As the St. Louis Blues look to snap out of a four-game losing streak at a critical point in the season, Head Coach Jim Montgomery might be re-uniting a first line of Pavel Buchnevich, Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou for Sunday’s game against the Utah Hockey Club (6 p.m. CT, FanDuel Sports Network, 101 ESPN).
We say “might be” because that line was together in Saturday’s practice - until Robert Thomas left early because he wasn’t feeling well.
“There’s been a couple guys get sick, so we don’t want it to progress,” Montgomery said.
If Thomas feels better and can play, Sunday’s lineup is expected to look the way Saturday’s practice did — with Mathieu Joseph also moving up to play with Dylan Holloway and Brayden Schenn to round out the Top 6.
“I want to split up the Schenn line and the thinking is they haven’t been skating, hasn’t been much going on in the last five games,” Montgomery added. “When you put people with different players, sometimes they get just a new outlook, and it’s usually a positive outlook. We want to get guys skating and working and working off the puck.”
“Obviously we’re searching [for something that works],” Montgomery said. “We’re trying to get guys to feel good about where they are and hopefully, that gets them more in a positive mindset for the game.”
Oskar Sundqvist appears to be back in at center on the third line between Jake Neighbours and Zack Bolduc, and Alexey Toropchenko and Radek Faksa appear to be getting Alexander Texier on the right wing after he had one game with Thomas and Buchnevich on Saturday.
Colton Parayko missed Friday’s game with an illness and did not practice Saturday. His status for Sunday’s game against Utah is uncertain.
The projected lineup listed below is based on Saturday’s practice. If changes are available after Montgomery’s pregame meeting with the media on Sunday, they will be updated here.
