The absence of No. 1 center Robert Thomas will challenge the St. Louis Blues during the next several weeks.
The Blues passed their first test Thursday while defeating the Maple Leafs 5-1 in Toronto. Their next challenge comes against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night as they continue their four-game road trip.
Thomas, who recorded a team-high 86 points in 82 games last season, broke his ankle on Tuesday night when blocking a shot during a 3-2 loss to the visiting Winnipeg Jets. The club said he will be re-evaluated in six weeks.
“We love Thommer as a player and he’s our star, but unfortunately, that’s the business and you have to go next-man-up mentality,” Blues captain Brayden Schenn said. “Guys stepped up and played different roles tonight, different positions and we’re able to find a win. Just a good, hard team win.”
With Thomas out, Schenn centered one scoring line and converted winger Pavel Buchnevich to center in the other. Dylan Holloway moved from the wing to center the third line, and he scored twice on Thursday.
Alexandre Texier moved up into a scoring-line role on the wing and Oskar Sundqvist entered into the lineup as a fourth-line winger. He played in his first game since recovering from major knee surgery.
The new forward alignment worked well against the Maple Leafs as the Blues won for the third time in their last four games.
“It’s really, really good to see everyone not skip a beat and just play hard and play our game and believe in each other to get the job done,” Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington said. “That was a great team win tonight.”
The Blues will catch the Canadiens attempting to rebound from a 7-2 loss at home to the New York Rangers on Tuesday night.
“It didn’t really feel like a 7-2 game until the end there when you look up at the scoreboard,” said Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki, who scored twice in that game.
“But we obviously keep digging ourselves these holes, and against a good team like that, our details early on have to be really sharp. And we were definitely a little sleepy coming out and they jumped on us.”
The Canadiens, who are winless (0-3-1) on their last four games, fell into a quick 4-0 hole against the Rangers. They will look for a much better start against the Blues.
“It’s definitely on us,” Suzuki said. “It seems like we gifted them a few goals. You can’t do that against a good team like that. They find a way to lock it down and it was tough for us to come back.”
The Canadiens fueled the Rangers’ start with a series of turnovers committed by their younger players.
“Failure is probably the best lesson you can get for getting better,” Suzuki said. “I mean, there’s stuff that happened in my rookie year that I know that I was the one that messed up for a goal and it almost haunts you that you don’t want to do that again. I think they’ll just learn from that and it’s easy fixes.”
Montreal may be without defenseman Justin Barron, who is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury suffered when Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba landed a big hit on him Tuesday.
–Field Level Media