ST.
LOUIS – When the St. Louis Blues go for a franchise-tying 11-game
winning streak on Thursday against the Pittsburgh Penguins (7 p.m.;
FDSNMW, ESPN 101.1-FM), they’ll have to do so against the team that
last was able to give them an ‘L.’
The
Blues (41-28-7) haven’t lost in three weeks to the day, and that
last loss on March 13 was against these very same Penguins
(30-34-11), by a 6-3 count.
Things
have drastically changed for the Blues, who are tied with the
Minnesota Wild with identical records and points, with the Wild
holding the tie-breaker based on regulation wins (33-30).
But
needless to say, the Blues have more than sharpened up since the last
time they played the Penguins.
“I
didn’t think we were hard enough offensively, we didn’t screen
their goalie,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “They did a good
job boxing us out. We’ve got to be harder offensively tonight in
order to have success. That’s the biggest takeaway.”
Penguins
coach Mike Sullivan, who knows a thing or two about taking a team
over in mid-season, feels the Blues are a team that’s humming and
credits Montgomery for the turnaround.
“He’s
done a good job,” Sullivan said. “Obviously they’ve gone on a
pretty good run here over the last month-plus. They’re 10-0 in
their last 10. I don’t think they’ve lost since the last time we
played them. That’s a pretty good run. Monty’s a good coach. He’s
done a good job with these guys.”
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The
Blues are not changing their lineup from Tuesday’s 2-1 overtime win
against the Detroit Red Wings, including playing 2022 first-round
pick (No. 23) Jimmy Snuggerud in his second NHL game.
“He
impressed me live,” Montgomery said. “It’s just his ability to
see the ice really well, made really good decisions and he battled
hard.
“I
think he’s played real well, looks comfortable. It’s been an easy
adjustment to be honest.”
One
change to the roster is the Blues assigning 2023 first-rounder and
No. 10 pick Dalibor Dvorsky to Springfield of the American Hockey
League after the 19-year-old played in his NHL debut on March 23
against the Nashville Predators but has been a healthy scratch in
each of the past four games.
“When
you’re 19 years old, you need to play games,” Montgomery said.
“Right now with our team’s playing so well, I didn’t see the
opportunity coming.”
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Blues
Projected Lineup:
Jake
Neighbours-Robert Thomas-Pavel Buchnevich
Dylan
Holloway-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou
Zack
Bolduc-Oskar Sundqvist-Jimmy Snuggerud
Alexey
Toropchenko-Radek Faksa-Nathan Walker
Cam
Fowler-Nick Leddy
Philip
Broberg-Justin Faulk
Ryan
Suter-Tyler Tucker
Joel
Hofer will start in goal; Jordan Binnington will be the backup.
Healthy
scratches include Matthew Kessel, Alexandre Texier and Mathieu
Joseph. Colton Parayko (knee) is out. Torey Krug (ankle) is out for
the season.
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Penguins
Projected Lineup:
Rutger
McGroarty-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Connor
Dewar-Rickard Rakell-Ville
Koivunen
Kevin
Hayes-Noel
Acciari-Philip
Tomasino
Danton
Heinen-Blake Lizotte-Joona
Koppanen
Matt
Grzelcyk-Kris Letang
Conor
Timmins-Erik Karlsson
Ryan
Graves-Vladislav Kolyachonok
Tristan
Jarry will start in goal; Alex Nedeljkovic will be the backup.
Healthy
scratches
include Ryan
Shea and
Emil Bemstrom.
Evgeni Malkin (upper body), P.O Joseph (upper body) and
Tommy
Novak (lower body) are
out.
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