Blues opening night roster taking shape under Montgomery

It's been a while, hasn't it? Why there's been nearly a week between preseason games is beyond us, but at long last, the St. Louis Blues are back in action at home tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks. The lineup was set this morning, and there are quite a few veterans in tonight's mix, alongside a handful of rookies and tweeners trying to carve out a spot for opening night.

At forward, roster regulars Pavel Buchnevich, Mathieu Joseph, Jake Neighbours, captain Brayden Schenn, Jimmy Snuggerud, Oskar Sundqvist, Robert Thomas, and Nathan Walker are all expected to be on the ice tonight; that's most of whom we'd expect to start the season with the team, too. Dalibor Dvorsky and Justin Carbonneau are getting a look tonight, too, which hints that the organization is keen to give them a look next to the best players they've got and give them every opportunity to make the big club out of camp--and in Dvorsky's case, it looks like they're trying him at center, the position he was drafted to play.

On the back end, the Blues are icing Michael Buchinger, Cam Fowler, Adam Jiricek, Logan Mailloux, Colton Parayko, and Corey Schueneman. The big guns here are Fowler and Parayko, with Jiricek and newcomer Mailloux being given a longer look, the same way Dvorsky and Carbonneau are. The Blues' defense group has a lot less preseason intrigue than the forwards, but there are still a couple of battles to be had.

In net, Jordan Binnington gets the start, though in the preseason, goalies often do not play a full 60-minute game. We'll have to see if backup Will Cranley gets a period or two.

Head coach Jim Montgomery seems to have a vision of what he wants the roster to look like on Game One of the regular season, and, so far, he seems to be on the right track. Highly touted young players in Dvorsky, Carbonneau, and Jiricek are being given a fair shake, and the newly added Mailloux is being played with veterans to acclimate him to his new environs. We'll see which players actually break camp, and tonight's game should leave us with a clear picture of who's actually got a shot.