Breaking News: Eric Brewer In The Lineup Tonight

Blues captain Eric Brewer has been out since December of last year, but it has just been reported he will be in the lineup tonight when the Blues take on the Phoenix Coyotes at Scottrade Center.

Brewer dealt with a herniated disc in his back, and went through two back surgeries and a long rehabilitation process to get back up to speed. It has been a long time since he has played a game, but the Blues say he has been practicing for some time now, and is ready to go.

I am definitely surprised he is back this early. For the past week, the Blues have been saying that he is “very close”, but I thought for sure it would at least be in the middle of November before he returned. But he was cleared by the doctors and really wants to get back onto the ice, so he is back and will play tonight.

It remains to be seen how much ice time he will get though. It would be smart for him to take it easy in his first game back. I’m interested to see how he does.

The defensive pairings are expected to be:

Brewer-Pietrangelo
Johnson-Sydor
Polak-Weaver

In other news, the Blues are coming off a very good 5-2 win in Carolina against the ‘Canes last night. David Perron scored 2 goals, and McDonald, McClement and Stastny also scored to lift the Blues and get Chris Mason the win. Yan Stastny DID clear waivers obviously, and he had a good first game back with the Blues. It was a good showing by the Blues, and hopefully they keep it up. They have two games coming up against the Coyotes (tonight) and Panthers (Saturday night), and those two teams are both bad so the Blues SHOULD be able to make it three in a row.

Ty Conklin is starting in net tonight vs. Phoenix since Mason went last night. ‘Conks’ has been great this year!