(2-12-22) Blackhawks-Blues Gameday Lineup

By LOU KORAC
ST. LOUIS -- As Justin Faulk said, the Blues "crapped the bed" on Thursday against the New Jersey Devils in a 7-4 defeat. They don't want to make that same mistake when they host the rival Chicago Blackhawks (17-23-7) on Saturday (7 p.m.; BSMW, ESPN 101.1-FM).

The Blues put forth a poor game against the Devils on Thursday coming off an 11-day break. They'll play another opponent that's well below them in the standings and one they should come out with a good result against.

Coach Craig Berube said Blues lacked emotion against the Devils, but as center Robert Thomas put it, that shouldn't be a problem here tonight.

"We're going up against Chicago, Saturday night in our own barn," Thomas said. "That's all you need to say about that. Obviously a big rivalry going back a long time. We'll be ready to go tonight."

Forward Brandon Saad, a former Blackhawk, agreed.

"For sure. That's something that's going to be a lot of fun," Saad said. "The building's going to be exciting. Like 'Tommer' touched upon, it's a Saturday night and it's an old rivalry. For us, we're looking to get back on track, especially here at home after that break. It's going to be a fun game tonight."

The Blues have dropped three of their past four and haven't looked good in any of the losses, being outscored 18-6 in those games that were sandwiched around a 5-1 win against the Calgary Flames.

They started poorly against the Devils, gained their game back enough to build a 3-2 lead heading into the third period before really stinking it up, allowing five goals, including a pair of empty-netters.

"Obviously the third period, we didn't seal the deal," Faulk said. "We need to have a killer instinct and seal games. A 3-2 game going into the third period, home, road, doesn't really matter, we've got to be aggressive and dictate the pace of play and how it's going to be. We allowed them to get chances, mistakes on our part, odd-man rushes, things of that nature and they capitalized off it. They're a good team off the rush and they proved it last night. ... Third period, we just kind of crapped the bed. It's not really acceptable. It didn't matter if it's the first game. We had enough time in the game to figure it out."

The Blues (26-14-5) and Hawks have played twice this season, and each has come down to a one-goal game, with the Blues winning 1-0 here Oct. 30 before falling 3-2 in overtime at Chicago Nov. 26.

"When we play Chicago, it's always a good game, great rivalry," Berube said. "A Saturday night is something special. Any time you play a game on a Saturday night, everybody's revved up for it.

"They've got great speed. They're a good attack team. (Alex) DeBrincat and (Patrick) Kane are two high-end players, they're putting up numbers like they always do and they've got Seth Jones on the back end and (Marc-Andre) Fleury in net. There's some good players, but they have a lot of speed and they're a good offensive team."

The Blues have to obviously put forth a better defensive effort, and not just from goaltending to the D unit, but the forwards have to be much more connected than they were against the Devils.

"I think just being a little simpler with the puck," Saad said. "There's turning our brains on with turnovers. Sometimes we turn it over and that leads to other teams on the rush and they're going to score goals. This time of year, you want to buckle down, tighten up in the defensive zone. That's not always in the d-zone as well as playing heavy on the puck, playing a cycle game in the offensive zone, making teams stop. When we turn over the puck, teams are so good on the rush, they're going to capitalize. We kind of saw that last game, so that's something we've got to tighten up."

The forwards were too disjointed on Thursday.

"First game after the break, we need to bring more intensity and have a better mindset," Thomas said. "We didn't do that, but it's all about tonight and focusing on tonight. We'll be ready to respond after last game.

"All around, we need harder, we need to be more responsible in the defensive zone, making smarter plays rather than just strictly looking for offense. It's just a case of playing better 200-foot hockey and we will do that. We'll respond the right way."

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The Blues will be without defenseman Marco Scandella, who sustained a lower-body injury in the loss to the Devils.

Berube said Scandella's injury will be "day to day, week to week," in terms of recovery, and Jake Walman will step into the lineup to replace Scandella, being paired with Robert Bortuzzo.

