The St. Louis Blues will be making a few lineup changes after their 5-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday including the debut of Nikita Soshnikov.
The St. Louis Blues have won three of their last four games, but like Mike Yeo said after the win against Carolina, “it doesn’t feel that way.” It is a little unsettling that the Blues are making so many changes after winning a game, but hey, I don’t get paid to make those decisions.
St. Louis has only won two games in a row once this year, and although the team is playing better lately, I still have a hard time understanding why players like Patrick Maroon are not in the lineup.
San Jose Sharks (3rd Place In Pacific)
Record: 8-5-3
Last 10: 6-2-2
Point Leaders: Brent Burns (20), Timo Meier (17)
This Sharks team came into the year as one of the Western Conference favorites. This is a really good team and should not be taken lightly. San Jose played last night, losing to the Dallas Stars 4-3.
The Sharks bring back the majority of their roster from a year ago, but with one huge addition. San Jose acquired Erik Karlsson from the Ottowa Senators over the offseason. Karlsson, along with other superstars like Burns and Logan Couture present a real challenge for the Blues tonight.
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The biggest change to the Blues lineup is the healthy scratch of Maroon. He only has seven points this year and six of them have come on the powerplay.
Speaking of the powerplay, he is a big part of why the Blues have had success this year. His big body in front of the net creates space in front of the net that the Blues haven’t had since David Backes left for Boston.
In previous games, Robby Fabbri has seen time on the powerplay so it is likely that he takes Maroon’s spot on the man advantage. The Blues lead the league in powerplay goals with 16 and hopefully, the loss of Maroon does not affect the powerplay too much.
Soshnikov will make his season debut with the team. Shosh has spent his first two years of his NHL career with the Toronto Maple Leafs before being acquired via trade from the St. Louis Blues in 2017.
We did not get to see much of Soshnikov before he got hurt, but what we do know is that he is gritty and a tough player to play against. People around the league say that he has the potential to be a top-9 forward, but has trouble staying healthy.
Brayden Schenn is expected to miss his second straight game after sustaining an upper-body injury in his game against the Vegas Golden Knights. This, again, will allow Fabbri to play top-6 minutes once again tonight.
Chad Johnson, and rightfully so, has earned another start in net for the St. Louis Blues. Stopping 38 of 39 that came his way against the Hurricanes. I don’t think it is time to sound the alarm bells in regards to Jake Allen, but again, it’s nice that the Blues have someone to rely on if Allen continues to stumble.