The St. Louis Blues will take on the defending champion Washington Capitals at home for their fifth preseason game.
The St. Louis Blues are sending what is the closest you will get to an opening day lineup. The camp has been trimmed down twice so far and a lot of big names remain in camp for St. Louis.
Jake Allen is expected to return and play two periods against the Capitals. Allen went down with back spasms just days before training camp opened, backup goalie Chad Johnson will play the third period.
The lineup will feature young stars, along with some of the veteran players and will give insight as to how ready the team is for October 4th. We are nine days away from opening night and this is about the time you see the regulars play substantial minutes in the preseason.
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Key returning Blues will take the ice for the first time in a couple weeks. David Perron will make his debut (again) with the team.
Tyler Bozak was held out for the past couple games and in practice due to a sore groin but is expected to play with Perron and Alexander Steen.
Newly acquired Patrick Maroon and Ryan O’Reilly will be on a line with Vladimir Tarasenko to start tonight’s game. These three have been paired together for the majority of training camp and will likely be on a line together to start the season.
The young stars of the preseason are also back in the lineup to take on the Capitals. Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas will play on the fourth line alongside Ivan Barbashev. Thomas assisted in all three goals that were scored against Columbus and Kyrou continues to use his dynamic speed to create scoring chances.
Samuel Blais leads the entire league in scoring during the preseason and will start the game alongside Brayden Schenn and Jaden Schwartz. Blais has played well with Schenn throughout the preseason and if Fabbri is held out for an extended period of time, could be paired with the dynamic duo to start the year.
Defensively, the Blues are sending out what could be their starting defensive core. Alex Pietrangelo will be paired with Joel Edmundson. Colton Parayko will play alongside Jay Bouwmeester and Vince Dunn will play with Robert Bortuzzo. The only name missing from this list is Carl Gunnarsson, who is still recovering from two offseason surgeries.
When asked if this was an indication of what the opening day lineup could look like, head coach Mike Yeo said “It’s pretty close (to a regular season lineup) for sure. It’s a pretty decent lineup we’re going to face tonight, too. Good opportunity here tonight to gauge where we’re at at this point in the preseason.
Allen coming back at this point in the preseason is huge and he will be tested against a good Capitals team right off the bat. Hopefully, the team can get past this game without any hip flexors or sore groins.