St. Louis Blues vs. Detroit Red Wings: Game Preview

The St. Louis Blues will attempt to lengthen their winning streak to six games on Thursday night against the Detroit Red Wings. Detroit, who was arguably the Blues’ biggest rival during the 2000s before being moved to the Eastern Conference with the NHL’s most recent realignment, is in third place in the Atlantic Division with a 23-11-9 record. However, Detroit recently lost All-Star goalie Jimmy Howard to a groin tear. With their primary backup, Jonas Gustavsson, already on injured reserve, the Wings have been left with a goalie tandem of Petr Mrazek and Tom McCollum, who have a combined 22 games of NHL experience.

Meanwhile, with the Chicago Blackhawks off on Thursday night, the Blues can move back into second place in the Central Division. They still have a ways to go to catch up to the first place Nashville Predators, who currently lead the NHL with 62 points.

The Blues were 1-1 against Detroit during the 2013-14 season. The Blues defeated the Wings 4-1 in Detroit on January 20, getting goals from Magnus Paajarvi, Barret Jackman, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Jay Bouwmeester. But in the teams’ last meeting, the Blues were embarrassingly shut out 3-0 in the finale of the 2013-14 regular season. The Blues were without eight of their 18 regular skaters that day, and players like Adam Cracknell, Ty Rattie, and Keith Aucoin were forced into the lineup despite seeing very minimal action in the NHL during the course of the season.

Forward Steve Ott is questionable for Thursday’s game after struggling with flu symptoms on Wednesday. If he ends up missing the game, Joakim Lindstrom, who has yet to play in a game during 2015 and has been a healthy scratch for six straight contests, would get back into the lineup. Coach Ken Hitchcock was quoted Wednesday as saying that Lindstrom, the team’s only extra forward, is “chomping at the bit” to get back into the lineup, according to NHL.com’s Lou Korac.

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Though the Blues did so out of necessity earlier this season, it doesn’t really make sense to have Lindstrom–the team’s lightest and arguably least aggressive player at just 187 pounds–playing on a fourth line that is firmly dedicated to checking. Therefore, it might make sense for the Blues to move rookie Dmitrij Jaskin, who is 6-foot-3 and over 200 pounds, down to the fourth line and give Lindstrom a shot with the Paul Stastny/Patrik Berglund line that Jaskin has been working with over the past few weeks. Jaskin has had a rough last couple of games, registering a minus-3 rating against Carolina on Saturday and taking a tripping penalty on Tuesday against Edmonton. After having six points in his first nine games, Jaskin has now gone three straight games without a point. That’s not terrible, but with Hitchcock’s notorious quick hook for young and inexperienced players, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see Jaskin’s role reduced.

The sixth defenseman spot, which has recently been shared between Ian Cole and Chris Butler, could be up in the air again on Thursday. Butler was benched on Tuesday after registering a minus-4 rating on Saturday, but Cole, who dressed for the first time in three games on Thursday, made a costly mistake which would have led to an Edmonton goal had Jake Allen not stepped up and made a tremendous save.

For the first time during 2015, there will be no questions about the Blues’ goalie situation on Thursday. With Martin Brodeur having taken a one-week leave of absence on Wednesday, Brian Elliott will be the starter with Jake Allen as the backup. Elliott will be looking to bounce back from a rough first period on Saturday night in which he gave up three goals on 10 shots.

Next: Blues' Martin Brodeur Granted a One-Week Leave of Absence

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