St. Louis Blues Host Ottawa Senators, Look to Snap Two-Game Losing Streak
Can the St. Louis Blues snap their two-game losing streak on Monday night against the Senators?
The St. Louis Blues host the Ottawa Senators on Monday night, facing the Sens for the first time during the 2015-16 season. The Blues, who have lost their past two by a combined score of 7-2 and gone 138 minutes and five seconds without an even-strength goal, need to restore some life to their offense on Monday. Saturday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs was particularly frustrating due to the fact that the Blues outshout Toronto 40-33, yet scored just one goal—a Vladimir Tarasenko power-play goal during the second period–before giving up four straight to the Leafs over the last 32 minutes.
Ottawa hasn’t had a great year thus far, currently sitting in sixth place in the Atlantic Divison with a record of 18-15-6. That might not be a good thing for the Blues, though, who have lost two games to the seventh-place Maple Leafs, another two to the Philadelphia Flyers, who sit in seventh in the Metropolitan Division with a 15-15-7 record, and one more to the Columbus Blue Jackets, who are in eighth in the Metropolitan with a league-worst 15-22-3 record. Despite the fact that Ottawa is a struggling team in the inferior Eastern Conference, the Blues will need to bring their A-game if they want to restore some momentum to a frustratingly inconsistent season.
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Center David Backes was out for Sunday afternoon’s practice, which caused Kyle Brodziak to move up and center the line with Magnus Paajarvi and Patrik Berglund. Backes is expected to be back for Monday night’s game, though, which will cause a bit of intrigue in regards to how the lineup will look.
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It seems that Hitchcock has kept his practice lines together for games in most situations like this during 2015-16, so it’s possible that the Upshall-Jaskin-Reaves line could become an actuality on Monday, with Brodziak serving as a healthy scratch for the first time this season. Because of his continued presence in the lineup when healthy this year, though, it’s reasonable to assume that Brodziak, who has the worst plus-minus rating of any Blues forward this season at minus-7, will drop back down to the fourth line center spot against Ottawa.
UPDATE, 1:17 PM: Brodziak will indeed be a healthy scratch for the first time this season, with Upshall drawing back into the lineup.
Brian Elliott will start in goal Monday. Elliott would have been a logical choice to start Saturday against Toronto and make an appearance in the arena that’s closest to his hometown of Newmarket, Ontario, but Hitchcock instead chose to start Jake Allen, who gave up three goals on 32 shots. Elliott will now start against his former team, the Senators, against whom he suffered a sprained knee last November 25 that caused him to miss over a month. Elliott will be making just his fifth start in the past month and will be looking to pick up his sixth win of the season.
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Here’s how Monday’s lineup could end up looking:
Alexander Steen-Paul Stastny–Vladimir Tarasenko
Robby Fabbri–Jori Lehtera–Troy Brouwer
Magnus Paajarvi–David Backes–Patrik Berglund
Scottie Upshall-Dmitrij Jaskin–Ryan Reaves
Jay Bouwmeester–Alex Pietrangelo
Joel Edmundson–Kevin Shattenkirk