After a weak showing on Tuesday night, will Craig Berube be mixing things up tonight?
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