St. Louis Blues Game Preview: Team Renews Old Rivalry with Detroit Red Wings

The St. Louis Blues face off against their former heated rivals, the Detroit Red Wings, on Sunday morning, visiting Joe Louis Arena for the only time this year in a rivalry that has unfortunately been cooled by the NHL’s recent conference realignment.
The Blues, who are coming off an embarrassing 6-3 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday afternoon, will look to take back sole possession of the Central Division lead after the Nashville Predators tied them for top honors on Saturday. The Red Wings, meanwhile, are seeking to make a strong push to the finish line, currently holding a playoff spot but facing pressure from teams like the Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, and Florida Panthers.

More from St. Louis Blues

• An early projection of the St. Louis Blues’ opening-night roster
• St. Louis Blues sign Klim Kostin to three-year, entry-level contract
• St. Louis Blues: Nail Yakupov signs with Colorado Avalanche
• St. Louis Blues: An homage to Chris Butler
• St. Louis Blues agree to one-year contract with Oskar Sundqvist

In the teams’ previous meeting this season on January 15 at Scottrade Center, the Red Wings defeated the Blues 3-2 in overtime. Red Wings goalie

was on the shelf with an injury at the time, so his presence should provide the Blues with an added challenge on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Blues were at the closing stages of the

era, seeking a spark from the 31-year-old veteran while sitting

, so it should be interesting to see what type of effect the now fully-emergent Jaskin has against the Wings.

The Blues’ lineup should be in for some change on Sunday. Defenseman

(who, frankly, may have been deserving of a healthy scratch anyway following his worst performance of the season on Saturday) is expected to miss the game with an upper-body injury suffered during the second period of the loss to the Wild. That should allow rookie

, who had been in the lineup for five straight wins before inexplicably becoming a healthy scratch for the past two games, to rejoin the lineup.

There will likely be some change for the sake of change on Sunday among the forward corps. Coach Ken Hitchcock has shown a commitment to keeping reserve forwards

and

fresh, so after those two were scratched on Saturday, they could get back in against the Red Wings. The candidates to be scratched in order to accommodate those players would likely include fourth-liners

,

, and

.

More from Arch Authority

• St. Louis Cardinals: Randal Grichuk to begin Double-A rehab stint
• John Brebbia deserves a shot as the St. Louis Cardinals’ closer
• St. Louis Cardinals place Randal Grichuk on DL, recall José Martínez
• St. Louis Cardinals release RHP Corey Baker from organization
• St. Louis Cardinals activate Kolten Wong and Kevin Siegrist from DL, option Luke Weaver and Alex Mejia to Triple-A

was scheduled to get the start in goal against the Red Wings on Sunday, though there’s been no word as to whether those plans will be affected by Allen having relieved

during the second period of Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Wild. Even though Allen, who saved 10 of 12 shots on Saturday, finally got some work, while Elliott, who allowed four goals on 16 shots, got some rest, it still would probably be beneficial to get Allen a start on Sunday. The rookie has not started a game since his shutout of the Dallas Stars last Sunday, and before that he hadn’t seen action in two weeks.

Next: Ranking the Top 15 Running Backs in the 2015 NFL Draft