl Gunnarsson paired with Vince Dunn on the third line. 

Gunnarsson will make his season debut against the Sharks with Robert Bortuzzo out with an apparent head injury, likely a concussion, following a hit by Valeri Nichushkin early in the first period.

"I'm happy to be back in," Gunnarsson said. "Left side, right side, doesn't matter. I feel bad for 'Bobbo.' It is what it is. I don't care if I'm on the left or right, just happy to be back in."

The lines and d-pairings:

Zach Sanford-Ryan O'Reilly-David Perron

Jaden Schwartz-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou 

Mike Hoffman-Robert Thomas-Tyler Bozak 

Kyle Clifford-Ivan Barbashev-Oskar Sundqvist

* Sammy Blais, who needs to serve one more game of his two-game suspension, and Mackenzie MacEachern were the extra forwards.

Torey Krug-Colton Parayko

Marco Scandella-Justin Faulk

Vince Dunn-Carl Gunnarsson

Niko Mikkola-Jake Walman

Jordan Binnington and Ville Husso

* Bortuzzo placed on IR; Walman, Neighbours called up to taxi squad -- Bortuzzo was put on injured reserve with his injury on Sunday, and the Blues elevated Niko Mikkola from the taxi squad and called Jake Walman and 2021 first-round pick Jake Neighbours up to the taxi squad.

The league's department of player safety did not feel Nichushkin warranted a hearing for the hit from behind that surprised Berube.

"Yes, I am," Berube said. 'I did not like the hit at all. I think it's a tough play, but that's the way it is. I'm not going to say too much about it.

"... It's a loss, bad loss. He's a good player for us, he's a real good leader, he's a penalty killer and he's out now."

The Blues are one of those squads that's been blessed with really good depth on the blue line and they've needed it. It will get tested here again.

"Gunnarsson's ready to go and I think Gunny's been a good player for us, so we've got depth," Berube said.

"We've had good depth on our blue line for a while," Gunnarsson said. "As much as it's tough being on the sides, coming down the stretch, there's going to be injuries, there's going to be rotations and guys are going to be fatigued and tired, especially now. We've got so many games, it's going to be a tight schedule. It's tough to be on the outside, but I'm just happy to be back."

* Throw the film away? -- What do the Blues do when one loses in such fashion as they did Friday, look at the film and learn from it or throw it away and move ahead?

Well, conventional wisdom says throw it in the trash. There's nothing to gain from watching such a lopsided loss. But there's something to be gained, for it to not happen again.

"You've got to try and do a little bit of both I think," Perron said. "There's definitely things to look at. I don't know so much when you get up five, six, seven, all that stuff, but maybe the first part of that. There was definitely some stuff that we looked at at the same time, trying to move on and have a good practice. It's game (three), so get ready for tomorrow."

"We looked at tape, we always do," Berube said. "We always try and improve. That's the way we do things, we keep trying to get better."

The players were put through a quick-paced 45-minute practice with the thought process of constantly moving pucks.

"Just tempo and get back to working," Berube said. "Our drills at the end there, a lot of work, up and back, breaking pucks out attacking, regrouping, just trying to play fast and get that workmanlike mentality back like we had in the first game against Colorado. I say all the time, there's no way we can be outworked or outcompeted in a game. That shouldn't happen. We're built this way, that's the way we want things, we want to outwork teams, we want to be highly competitive. That's what I wanted to get out of practice today."

The Blues have normally jumped back on the saddle following such losses. One that comes to mind is the 7-2 shellacking at the hands of Boston in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, then the Blues responded with a 4-2 win in Game 4. They then were dropped 5-1 in Game 6, and followed it up with a 4-1 win to win the Cup in Game 7.

"We usually come back the game after," Gunnarsson said. "That's what we do, we always bounce back. We don't want to let that happen, and 8-0, that's a big excessive. I think we all know that and we're going to have a better performance tomorrow."

* Empty Enterprise -- For the first time since fans were not allowed in the building, the Blues will host games inside Enterprise Center.

The last meaningful game inside this building was March 9 when the Blues hosted Hoffman and the Florida Panthers, a 2-1 loss.

There will be 300 family, friends and first responders inside the building, and the Blues will not field a percentage of spectators at least through the month of January.

"Yeah, there will be some, from what I'm being told, first responders that will be really cool for us to see and I think for them too," Perron said. "I think it's definitely different to be at Enterprise but I think just the feeling for us as players to walk in the building, park our cars and walk underneath all that, just get that feeling back, it's fun to walk in that building. Every time I do, I still get excited about playing a game there. It's going to be fun I think regardless. We want fans and hopefully starting to see some faces of people in the stands, people kind of get used to that again, start feeling like it's normal again and we start increasing as we go here."

The Blues played with no fans in Edmonton in the Return to Play last season, then the first two games against the Avalanche in Denver to open this season.

"I think we kind of got used to it in the bubble playing in front of no fans," Gunnarsson said. "But being at home too, we're going to miss the fans for sure. It's been one of the good things in the last couple years here seeing all the fan base we've got here. We're going to miss it here, but at the same time, we knew that coming in, so it's not too big of a change."