(2-4-21) Coyotes-Blues Gameday Lineup

By LOU KORAC
ST. LOUIS -- With a recent outbreak of positive cases among teams regarding COVID-19, the NHL is implementing four changes to its in-arena protocols in an effort to slow the spread of the virus, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.

The NHL hasn't formally released any of the details, but Sportsnet is reporting that among the new changes, the glass behind team benches will be removed in time for tonight's games, including the Blues (7-2-1) hosting the Arizona Coyotes (3-5-1) at 7 p.m. (FS-MW, ESPN 101.1-FM).

This after an outbreak among the Minnesota Wild that has forced the postponement of the Blues' game in St. Paul, Minn. on Tuesday, and possibly next Thursday.

Also according to Sportsnet, the NHL is considering asking teams to deploy portable air cleaners behind the benches, "in order to improve indoor air quality and mitigate airborne viral transmission." These cleaners would use HEPA filters, which Consumers Reports magazine states "results in reductions of 50 percent or higher in particulate matter." Also, players and coaches are no longer permitted to arrive at the arena more than one hour and 45 minutes before puck drop with the exception for receiving necessary treatment of injuries. All meetings, game day or off days, should be virtually conducted, and teams are being asked to utilize/create additional locker room space for themselves and their opponents, with the league looking to have at least six feet between players at each of their stalls. Teams have one week to communicate their plans for accomplishing this. If necessary, portable stalls can be provided to teams.

The Blues are one of a handful of teams to not have a player yet reach the NHL's COVID Protocol list.

"We've talked about them," Blues captain Ryan O'Reilly said of the changes. "Obviously there's some concerns from the league and we have to be smart. One of the things is we can come early to the rink, but it's got to be for treatment, which is part of it. With all this hockey, a lot of guys are coming in early to get this work done. It's different, but it is what it is. We've got to be safe, we've got to take precautions. It's new challenges, but we've talked about them. We have to do our best to have the kind of same routines but within the confines of the protocol.

"I don't think it's a big concern. Both teams have to go through it. We know throughout this season there were going to be challenges and things will be adjusted. I think compared to a normal season, we're expecting things to happen, things to be adjusted. At the end of the day when the puck drops, we have to be ready and the main thing is mentally, we have to be sharp. We know these things are happening and it's just being ready to make the right decisions at the right times. It is what it is and I don't think it will affect us at all."

Players are wearing masks on up until game time, they stay distanced from each other and in meetings spreading it out, in a big room, no one's close to each other, all the necessities to keep everyone safe.

"You continue to just try and do your best to stay safe and staying within the protocols and make sure you're doing your part to stay safe," Blues defenseman Colton Parayko said. "Obviously around the locker room too. It's a real thing and obviously we've realized that as a world, we've got to make sure that we follow the right protocols and continue to do our thing. That's all we can do at this point. We can't really worry about things that we can't control and that's out of our control, the league-wide thing. A lot of things we have to roll with the punches and a lot of different dynamics being thrown at us this year, different schedule changes and what not. It's on us to make sure we're dialed in for each game that we've got on the calendar and get ready for those games accordingly."

The postponement of the game in Minnesota and possibly both, it will give the Blues some extra days to get in some practice or perhaps rest, something the coaching staff will take into consideration.

"It's early to tell," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "We've got tonight and then the weekend back-to-back games (at home against the Colorado Avalanche), there's been a lot of hockey. I think we've got to think about it and see where we're at after the weekend. It could go two ways. You could use it as practice time, but you can also use it as rest. It's been a pretty hectic schedule with travel and three games in four nights. That's twice, back-to-back games and stuff like that. We'll just figure it out after the weekend."

All in all, Berube likes how the Blues, who put a four-game winning streak on the line tonight, have handled the hectic days of late.