"Using his feet, right? He's got great feet, skating pucks out of the zone, on breakouts and things like that and using his feet to defend," Berube said of Walman. "That's what he's got to do, he's got to be a hard defender, use his stick and he's going to be put in penalty kill situations. We'll need him to be a good penalty killer for us too."

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Dakota Joshua will remain in the lineup and veteran Tyler Bozak will be a healthy scratch for the second straight game.

Berube was asked if it was needing more from Bozak's game or wanting to give Joshua more of a look. He said, "It's both. I think that we wanted to look at a different element on the fourth line, more size and physicality. Bozie's game has come around. It's been an adjustment for him this year put in the position that he's been put in. I think he's done a real good job penalty killing for us this year though. That's one area that he's been good, but overall, I think it's more of a different look right now."

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The Blues switched up their power play units somewhat after going 0-for-4 against the Devils with only one shot on goal.

Quarterbacks Torey Krug and Faulk have been flipped, and Jordan Kyrou and Vladimir Tarasenko have flipped units as well, with Kyrou joining Ryan O'Reilly, Brayden Schenn, David Perron and Faulk, and Tarasenko joins Pavel Buchnevich, Ivan Barbashev, Thomas and Krug.

"It's a little stale," Berube said. "I didn't look at the numbers the last, say, five games exactly, but it just seemed stale a little bit, so we made a couple adjustments with personnel and see if we can add a little life to it."

The Blues are just 2-for-15 the past four games but are still third in the league at 27.6 percent.

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Saad said he still gets hyped up when facing the Blackhawks, who he played six seasons for in two stints.

"I've had a lot of success there, a lot of good memories, a lot of relationships, so it's definitely something I'll always hold special," Saad said. "There's not too many (former teammates) left to be honest with you. The turnover in this league with salary cap and those types of things, it changes pretty quickly, but there's only a handful of guys over there. But like you said, just seeing the crest and the emblem when you played for them for so long and had success, it's definitely a special team."

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* Schenn has 11 points (seven goals, four assists) his past seven games and has a three-game point streak (three goals, two assists).

* Ville Husso gets the start in goal tonight; he leads the league with a 1.90 goals-against average and .941 save percentage.

* In their past seven games against Chicago, the Blues are 5-0-2.

* Krug has 13 points (two goals, 11 assists) his past 14 games.

* Barbashev has 15 pts (five goals, 10 assists) his past 16 games.

* O’Reilly has 11 points his past 11 games (five goals, six assists).

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The Blues' projected lineup:

Brayden Schenn-Ryan O'Reilly-Jordan Kyrou 

Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Vladimir Tarasenko

Brandon Saad-Ivan Barbashev-David Perron

Klim Kostin-Dakota Joshua-Oskar Sundqvist

Niko Mikkola-Colton Parayko

Torey Krug-Justin Faulk

Jake Walman-Robert Bortuzzo

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

Healthy scratches include Tyler Bozak and Logan Brown. Marco Scandella (lower body) and Scott Perunovich (upper body).

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The Blackhawks' projected lineup:

Dominik Kubalik-Dylan Strome-Patrick Kane

Alex DeBrincat-Kirby Dach-Brandon Hagel

Philipp Kurashev-Josiah Slavin-Sam Lafferty

Henrik Borgstrom-Ryan Carpenter-MacKenzie Entwistle

Calvin de Haan-Seth Jones

Caleb Jones-Connor Murphy

Jake McCabe-Jakub Galvas 

Marc-Andre Fleury will start in goal; Arvid Soderblom will be the backup.

Healthy scratches include Erik Gustafsson and Brett Connolly. Jonathan Toews (concussion protocol), Jujhar Khaira (lower back), Reese Johnson (clavicle), Tyler Johnson (neck), Riley Stillman (upper body) and Kevin Lankinen (hand) are all out.