St. Louis Blues’ Season Comes Down to Game 7 Battle with Dallas Stars
Blues Lineup
The Blues didn’t run a traditional morning skate on Wednesday, as they neglected to run through line combinations and defensive pairings (which Dallas’s Lindy Ruff has done nearly all series, probably inspiring Ken Hitchcock.) Just making guesses based on the group of extra players that Hitchcock sent out for the pregame warmup in Game 6–usually the group of players who have a chance to play in the next game if Hitchcock decides to make a lineup adjustment–forward Steve Ott and defensemen Joel Edmundson and Chris Butler would seem to be the players eligible for insertion for Game 7. Based on the observations of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch‘s Jeremy Rutherford, it sounds like Ott will probably be back on Wednesday, which is no surprise considering Hitchcock’s desire for experience in big games, giving Ott the edge over Dmitrij Jaskin.
Obviously, the goalie question was the biggest lineup issue heading into Wednesday, but the fact that Elliott left the ice first during the morning skate means that he’ll almost certainly be back in net for Game 7.
Here’s what the lineup could look like:
Jaden Schwartz–Alexander Steen–Vladimir Tarasenko
Patrik Berglund—Jori Lehtera–David Backes
Robby Fabbri–Paul Stastny–Troy Brouwer
Scottie Upshall–Kyle Brodziak–Steve Ott
Jay Bouwmeester–Alex Pietrangelo
Joel Edmundson–Kevin Shattenkirk
Carl Gunnarsson–Colton Parayko
Next: Stars Lineup