Blues @ Red Wings Updates, Lines, Keys to the Game

Renouf being the emergency backup to the backup here is around to earn NHL-level salary and only play if they absolutely HAVE to play him.

As teased yesterday, Schenn makes his return for the Blues. According to Jim Thomas he slots into line two.

Bertuzzi – Larkin – Raymond
Fabbri – Suter – Zadina
Namestnikov – Rasmussen – Erne
Smith – Veleno – Gagner

DeKeyser – Seider
Leddy – Hronek
Oesterle – Lindstrom

Nedeljkovic
Greiss

Barbashev – O’Reilly – Perron
Saad – Schenn -Kyrou
Buchnevich – Thomas – Tarasenko
Kostin – Bozak – – Sundqvist

Scandella – Parayko
Krug – Faulk
Perunovich – Mikkola

Husso
Binnington

That’s a mighty mobile defense ya got there, St. Louis. Detroit needs to shut down the likes of Krug and Faulk to disrupt St. Louis’s style. The Blues will use the two of them to disrupt the flow of the game and knock Detroit off their rhythm. Fortunately Detroit has last change tonight, but good neutral zone play has a way of keeping defensemen where they should be — back, away from the net, and not rotating through or rushing into your own zone.

Consistent defensive play is key. St. Louis doesn’t have a lights out player on their team the way they used to; Tarasenko is still great, but he’s not quite the player he used to be. Four Wings have as many or more goals than him, for context. But St. Louis has three solid scoring lines; any one of them can be dangerous on a given shift and change the complexion of a game. That sort of team takes a different type of discipline to put to bed.

Score some goals or something, I guess. Pretty sure you win hockey games by scoring more than the other team, so the Wings should do that tonight. After getting blasted for 15 goals in three games last week, the Wings snoozed to a 2-1 OT loss in Arizona. Larkin’s currently doing it all for Detroit offensively. Time to take a note out of St. Louis’s book and score by committee tonight.