St. Louis Blues vs. San Jose Sharks: Game Preview

The St. Louis Blues will play the second game of a three-game West Coast road trip and the latter end of a back-to-back on Saturday night, facing the San Jose Sharks at the SAP Center for the second time in two weeks.

In their first meeting this season, which took place on December 20, the Blues took a lead with a little less than three minutes left in the second period and retained that lead until the Sharks scored with an extra attacker on the ice to tie it with 21 seconds left in the third. The teams battled it out in overtime, but longtime Blues-killer Brent Burns scored with 38 seconds left in the five-minute overtime period to give San Jose the win.

The Blues, who are just one regulation loss and a Winnipeg Jets victory from falling to fourth place in the Central Division, have really been struggling lately, losing six of their last seven after having no losing streaks longer than two games over the season’s first two-and-a-half months.

They could get a huge boost on Saturday night, however, as forward Jaden Schwartz has a chance to return from the broken foot that has sidelined him since December 16. Perhaps not so coincidentally, Schwartz has been absent for all seven games of the Blues’ free fall. The 22-year-old forward has participated in practice over the past two days with a red no-contact jersey, so if he can shed the jersey on Saturday morning and get a good workout in, there’s a possibility that he could return to the lineup.

Schwartz’s presence would be highly beneficial to the Blues, as the team has had to rely on Ryan Reaves, traditionally a gritty fourth-line presence, on a scoring line in recent games, and that has created a domino effect where the fourth line has had to welcome several special guests, the latest of whom was Colin Fraser on Friday night, to try to fill the void. The lineup should operate most efficiently when Reaves is allowed to return to his most comfortable role on the checking line, and Schwartz can combine with Jori Lehtera and Vladimir Tarasenko to create a potent scoring line, which also will allow Paul Stastny to return to being the setup man for Dmitrij Jaskin. While Stastny has failed to live up to expectations roughly half a season into his Blues career, he had seemed to mesh well with the 21-year-old Jaskin over the past several games prior to being pressed into action with Lehtera and Tarasenko, the Blues’ primary scoring duo, on Friday night.

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The Blues will have to make a roster move if they decide to activate Schwartz from IR on Saturday. It would be easiest to send Fraser, who played his first NHL game of the season on Friday night, back to AHL Chicago, although it’s a possibility that the Blues could instead decide to just cut their losses and put forward Joakim Lindstrom, who has only six points in 28 games, on waivers. Lindstrom has been a healthy scratch for seven of the 14 games that the Blues have played since December 1.

One would think that defenseman Chris Butler, who was a healthy scratch on Friday night, will get back into the lineup on Saturday. There’s really no logical explanation for Butler’s inactivity other than to assume that coach Ken Hitchcock was exercising the “last in, first out” policy following Carl Gunnarsson‘s return to the lineup from injury. While Butler, who had goals in two straight games and had played well in several different defensive pairings, sat out on Friday, the pairing of Barret Jackman and Ian Cole had a combined plus-minus rating of minus-5.

While Jackman had a glaring error which resulted in Anaheim’s go-ahead goal on Friday, it’s likely by virtue of his superior experience that he’ll remain in the lineup on Saturday while Cole returns to his familiar perch in the press box.

Brian Elliott will get the start in goal for the Blues on Saturday night. While the score may not show it, Elliott had a very strong performance in his return from a knee injury on Tuesday night in Nashville, stopping 44 of 47 Predators shots in a 3-2 Blues loss. He’ll strive to remain consistent as he continues his recovery from the injury which sidelined him for just over a month.

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