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Before leaving for their first preseason game in Dallas at 7:30pm CST, the Blues announced Jay Bouwmeester has a fractured ankle and won’t even be re-evaluated for three weeks and Zachary Sanford will require surgery for his dislocated surgery, likely putting him out 6 months. More on these in a few minutes.

When the Blues head to Dallas tonight, expect their lines to look like the following:
Forwards
Alexander Steen – Robby Fabbri- Samuel Blais
Vladimir Sobotka – Robert Thomas – Jordan Kyrou
MacKenzie MacEachern – Ivan Barbashev – Tage Thompson
Wade Megan – Kyle Brodziak – Klim Kostin
Justin Selman also on the trip

Defensemen
Jake Walman – Robert Bortuzzo
Vince Dunn – Nate Prosser
Carl Gunnarsson – Jordan Schmaltz
Thomas Vanelli on the trip as well

Goalies
Carter Hutton and Jordan Binnington

The Stars are expected to ice the following lineup:
Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark – Devin Shore – Brett Ritchie
Antoine Roussel – Jason Dickinson – Tyler Pitlick
Nick Caamano – Roope Hintz – Denis Gurianov
Esa Lindell – John Klingberg
Marc Methot – Stephen Johns
Jamie Oleksiak – Julius Honka
Ben Bishop and St. Louis native Mike McKenna

Tonight, you have to think that guys like Barbashev, Blais, Thompson, Megan and Kostin will really be pushing to make a positive impression. They may feel like the injuries to Sanford and Patrik Berglund have increased their chances in getting a roster spot. Walman, Dunn and Schmaltz also likely feel the same way with the Bouwmeester injury.

When you look at the roster composition at forward with Sanford and Berglund on injured reserve (Sanford likely AHL IR), the Blues top 7 are locks (Tarasenko, Schenn, Stastny, Steen, Sobotka, Schwartz and Fabbri) with 4th liner Brodziak a lock and Thorburn as a press box/4th line lock. With nine forward spots secure, four or five remain open. One would assume that Jaskin, Bennett, Barbashev and Paajarvi have a strong inside track on those spots. Assuming they do and assuming the Blues want to save cap dollars while allowing their prospects to play rather than watch from the press box, the roster might already be effectively set. Of course, Megan, Blais, Kostin, Musil, Thompson and Sundqvist will all try to make enough of an impression to displace one of last year’s players or at least be in line for the first call up.

Speaking of Sundqvist for a moment, has anyone seen him or play and read much written about him lately? I’ve heard his name so little that I almost forgot to list him which would be unfair to him.

On the defensive end, Parayko, Pietrangelo, Edmundson, Bortuzzo, and Gunnarsson are locks. Bouwmeester’s injury leaves two spots to be filled from Lindbohm, Prosser, Schmaltz, Walman, Dunn and Butler. The only thing I am confident of in this area is that it won’t be both Prosser and Butler. I also think Dunn is a longer shot than the others. Other than that, your guess is as good as mine.

We’ll see tonight if the Blues can spoil former coach Ken Hitchcock’s first game back on his reunion tour with the Stars.

It’s a great day for hockey.

Fellow Hockeybuzz bloggers Nashville Predator's Paul McCann, Winnipeg Jet's Peter Tessier and Minnesota Wild's Dan Wallace have generously agreed to a friendly charity wager. We were hoping to do the whole division but don't have it fully represented yet. The blogger whose team finishes the highest the standings at the end of the year gets to pick a charity to whom the others will donate in their name.

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