The Blues went with what worked in round one on Tuesday night, and it did not pass muster. That’s fine - the Avs are a different team, and this is a different series.
Coach Craig Berube only has so much to work with on defense, but he’s tweaked a few things going into tonight’s game. Will it be enough? Splitting up the team’s best regular season line of Pavel Buchnevich, Robert Thomas, and Vladimir Tarasenko certainly is a move that should get the attention of the team. They’ve stagnated during the postseason, and if a team’s looking to outscore the Avalanche, you don’t need a stagnant team. Pairing Thomas with Jordan Kyrou should be the exact opposite of stagnation.
Here’re tonight’s lines, from stlblues.com:
Forwards
Buchnevich - O’Reilly - Perron
Saad - Thomas - Kyrou
Barbashev - Schenn - Tarasenko
Toropchenko - Bozak
Defense
Leddy - Parayko
Rosen - Faulk
Mikkola - Bortuzzo
Perunovich
Goalie
Binnington