St. Louis Blues Game Preview: Team Welcomes Back Two Defensemen
After completing a six-game road trip with a win on Tuesday in Pittsburgh, the St. Louis Blues will return to Scottrade Center following three days off and attempt to get back into first place in the Central Division by defeating the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Blues will be boosted on Saturday night by the return of two of their regular defensemen, Carl Gunnarsson and Kevin Shattenkirk. Gunnarsson had missed the past two games with an upper-body injury, while Shattenkirk had missed 25 while recovering from abdominal surgery. Shattenkirk, an All-Star who had established himself as one of the league’s best defensemen to start the season, could be a significant addition to the lineup. However, the Blues will work him back cautiously as he recovers from a rather serious injury, and he’ll begin Saturday’s game as part of the third defensive pairing with Barret Jackman.
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With five of the Blues’ final eight games coming against teams who are currently in position to make the playoffs, with another against the Calgary Flames, who are closing competing with the L.A. Kings for a berth, Saturday’s game against the Blue Jackets (sixth place in the Metropolitan Division with 74 points) will be one of the final games in which a loss would be absolutely inexcusable.
In order to pick up that “easy win”, the Blues certainly must play better than they did in their first meeting with Columbus this season. In the latter end of a back-to-back on February 6 in Columbus, the Blues were defeated 7-1 by the Blue Jackets, and Brian Elliott was pulled in the second period after giving up four goals on 14 shots. Now freshly rested and equipped with two key players, Shattenkirk and Jori Lehtera, that they did not have for the first game, the Blues must perform more effectively and make sure that they don’t squander a key opportunity to pick up points on Saturday.
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For the first time in a while, neither team has any players on their NHL roster who previously played for the opponent. The two front offices have a strong relationship (as exhibited this year by the Blues trading defenseman Jordan Leopold to Columbus in November and re-acquiring minor league forward Adam Cracknell near the trade deadline), and each organization has former employees of the other, with Columbus general manager Jarmo Kekäläinen and president John Davidson having worked in St. Louis, while Blues coach Ken Hitchcock formerly coached the Jackets.
However, the multitude of former Blues who have seen time in Columbus recently, including Leopold, Cracknell, Nikita Nikitin, Nick Drazenovic, and Mike McKenna, have since exited, while former Jackets who found their way to St. Louis, including Joakim Lindstrom, Kris Russell, and Andrew Murray, have also moved on.
Brian Elliott will get back in goal for the Blues on Saturday night after two straight starts by Jake Allen. He’ll be attempting to pick up his first win since March 17, when he shut out the Calgary Flames in a 4-0 Blues victory.
In an unfortunate example of the numbers game that exists on a competitive hockey team, defenseman Robert Bortuzzo, who picked up his first goal as a Blue on Tuesday in Pittsburgh, is expected to join usual scratch Chris Butler in the press box for Saturday night’s contest. The 6-foot-4, 215-pound Bortuzzo has provided a big boost with his physicality in recent games, though he’s put up with being a healthy scratch on several occasions since his arrival as the Blues have kept all their defensemen involved.
The forward group for Saturday’s game has yet to be determined. It stands to reason that rookie Dmitrij Jaskin would re-enter the lineup after sitting out Tuesday’s game to “hit the reset button”, but he rotated with Chris Porter during Friday’s practice, so nothing is set in stone. The inhabiter of the fourth-line center spot, which has been rotated recently between Marcel Goc and Olli Jokinen, also has yet to be announced.