TEAM SNAPSHOTS
BLUES For the first time since he arrived in St. Louis in the summer of 2018, Ryan O'Reilly will miss a game.
The Blues captain was added to the COVID-19 protocol list on Tuesday morning. Blues Head Coach Craig Berube said O'Reilly is expected to miss at least 10 days, meaning his streak of 214 regular-season games (plus playoffs) as a Blue will end.
The Blues were already without Brandon Saad, who has missed two games due to COVID protocols and is not expected to return Thursday.
"It's definitely tough, but it's part of everything that's going on with COVID," said Jordan Kyrou. "We've just got to stick together as a group and we've just got to battle through it. It's just how life is right now. It's an obstacle we've got to get through. We're going to get through it as a team."
St. Louis is on a franchise-best five-game winning streak to begin a season and will look to extend that streak to six games in Thursday's matchup with the Colorado Avalanche.
AVALANCHE The Colorado Avalanche enter Thursday's matchup with the Blues having lost four of their last five games.
"We're sort of stumbling and bumbling along right now, so there's a level of concern," Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar said.
"There's no panic at all," added defenseman Cale Makar. "We're [six] games in and we could win the next [76 games]. Obviously, that's probably not going to happen, but at the end of the day, you can think like that. Slow starts happen and we just have to build off it as a team. It just builds character. We move on and learn from our mistakes. We'll find a groove here."
LAST MEETING The Blues beat the Avalanche 5-3 in the season opener on Oct. 16 at Ball Arena. David Perron scored two goals for the Blues, who also got goals from Justin Faulk, Brayden Schenn and O'Reilly. Jordan Binnington made 29 saves.
Overall, the Blues have won the last three regular-season meetings between the teams.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
BLUES Tyler Bozak, who will likely get a chance to move up the lineup in O'Reilly's absence. Bozak was skating with Jordan Kyrou and Pavel Buchnevich on the second line in Wednesday's practice at Centene Community Ice Center.
AVALANCHE Nathan MacKinnon, who leads Colorado with six points (one goal, five assists) this season despite missing the first two games while in the COVID-19 protocol.
BLUE NOTES
The Blues have won eight straight regular-season games dating back to last season and have outscored opponents 38-15 in that stretch. The Blues are also unbeaten in eight straight regular season games at Enterprise Center dating back to last season (7-0-1)… Opposing teams have just one power-play goal against the Blues in the first five games. The Blues' PK ranks first in the League at 93.8 percent… Jordan Binnington is unbeaten in regulation in his last 13 regular-season games… Vladimir Tarasenko has points in four straight games and has posted multiple points in back-to-back games… Justin Faulk's next goal will be the 100th of his NHL career.
The St. Louis Blues will have to adjust to life without captain Ryan O'Reilly when they host the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night.
O'Reilly will be sidelined for at least 10 days in COVID-19 protocol. He played an integral role in the team's franchise-best 5-0-0 start.
He typically centers the top line, anchors the No. 1 power-play unit, kills penalties and takes the important faceoffs. His absence will be noticed when the Blues face the Avalanche at Enterprise Center.
"It's a challenge," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "We have good depth here. Everybody's going to have to step up and next guy up. That kind of attitude and go from there."
During Wednesday's practice, Berube kept his effective line of Robert Thomas centering Ivan Barbashev and Vladimir Tarasenko together. Brayden Schenn took O'Reilly's place on the first line between David Perron and Klim Kostin, while Tyler Bozak moved up from the fourth line to center Jordan Kyrou and Pavel Buchnevich.
Dakota Joshua, just back from the AHL, replaced Bozak on the fourth line.
"There's a lot of minutes to be grabbed there," defenseman Robert Bortuzzo said. "I think guys are going to be champing at the bit to fill some of these areas whether it's starting out on the PK or filling in on the power play, taking that challenge of playing the other team's top line. I'm sure there's many guys in that room who are bummed that he's out but excited for the challenge."
Meanwhile, the Colorado Avalanche are trying to get on track after regaining star center Nathan MacKinnon from protocol. The Avalanche fell to 2-4-0 with their 3-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights Tuesday night.
"We're sort of stumbling and bumbling along right now, so there's a level of concern," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said after that game. "It's not like, 'Well, we just didn't play good tonight and (we're) moving on to the next one.'
"Part of what we talked about today was that if we win tonight and we're able to get to .500, now we can start (moving) above .500 if we do our job. If you lose, you drop two games back, and now we'll see how long it takes us to get back. It could be seven days, it could be 10 days, it could be a month."
Playing without MacKinnon, the Avalanche lost to the Blues 5-3 on Oct. 16 in Denver.
He is back on the top line with Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen, but the Avalanche have been missing several injured players: Samuel Girard (upper body), Devon Toews (upper body), forwards Valeri Nichushkin (upper body) and Stefan Matteau (lower body), and goaltender Pavel Francouz (lower body).
Besides O'Reilly, the Blues are missing forwards Oskar Sundqvist (knee surgery) and Brandon Saad (COVID-19 protocol).
"You can't overthink it. It is what it is and the best way to deal with it is move on and wait for these guys to get healthy and get back," Berube said. "But in the meantime, go play hockey."
PROJECTED LINEUP
Forwards
Kostin - Schenn - Perron
Kyrou - Bozak - Buchnevich
Barbashev - Thomas - Tarasenko
Neighbours - Joshua - Neal
Defense
Scandella - Parayko
Krug - Faulk
Walman - Bortuzzo
Goalie
Binnington
