For the second time in six days, the St. Louis Blues will host their divisional rivals, the Nashville Predators, at Scottrade Center and look to overtake Nashville in the Central Division standings. In their first meeting of the season this past Saturday, Nashville beat the Blues 2-1, snapping a seven-game winning streak for the Blues and a four-game goal-scoring streak fromVladimir Tarasenko.
The surging Blues, who won 6-1 on Tuesday against the Buffalo Sabres, will be looking to continue receiving the incredible offensive efficiency that they’ve been getting from the “STL line” ofJaden Schwartz,Jori Lehtera, and Tarasenko recently. All three members of the line now have a hat trick this season, and as a group they’ve registered 25 points over the past six games. At the same time, they need to get some offense from the rest of the team, which we saw a glimpse of late in Tuesday’s game, whenDavid Backesscored a power-play goal andJoakim Lindstromadded two more.
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The Blues will be changing things up a bit from Saturday, asJake Allenwill take over forBrian Elliottin goal. Allen, who last played a week ago against the New Jersey Devils, had collected two straight shutouts and was working on a third until the Devils rallied for three goals in the final four minutes of the third period. ForwardRyan Reaveswill likely be out of the lineup again as he continues his recovery from an ankle injury.
The lines are expected to be changed up a bit on Thursday, as Backes will centerPatrik BerglundandMagnus Paajarvi, while Lindstrom will ascend to the top line and work with Alexander Steen andPaul Stastny. If Reaves misses the game, the fourth line is expected to consist ofChris Porter,Maxim Lapierre, andSteve Ott.
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