The St. Louis Blues (14-15-8) have one final game remaining before hitting a four-day Christmas break, and they hope to build off recent success when they finish a two-game Florida trip on Monday against the Tampa Bay Lightning (19-13-3) at 6 p.m. (FDSNMW, ESPN 101.1-FM).
The Blues are coming off one of their most impressive wins of the season when they took down the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, 6-2, on Saturday. It was their highest offensive output of the season, surpassing the five goals they scored against the Philadelphia Flyers on Nov. 14.
And something that hasn't been seen often this season, they got contributions from everybody, from top-end players like Robert Thomas, who will play in his 500th NHL game on Monday with two goals and an assist, to newcomers Jonatan Berggren (one goal, two assists) and Otto Stenberg, who picked up his first two NHL points with two assists. Jake Neighbours had two goals to become the first Blue to reach double figures with 10, and Justin Faulk is right behind with nine and is on pace to break his career high of 17 he set with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2016-17 after a combined six in the past two seasons (138 games).
A win on Monday, which would five the Blues points in four of five games and end a stretch of 11 games in 19 days, as crazy as it sounds, move them within one point of a wild card in the Western Conference playoff race (pending results of Tuesday games) heading into Christmas and get them to .500 for the first time since the seventh game of the season (3-3-1).
The Blues have lost their last four visits to Tampa by a cumulative score of 18-6. including 3-1 last season on Dec. 19, 2024.
The only lineup change from Saturday is Jordan Binnington get the nod in goal.
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Blues Projected Lineup:
Jonatan Berggren-Robert Thomas-Pavel Buchnevich
Jake Neighbours-Brayden Schenn-Otto Stenberg
Pius Suter-Dalibor Dvorsky-Robby Fabbri
Alexey Toropchenko-Oskar Sundqvist-Mathieu Joseph
Philip Broberg-Colton Parayko
Tyler Tucker-Justin Faulk
Cam Fowler-Logan Mailloux
Jordan Binnington will start in goal; Joel Hofer will be the backup.
The healthy scratch includes Matthew Kessel. Jordan Kyrou (lower body), Dylan Holloway (high ankle sprain), Jimmy Snuggerud (wrist), Nathan Walker (upper body) and Nick Bjugstad (upper body) are all out.
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Lightning Projected Lineup:
Pontus Homberg-Brayden Point-Nikita Kucherov
Jake Guentzel-Anthony Cirelli-Nick Paul
Zemgus Girgensons-Yanni Gourde-Oliver Bjorkstrand
Gage Goncalves-Jack Finley-Dominic James
J.J. Moser-Darren Raddysh
Ryan McDonagh-Charle-Edouard D'Astous
Declan Carlile-Max Crozier
Andrei Vasilevskiy is projected to start in goal; Jonas Johansson would be the backup.
The healthy scratch includes Curtis Douglas. Victor Hedman (elbow), Brandon Hagel (upper body), Erik Cernak (undisclosed) and Emil Lilleberg (undisclosed) are all out.
Blues GM Doug Armstrong: 'Their Work Ethic Is Excellent. They’re Pushing, They’re Prodding.'Coaching staff isn't going to take fall for porous start to season; this time, players are likely to take fall if changes are made
St. Louis Blues Weekly Prospect Report (Dec. 21)Blues prospects in Springfield picking up contributions, including goalies Zherenko, Romanov, forward Peterson; Harenstam could be Sweden's starting goalie at World Junior Championship
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