St. Louis Blues Look to Extend Winning Streak in First Meeting of Season with Carolina Hurricanes
The battered St. Louis Blues will look to extend their winning streak to three games as they host the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night.
The St. Louis Blues host the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night, a night on which they’ll give away Star Wars-themed Jaden Schwartz “May the Schwartz be With You” bobbleheads. Unfortunately, the team will be without Schwartz and as many as six other injured players on Thursday night, but with an inspiring 5-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, the Blues showed that they can still win while missing part of their core. Goals from players who opened the season on the fringe of the Blues’ roster, including Patrik Berglund, Scottie Upshall, and Ty Rattie, carried the team to its second straight victory. That gave the Blues their first pair of back-to-back wins since December 22 and 26.
It’s been a rather rough season for Carolina, a team that is definitely still in playoff contention at 19-18-7, but needs to make up some ground, as they currently sit in sixth place in the Metropolitan Division and have fewer points than 11 of the other 15 teams in the Eastern Conference. The ‘Canes have been sparked by defenseman Justin Faulk, who has quickly evolved from a defense-first defenseman to a powerful all-around playmaker, as he leads the team with 32 points through 44 games. However, their aging captain, Eric Staal, has not come close to matching his former level of production, and that’s held the team back from an offensive standpoint.
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The Blues are expected to get Paul Stastny back on Thursday, which will move the team one small step closer to full health. However, his insertion back into the lineup will make things difficult on Ken Hitchcock, who will have a predicament in assembling his lineup of forwards against Carolina.
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The only two players who are really logical choices to sit are Rattie, who played his best game in a Blues uniform to date on Tuesday and scored his first NHL goal, or Upshall, who has been a healthy scratch for a handful of games this year but has been more than solid whenever he’s been in the lineup and has five goals through 35 games.
It would be disappointing to see Hitchcock sit Rattie right back down following the progress that he made on Tuesday, especially because he’s had such a difficult time getting up to speed during his previous NHL stints and seemed to have a breakthrough against the Devils. The more logical decision, however, would just be to keep Upshall in the lineup, as he’s played more this year and is a proven contributor. We’ll see which forward sticks–or if Stastny will even be cleared to return to the lineup–following Thursday’s morning skate.
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Here’s how the Blues’ lineup will probably look against Carolina:
Robby Fabbri–Jori Lehtera–Vladimir Tarasenko
Alexander Steen-Paul Stastny-Troy Brouwer
Scottie Upshall–David Backes–Patrik Berglund
Dmitrij Jaskin–Kyle Brodziak–Ryan Reaves
Kevin Shattenkirk–Alex Pietrangelo
Chris Butler–Robert Bortuzzo