Since last Wednesday's win against the Islanders, added a familiar face to training camp, and trimmed the roster to 36. Head coach Bill Peters intends to finalize the Opening Night line-up by Friday night's home game against the Sabres, but there are still several decisions to be made. Those should begin to reveal themselves after the back-to-back games in St. Louis tonight and in Columbus tomorrow night. After another up tempo practice on Monday, the line-ups for the next two games have not yet been set, but here is what we know.
Pay per Head Network is the best pay per head casino online. Start your free 2 week trial now and experience the best bookmaking software online!
After missing the first ten days of training camp, Blues forward Jaden Schwartz has signed a two year contract in which he will earn $2 million in year one of his deal, and then $2.7 million in the second year. An average of $2.35 million per season.
Schwartz is already back in St. Louis and practiced with the team. He's expected to play in Thursday's pre-season game against the Minnesota Wild.
He hit the ice sporting number 17 this afternoon. Schwartz changed his number from nine to 17 in honor of his sister, Mandi Schwartz. Mandi passed away in 2011 after battling myeloid leukemia. He was able snag number 17 after Vladimir Sobotka left for the KHL. Steve Ott in turn switched from number 29 to number 9.
Pay per Head Network is the price per head online. Start your free 2 week trial now and experience the best bookmaking software online!
Eric Staal and Alexander Semin should both see their first preseason appearance tonight. For the time being, Staal and Semin have been reunited with Jiri Tlusty, and that will likely be the top line going into the regular season.
The "two hole" spot is still up for grabs in Jordan Staal's absence and the competition is still too close to call. Jay McClement, who won't play tonight, will be called upon to center the first penalty kill unit, and may move up into some 3C responsibilities. He centered Nathan Gerbe and Zach Boychuk in yesterday's practice. Meanwhile Riley Nash continued to center Jeff Skinner and Elias Lindholm, while Victor Rask centered Brock McGinn and Chris Terry.
Rookie defenseman Haydn Fleury is expected to be in tonight's line-up. All twelve defensemen still in camp will see ice time over the next two games. Peters intends to switch some to their off sides to see how they fare against what is expected to be strong forechecking from both St. Louis and Columbus.
There has been no announcement as to who will be in net, although the expectation is that both Anton Khudobin and Cam Ward will start over the next two games.
The aforementioned familiar face, Chad LaRose, who joined camp on a tryout over the weekend, isn't expected to see any game action until possibly Sunday's preseason finale against Washington.
The game group will practice at PNC Arena today at 10:30, and the non-game group will practice at 11:30, so line-ups should be forthcoming. The team will fly out to St. Louis mid-afternoon.
The St. Louis Blues are 0-4 in their preseason, dropping two games to the Blue Jackets and two to the Dallas Stars. Their line-up for tonight:
* Forwards: David Backes, Patrik Berglund, Robby Fabbri, Dmitrij Jaskin, Jori Lehtera, Joakim Lindstrom, Peter Mueller, T.J. Oshie, Magnus Paajarvi, Paul Stastny, Alexander Steen, Vladimir Tarasenko
*Defense: Jay Bouwmeester, Barret Jackman, Petteri Lindbohm, Alex Pietrangelo, Nate Prosser, Kevin Shattenkirk
*Goalies: Brian Elliott, Jake Allen
Get all the latest Sport News updates on your social media outlets. Find us on Google+!