"I think pretty good. I think our players are doing a good job of coming to me and coming to the coaches about how they feel and the leaders and things like that, that's important that they're communicating with us about what's going on with their bodies and how they're feeling," Berube said. "We handled practice pretty well, we pushed them when we could and there's days off when we think they need a day off. Keeping practice short I think is important but intense. You've got to get out there, even in morning skates, I'll always tell the guys it's only 15 minutes out there of the skate, you stay out there after and do extra stuff, but within that 15 minutes, the intensity's got to be up. You've got to be moving, you've got to get your body moving. That's important."

The outbreak among teams, including the New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres among the teams with the Wild to have their seasons on pause at the moment, it makes one wonder if a 56-game season could actually be pulled off.

"You think the season might have to be extended or the playoffs will be pushed back a bit, but when you keep hearing these cases, we think of our team and what we can control, and it's us being really safe," O'Reilly said. "We have to be smart, wear a mask and do the right things, make sure we're social distancing and all those things, we have to be safe because we have to do our part here. We want to keep playing hockey. It's lucky we haven't had anything yet and we have to keep it that way.

"I think we're lucky to be back playing hockey. We know there's going to be situations like this, but hopefully soon and hopefully this will be the last year where we have these kind of restrictions and can get back to normal, but for the meantime, it's doing our part and staying safe."

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The Blues did what they wanted to do in between the clock against the Coyotes Tuesday in the 4-3 win.

What they didn't like was the start, in which they trailed 1-0 and were being outshot 11-1 to start the first 10 minutes before Berube laid down the law during a TV timeout, and then at the end when the Coyotes pulled the goalie with three-plus minutes to play, the Blues seemed to be chasing the puck a lot and allowed a late goal to get the game within one.

"Towards the end, obviously the last goal we don't want to be giving up," O'Reilly said. "I just kind of made a bad read and got pulled out of position and got exposed, they brought it back to the middle and just couldn't recover quick enough. We talked about it. We have to make it easier on Binner. We have to keep the puck out of the middle and keep it to the outside and have them shoot from there, but as we go on, we have to improve it. We did a good job finding a way to win, but obviously it's something we talked about and want to improve.

"For sure we've been relying on our goaltending to bail us out in these starts, but last game, we had a pretty tough back-to-back, a lot of hockey, we had tl fly across the country back here, we knew we weren't going to have our legs, but still we got out of it decently. It was enough to find our legs and get back going. Tonight I think after being here, being here having played a game, the key for us is just being on our toes. When we're on our toes and we're not thinking the game through, we're just going, we're attacking, being aggressive. Usually when you're playing these teams twice, when you see them both times and you manage to win the first one, we know there's going to be a lot of desperation from them. It's tough because they're going to try to dictate right off the bat, but we have to try to match that intensity. If we can do that and can make some good plays, it'll put us in a good spot and as the game goes on, I feel we get stronger."

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The Blues will implement the same lineup tonight, albeit one caveat.

Vince Dunn and Marco Scandella, at least at the outset, will flip spots with Dunn being paired with Parayko and Scandella paired up with Niko Mikkola.

The Blues flipped those pairs around during the game Tuesday, keeping Torey Krug and Justin Faulk together.

It marks the third defensive partner for Parayko, who began the season with Krug and has played most recently with his partner of last season, Scandella. Parayko played with Dunn in stretches during the Stanley Cup run in 2019.

"We've played a lot together throughout the years, even the years before  that too," Parayko said. "Leading up to it, we've had a lot of time together. Obviously he's a very good player over there, he makes things happen all the time, he's very smart and very easy to play with. The beauty of it over here is we've got a lot of good players on the back end that we can interchange things and we can try new things throughout the year and still having all of us on the D corps. That's the beauty of it for us. We're going to continue to just work in pairs because this is a different year. You never know what's going to happen. Just nice to have a little bit of chemistry with everybody and make it work.

"At the end of the day, you want to play your own game, but obviously there's a little different tendencies in each player that you're aware of or you understand and know, but for the most part, our systems are there and we rely on each other to be in certain spots in our systems. That's just what we've got to do. Not a ton of differences I guess. Some players have a few different tendencies from others but small things that maybe you wouldn't notice. But other than that, they're very easy and very smart and great to play with."

