Trent Frederic did not take rushes in his normal third-line, left-wing spot alongside Charlie Coyle and Craig Smith during Wednesday's practice with Tomas Nosek subbing in. The 24-year-old took a roughing penalty on Vladimir Tarasenko on Tuesday night after the Blues forward delivered a check on Frederic seconds earlier. St. Louis capitalized on the subsequent power play to tie the game, 2-2, late in the second period.
"You just have to have a certain amount of discipline to play, not take yourself out of the game individually or as a team," said Cassidy. "That's where Freddy's gonna have to learn. He hasn't been through it a lot. This is probably a good learning curve for him [Tuesday night] to keep your emotions in check and channel them properly. He didn't. It cost us. Hopefully he's a better player for us moving forward. That's it. That's the best you can hope for.
"He has been a good player for us on that line. That line has not been as good recently. I put that on all three of them. They're getting farther and farther and farther away from the net, as opposed to toward the net where they're big, heavy bodies and they can do some damage. We're trying to correct that."
With Nosek shifting up to take Frederic's spot on the third line, Marc McLaughlin slid down to center Nick Foligno and Curtis Lazar. Jesper Froden, meanwhile, was up from Providence and took McLaughlin's place on the second line with Taylor Hall and Erik Haula.
"We tried [McLaughlin at center] today in practice, moved some pieces around," said Cassidy, who noted that he hasn't made any final decisions on Thursday's lineup. "Lazar can go in there if that line stays and he can go to the right wing. Froden's up. He's got a little more - he had some good rush attributes when he was up this year, might complement those two guys, Hall and Haula, that can create space for themselves.
"He was still good in the cycle with Nosey and Foligno on the West Coast trip. I thought he did a bit of both, Froden. He's healthy again so that's why we brought him into the mix and with Pasta not practicing with us then it might be a good time to get a look at another player on that side.
"Mark's done his job, scored a couple goals for us. I don't think Marc's job is gonna change if he's on the first, second, third, or fourth line. Looks like to me he's a straight-ahead player, he's gonna shoot the puck when he can so we'll see if maybe Froden can complement that group."
