BOSTON — The St. Louis Blues are aiming to continue their early-season dominance Tuesday night against the Bruins at TD Garden.
The Blues are 9-1-0 in their last 10 games and rank 10th in goals scored per game, first in goals against per game and second in power-play percentage.
St. Louis is one of the most balanced teams that Boston will play this season. The Blues roll four good lines, have a deep blue line and superb goaltending. In fact, the Bruins and Blues have many of the similar traits.
“I see everything in our team except for one aspect,” Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock said Tuesday. “Claude, he’s gone and cheated and changed some of his back-checking tactics like we did in the Olympics. He’s gone and done that. Offensive zone, you can go and replace the numbers, the way both teams play in the O-zone is identical. The way their defense play defensively, the way their end-zone responsibilities are, it’s identical.
“We are mirror images of each other. The only change quite frankly from last year to this year was their track-and-reload responsibilities. He’s changed, and they’re way more aggressive from hunting the puck carrier down from the inside, which is a pretty big change for them.”
The Bruins will be without second-line winger Brad Marchand. Matt Fraser skated in Marchand’s place with Patrice Bergeron and Reilly Smith for most of Tuesday’s morning skate. Forward David Krejci and defenseman Kevan Miller both are game-time decisions, per B’s head coach Claude Julien. Tuukka Rask was the first goaltender off the ice after the morning skate, which usually indicates he will start.
Here are the expected lines and pairings for both teams:
BOSTON BRUINS (11-8-0, 3rd in Atlantic)
Milan Lucic-David Krejci/Chris Kelly-Seth Griffith
Matt Fraser-Patrice Bergeron-Reilly Smith
Chris Kelly-Carl Soderberg-Loui Eriksson
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Simon Gagne
Dennis Seidenberg-Adam McQuaid
Matt Bartkowski-Torey Krug
Joe Morrow-Dougie Hamilton
Tuukka Rask or Niklas Svedberg
ST. LOUIS BLUES (12-4-1, 1st in Central)
Alex Steen-Paul Stastny-Joakim Lindstrom
Patrik Berglund-David Backes-T.J. Oshie
Jaden Schwartz-Jori Lehtera-Vladimir Tarasenko
Steve Ott-Maxim Lapierre-Ryan Reaves
Jay Bouwmeester-Alex Pietrangelo
Carl Gunnarsson-Kevin Shattenkirk
Ian Cole-Barrett Jackman
Brian Elliott or Jake Allen
Thumbnail photo via Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports Images
