Maryland Heights, MO. – The Blues de Saint-Louis
Practiced Wednesday with as much of their range of opening evenings as possible, with a few exceptions, and the goal was to prepare it with the opening of the regular season a little more than a week on October 9 at home against the Minnesota Wild.
But the first training group will be the one used on Thursday when the blues play the second pre-season match and the last pre-season game at home against the Ottawa senators.
“Not definitively but like 95%, yes,” said Blues coach Jim Montgomery.
Jake Neighbors and Alexey Toropchenko were each left from the upper group with what Montgomery called general pain. The neighbors actually patinated the additional group according to the main group, but Toropchenko, who chose the first period and fell back in the boards, did not patiné.
“We must obtain the continuity of our lines and everyone is together,” said Montgomery. “The last two home games, we had the (Robert) Thomas Power Play playing and the last game, we had the (Dylan) Holloway- (Jordan) Kyrou Unit playing together and we wanted to give them both most of the time of power and tomorrow evening, we are going to do the usual league.”
The neighbors would have been split alongside Brayden Schenn, but it was Mathieu Joseph there Wednesday, with Nick B JUGSTAD, a center per business, but someone versatile to play one or the other, on the right, a position that the Blues are eager to see someone seize.
“Throughout, we were going to play a few games at the center, a few games in Wing,” said Montgomery about Bjugstad. “This was one of them. We put everyone there with Schenn and neighbors; he is a little painful today, so we did not put him there, but he generally played.”
The work seems wide open.
“Until we find one,” said Montgomery. “I think the players had good times, the players had moments out of the moments, so to answer your question, I don’t think anyone clearly seized it, no.”
Bjugstad, signed with a $ 3.5 million contract over two years on July 1, does not care that the blues put it.
“I told them that I am comfortable at one or the other place,” said Bjugstad. “It depends on the way in which the programming is seated, what are obviously the needs of this point of view. For me, I made enough of the two at this stage.
Bjugstad played in two pre-season games, and although it is lower from programming with younger roommates, there seemed to be a more offensive bite on Wednesday.
“I thought he was good there,” said Montgomery. “I noticed many more offensive games. Now it may be because he was with Schenn, I don’t know. But it seemed to be involved in much more offensive opportunities.
“He made a high -end pass on the only exercise that we did where he has toeft and made a back of the stolen door for` Snuggy ”. These are the kind of pieces that I had never seen before, so it seems that he was enough at the right wing. I told him before the start of the training camp and he said that he was at the center or at the center.
If the blues can get Bjugstad
Also a versatile choice: Oskar Sundqvist, who has experience in the center or at the wing. Sundqvist was centered on Wednesday Milan Lucic and Nathan Walker.
“It’s an option,” said Montgomery. “We know he can play it. His defensive stick is so good low and he covers himself for people. It is difficult to move away from his coach being. ”
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Do not reduce the seventh defensive point as an open competition as late in the camp.
And it is Hunter Skinner who makes things very interesting for Matthew Kessel, the seventh D-man supposedly before the training camp.
“Everything is a battle. It is a training camp,” said Montgomery. “The people who go out and catch it are like the third right line, have we already caught it? No, that’s why we continue to look at people. We know what our best six will look like. We know what our best eight looks like.”
As for Kessel?
“He had very good times,” said Montgomery. “Last night, I thought it was a good red line. I thought the red line towards our net, it was sometimes that it could have made more affirmative and aggressive pieces to end the pieces, and that is something that I think I was the problem of Kessel, probably why he works there and he continues to work hard. He does a good job.”
We know who will not start here. It is not this season, in any case, the choice of first round in 2023 (n ° 29 in total) is Theo Lindstein, who plays for the first time in North America. Lefty will be linked to Springfield at some point.
“This is a difficult situation,” said Montgomery. “When you come for the first time, you are in your first (season), not only does it get used to the rhythm of the game and the rink, but it gets used to living in North America for the first time. So there are a lot.
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