(2-27-21) Blues-Sharks Gameday Lineup

By LOU KORAC
Nathan Walker, come on down. You're the next contestant on ... 

You get the picture here.

It's not The Price is Right, but the Blues are hoping for the time being that Walker is the 'Right' fit as they look to snap a three-game losing streak to begin a six-game road trip against the San Jose Sharks today at 9:30 p.m. at SAP Center (FW-MW, ESPN 101.1-FM).

Walker was called up from the taxi squad and inserted into the lineup following quarantine and will replace Austin Poganski, who was returned to the taxi squad.

"These guys are great," Walker said. "They definitely welcome you in with open arms. It definitely makes you feel more comfortable coming into a situation like this. I'm not looking to try to do anything special. I'm just going to try and play my game and hopefully help the team and help my linemates here.

"I'll be honest, I really didn't know what to expect. I just knew there's been a lot of injuries here. I just try to keep myself ready and the body ready for when I do get a chance to play. Fortunately, my time's tonight."

Walker said he managed to skate after being recalled from Utica of the American Hockey League after scoring two goals in four games with the Comets.

"It was a little different, but I think the quarantine process was good," Walker said. "I managed to keep the fitness up, which was good. It's going to be exciting to get into a game tonight."

Walker will play on a line with Brayden Schenn and David Perron. He had a goal and an assist in five games with the Blues last season.

"He provides energy, is a good skater, gets in on the forecheck," Blues coach Craig Berube said of Walker. "He's a scorer down the in the American League, so he has the ability to score. He's an all-around player down the in American League and up here, I think he can really get in on the forecheck, he'll play physical, get to the net. Hopefully get a dirty goal around the net for us."

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There's some line and d-pair shuffling with Berube looking for a boost up and down the lineup.
It's not often that Perron and Ryan O'Reilly are broken up but they will be tonight, at least at the outset.

Oskar Sundqvist will skate again with Sammy Blais and Mike Hoffman, a group that's had some shifts together and although they didn't light up the goal lamp profusely, they did manage to put together some good o-zone shifts. 

"I've played a couple games with them, more with Sammy than with Hoffman, but we all know that Hoffman's a shooter and we need to try to get him the puck in a position where he can shoot it," Sundqvist said. "For me and Sammy, it's more to create that space for him and win puck battles and stuff like that. I think we can have some success in the offensive zone tonight."

Sundqvist broke his 18-game goal scoring drought since scoring twice on opening night in a 4-1 win at Colorado when he finally lit the lamp against Los Angeles, a 3-1 loss.

"It's good for confidence and it's been frustrating," Sundqvist said. "I feel like I've been getting a lot of scoring chances that I haven't scored on. I've been hard on myself in that department that I should have scored more goals at this point. Getting that one last game is obviously good for confidence. I just need to keep doing what I'm doing. Chances have been there, I just haven't been able to score."

On defense, Torey Krug will play alongside Niko Mikkola for the first time.

"I think it's important to transport the puck up the ice in every d-pair, so that's what we're looking for," Berube said.

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The Blues have scored just eight goals in five games (1-4-0) and are 2-1-1 against the Sharks this season, all in St. Louis.

"We've got to go out and compete," Berube said of tonight's game. "We've got to play real good defense and check well. The offense, if we do good things defensively, the offense will take care of itself. I truly believe that. I think first and foremost, we've got to do a good job without the puck here tonight, check well, force this team into turning pucks over and let's take advantage of it. Not only get pucks to the net but people at the net. We need to get more rebound chances and second and third opportunities around the net to score some goals.

"I think our guys are in a good frame of mind, to be honest with you. I think they've battled hard lately, no luck offensively. You go through those stretches at times. You've just got to battle through it and keep going. They understand that. I liked our skate yesterday, I liked our morning skate today."

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The Blues' laundry list for injuries is long, as everyone knows, and the uncertainty continues for Colton Parayko (undisclosed), Jaden Schwartz (lower body) and Tyler Bozak (upper body).

Parayko and Schwartz did not travel and will miss at least six more games.

Vladimir Tarasenko, who is close to returning from shoulder surgery, did skate Saturday morning and is likely to make his season debut at some point on the trip.  

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The Blues' projected lineup:

Zach Sanford-Ryan O'Reilly-Jordan Kyrou

Nathan Walker-Brayden Schenn-David Perron

Sammy Blais-Oskar Sundqvist-Mike Hoffman

Kyle Clifford-Jacob de la Rose-Mackenzie MacEachern 

Marco Scandella-Justin Faulk

Vince Dunn-Robert Bortuzzo

Torey Krug-Niko Mikkola 

Jordan Binnington will start in goal; Ville Husso is the backup. The Blues report no healthy scratches. Vladimir Tarasenko (shoulder), Colton Parayko (undisclosed), Jaden Schwartz (lower body), Tyler Bozak (upper body), Robert Thomas (thumb), Ivan Barbashev (ankle) are out. Carl Gunnarsson (knee) is out for the season. 

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The Sharks' projected lineup:

Evander Kane-Logan Couture-Kevin Labanc

Rudolfs Balcers-Dylan Gambrell-Timo Meier

Ryan Donato-Patrick Marleau-John Leonard

Matt Nieto-Alexander Chmelevski-Noah Gregor 

Mario Ferraro-Brent Burns

Erik Karlsson-Radim Simek

Marc-Edouard Vlasic-Nikolai Knyzhov

Devan Dubnyk will start in goal; Martin Jones will be the backup. 

The healthy scratch is Marcus Sorensen. The Shark report no injuries. Tomas Hertl is out because he is in the league's COVID-19 protocol.