Scandella's minutes have fallen to 15:20 last game and 13:44 the previous game and his shifts being around 20 instead of the 30-32 he's averaged, but Berube said there's no slippage in play or any injury concerns.

Scandella missed a game against San Jose earlier in the season after being checked from behind, then collided with the post in the win at Anaheim Sunday.

"I think just certain teams we play, I think we can mix our d-pairs up just a little bit," Berube said. "I know they probably don't like it as much, but I think there's certain matchups and things like that. We worked Dunn with Parayko last game a little bit and Scandella. You're probably going to see a little of the same tonight.

"I think Dunn's playing well and we're trying to get minutes for a lot of our guys. It's a deep d-corps and we're just trying to find minutes for a lot of d-men, and it's not easy to do every night."

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The Blues will unveil their reverse retro jerseys tonight, one of two dates in which they will wear them, with Feb. 22 against the Los Angeles Kings being the other.

It'll be different that what's been accustomed to seeing, with red being the predominant color with the older Blues logo.

"I like them," O'Reilly said. "It's a nice change, nice to mix it up. It's a lot of red, but I think it'll be cool. I know last year we wore a different kind of version of it and it was awesome, the boys loved it. These ones I think will be cool. I think it's cool to just mix it up once in a while."

"They're pretty cool, they're nifty," Parayko said. "I really like the blue retros. This is obviously just the reverse colors and I think they're cool. Obviously not normal seeing a lot red in our team's uniforms but very unique and I think they're cool."

Berube said he hadn't seen the jerseys as of the morning skate, but the coaching staff wore the new hats and other intricacies given to them.

"They're going to look nice," Berube said. "They're bright. It'll be fine. I think it'll look good. All of these jerseys that I've seen in the league so far, there are a lot of colors involved."

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Defenseman Robert Bortuzzo got in another skate on Thursday but will miss his ninth consecutive game with an upper-body injury sustained Jan. 15 at Colorado.

"He feels good, but I think he needs practice time," Berube said. "He's been out a while. He hasn't played since the second game of the season and he played a minute and something in that game. He's not played a while so he needs more practice time before he's available to play to be honest with you and I think he'd agree with that."

Forward Tyler Bozak (upper body) will miss his fourth straight game after sustaining his injury Jan. 26 at Vegas; he did not skate Thursday.

"He's feeling better and better every day, which is a good thing," Berube said. "He's around here today and I've seen him. He looks better today than he did yesterday and the day before, so I think that's a good sign. We just got to wait it out until he's ready to go out on to the ice and skate."

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The Blues' projected lineup:

Zach Sanford-Ryan O'Reilly-David Perron

Jaden Schwartz-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou

Sammy Blais-Robert Thomas-Mike Hoffman

Kyle Clifford-Ivan Barbashev-Oskar Sundqvist

Torey Krug-Justin Faulk

Vince Dunn-Colton Parayko

Marco Scandella-Niko Mikkola

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

Healthy scratches include Carl Gunnarsson, Jacob de la Rose and Jake Walman. Vladimir Tarasenko (shoulder), Tyler Bozak (upper body) and Robert Bortuzzo (upper body) are out.

- - - 

The Coyotes' projected lineup:

Clayton Keller-Nick Schmaltz-Conor Garland

Drake Caggiula-Christian Dvorak-Tyler Pitlick

Derick Brassard-Barrett Hayden-Phil Kessel

Michael Chaput-Johan Larsson-John Hayden

Jakob Chychrun-Alex Goligoski

Niklas Hjalmarsson-Jason Demers

Jordan Oesterle-Ilya Lyubushkin

Antti Raanta will start in goal; Darcy Kuemper will be the backup.

The healthy scratch includes Adin Hill. Oliver Ekman-Larsson (lower body), Lawson Crouse (undisclosed), Christian Fischer (undisclosed) and Dryden Hunt (lower body) are out.