The Blues’ preseason finally wraps up with an early matchup against Chicago.
After Thursday night’s 7-0 debacle of a loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, the preseason finale at home against the Hawks should be a significantly more tight affair. The Blues’ sent eight players to the AHL Friday, including placing Klim Kostin and Martin Frk on waivers, so by default they’ll be icing a better lineup than they did against CBJ. The Blue Jackets iced nearly an NHL caliber lineup, while the Blues only had four regulars out there. One of those regulars was goaltender Thomas Greiss, who allowed seven goes on 31 shots. He’ll be backing up Jordan Binnington all season, so here’s hoping Binnington finds himself in an improved headspace this season.
It’s also looking more and more like Calle Rosen will be the Blues’ seventh defenseman for the foreseeable future – at least until Marco Scandella and Scott Perunovich return from their injuries in six months or so.
Today’s game is an early one. The puck drop was adjusted to 2:00 Central to accommodate for the Cardinals’ wild card game against the Phillies tonight. Hopefully the shift in time will be worth it, because no one wants the Blues’ pre-season and the Cardinals’ post-season (and by proxy, the careers of Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina) to end on the same day.