St. Louis Blues Craig Berube Rolling The Dice With New Lineup

The St. Louis Blues may not have lost many games in 2020, but they are making quite a few changes. Berube is sending a message.

The St. Louis Blues are about to play only their second game of 2020. Their coach, Craig Berube is taking the old saying of out with the old and in with the new quite literally.

The only way Berube could have taken that saying more literally is if he re-inserted Jordan Kyrou. Unfortunately, Kyrou remains on the bench amid a swath of changes to the Blues lineup.

Berube is clearly sending a message. He will not admit it and will fall back on the coach’s trope of saying he just thought the team needed a fresh look, but this is a message.

The Blues have not only lost two games, but played two poor games. The Colorado game left a much more sour taste in the mouth than we had in Arizona, but neither game was one the Blues deserved to win.

You could argue that Antti Raanta stole the game in Arizona, but the Blues did not have enough sustained pressure, did not get into the goaltender’s grill and played sloppy on defense. It only got worse in Colorado where the offense went to sleep, the defense was atrocious and mental mistakes killed the Blues at the worst times.

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With that in mind, Berube is switching up plenty of guys. He’s not only trying something new but letting guys know that they haven’t been doing enough.

Some of the moves have been forced on him. There is a worry of Colton Parayko not being available today, so that would insert Jake Walman into his first NHL game. That will be a gametime decision.

The goaltending situation is also not settled until the pregame skate. Jordan Binnington was not his best in Colorado, so he might need a mental break after giving up seven goals. Or, he might be put right back on the horse.

Projected Lineup

Here is the projected lineup from Chris Pinkert of the Blues website:

Forwards

Schwartz – O’Reilly – Perron
Schenn – Thomas – Bozak
Steen – Sundqvist – Barbashev
MacEachern – de la Rose – Sanford

Defense

Dunn – Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester – Faulk
Walman – Bortuzzo
Parayko

Goalie

Binnington / Allen

The reality is that it isn’t quite as mixed up as some headlines would lead you to believe. I saw one headline leading you to believe the roster had been blown up.

The biggest shift is separating Brayden Schenn and Jaden Schwartz. It is a shock to the system to see that, but I think it will be beneficial. They worked wonders together last year and starting this year. However, they just have not done enough to lift one another as we have seen in the past.

Robert Thomas and Tyler Bozak stay together, which makes sense. They’ve been the team’s best duo the last couple weeks and putting them together with a power forward like Schenn could provide huge dividends.

Zach Sanford gets pushed down to the fourth line, which is likely where he belongs. He had a good run with Ryan O’Reilly and David Perron, but he lacks any consistency. You don’t need to score when playing with those guys, but he just hasn’t provided much of anything lately.

The only change I am unsure of is separating Alex Pietrangelo and Justin Faulk. It seemed like Faulk had finally settled into the pairing and they were playing good hockey, except for Colorado, and now they get split again. At least he is paired with Jay Bouwmeester, who was the only other defender that Faulk played well with earlier in the season.

How They Stack Up

Despite the early success of the Vegas Golden Knights, the Blues have played well against them. The Blues are 5-0-2 in their brief history against Vegas. St. Louis won the meeting earlier this year with a 4-2 win on December 12.

The Blues have lost two in a row, but are still 8-2-0 in their last 10. The problem is they have been outscored 10-4 over their two losses.

Conversely, Vegas is doing well offensively. They scored four goals in the first period of their 5-4 win over Philadelphia. Vegas is also tied for the second most goals scored in the conference.

This game will feature two All-Star coaches, literally. Craig Berube is going to be on the bench for the Central Division. Gerard Gallant will be in charge of the Pacific Division.

Watch out for Oskar Sundqvist. He has four goals and seven points in six games against the Golden Knights.

Where To Watch

Thankfully, the game will be back on Fox Sports Midwest and Fox Sports Go, after having to deal with NBC the last game.

You can also tune in on 101 ESPN or the NHL App if you want Blues audio.

Prediction

The Blues have been good at not letting their losing ways stretch out too long under Berube. The iffy part is they have some things working against them.

While this is quite anecdotal, the Blues have never been very good in afternoon games. They often look sluggish and that’s not good for a team that has not had their legs to open games much lately.

The other thing working against them is Vegas is on a roll. They have won three in a row and are 7-2-1 in their last 10.

If the Blues get back to their style of play and have some jump, I think they win 3-2. If they have another game like the last two, they lose 5-2.

Let’s all hope for the former. Don’t forget, this is a 3 p.m. start.

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