(3-28-22) Canucks-Blues Gameday Lineup

By LOU KORAC
ST. LOUIS -- Three wins in the month of March would be a sour taste in everyone's mouths for the Blues, considering the month is almost over.

The Blues have played 12 games this month and are 3-6-3, and coming off back-to-back poor losses at home (5-2 against Philadelphia and most recently, 7-2 against Carolina), the Blues find themselves in a wildcard position when they woke up on Monday morning getting set for a back-to-back set beginning today at 6:30 p.m. at Enterprise Center against the surging Vancouver Canucks (32-26-9), who have played consistently well since they hired Bruce Boudreau as coach.

"Guys are irritated right now, they're not happy for sure," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "That's normal when things aren't going well. They're not going to be happy. They want to win, but I think that we went out and had a good practice. I think guys understand if we play a certain way, we'll be OK. You've got to bring that for 60 minutes for sure. That's the bottom line,. There's no tricks when you're in a little bit of a slump or when things aren't going well. You've got to work your way out of it. It's about doing things right for 60 minutes. 

"I don't think accountability is the problem. I don't think that's a problem. I think that this team has been a close team from Day 1. I think they've been through a lot together this year and have done a good job. They're obviously not in a good spot right now. You work and compete and you work together as a team and you get out of these things. That's the bottom line."

The Blues were not too long ago firmly holding onto second place in the Central Division, but with this recent slide of games, the red-hot Minnesota Wild, winners of six in a row, are suddenly five points ahead of the Blues and even on games, and they're one point behind the Nashville Predators for third place with two games in hand. And looking at the wildcard picture, the Blues hold the first wildcard, three points ahead of second wildcard Vegas Golden Knights and four points ahead of the closest team chasing them, the Dallas Stars.

"It's been a tight race, even when we were up in that second seed there, even when we were winning, we were on a win streak and teams were all winning, so you can kind of see our division's tight," forward Brandon Saad said. "It seems like every night that teams are winning on our division and kind of creeping up in our conference. We've got to get back on track here, focus on us primarily. We still have some hockey to get back on track and every game's important for us, and that's how our mentality has to be."

It's been cliche to say it, but the Blues keep saying it, and they feel that they have to just accomplish one simple feat.

"I think play a full 60 minutes," Saad said. "There's been stints where we're playing well and playing our game and other times, whether we're scored on and we kind of let down, but we've got to play consistently for a full 60 minutes. It's been too often where we get scored on and the air gets deflated out of the tires and we take a while to regroup. If you don't play a full 60 in this league, you're not going to win, especially against good hockey teams. Down the stretch we're playing a lot of good hockey teams."

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Berube will make a couple line changes ahead of tonight's matchup.

Mackenzie MacEachern will jump back in after being a healthy scratch the past two games and replace Logan Brown, and Calle Rosen will play his first game since Jan. 13 and seventh of the season, and he will replace Robert Bortuzzo on defense and be paired with Niko Mikkola.

"I wanted to get 'Mac' in there, I don't want him to sit out too long," Berube said. "He provides speed and energy for us, and then Rosen is up here, I wanted to give 'Borts' a break tonight and then get Rosen in there. He's a good puck mover and a good skater.

"I think 'Borts' gives us what he's got, but he's an older player and just going to give him a rest, that's all."

Ville Husso will once again get the nod in goal and be opposed by former Blue Jaroslav Halak.

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The Blues' projected lineup:

Brandon Saad-Ryan O'Reilly-David Perron

Pavel Buchnevich-Robert Thomas-Vladimir Tarasenko

Ivan Barbashev-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou

Mackenzie MacEachern-Nathan Walker-Alexei Toropchenko

Nick Leddy-Colton Parayko

Marco Scandella-Justin Faulk

Niko Mikkola-Calle Rosen

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

Healthy scratches include Robert Bortuzzo and Logan Brown. Torey Krug (hand), Tyler Bozak (lower body) and Scott Perunovich (upper body) are out.

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The Canucks projected lineup:

Tanner Pearson-J.T. Miller-Conor Garland

Elias Pettersson-Bo Horvat-Brock Boeser

Vasily Podkolzin-Juho Lammikko-Alex Chiasson

Nic Petan-Brad Richardson-William Lockwood

Oliver Ekman-Larsson-Tyler Myers

Quinn Hughes-Luke Schenn

Travis Dermott-Brad Hunt

Jaroslav Halak will start in goal; Thatcher Demko will be the backup. 

The Canucks have no healthy scratches. Matthew Highmore (upper body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Jason Dickinson (lower body), Kyle Burroughs (upper body) and Tucker Poolman (head) are out.