Blues goalie Manny Legace is still sore after Friday night’s bizarre carpet incident and won’t be in the lineup tonight. Ben Bishop will start against Florida and Marek Schwarz, who was called up this morning, will be the backup.
Legace has a strained hip-flexor and thinks he’ll be fine by Monday or Tuesday. Fortunately for the Blues, they don’t play again until Thursday, so they have plenty of time to get Legace healthy.
Chris Mason went through his first on-ice workout this morning, after undergoing an emergency Appendectomy on Oct. 16. Mason said that he felt great and could practice with the Blues Sunday or Monday.
“I feel really good,” Mason said. “I did everything up and down, all my movements. Hopefully I’ll be ready to go ASAP. . . . I’ll be ready for Carolina Thursday, that’s how I feel.”
So it appears that the Blues COULD have both Legace and Mason back after tonight’s game. But that does little for them tonight when they face the Panthers, who are 4-3 and have beaten Ottawa and San Jose in their last two games.
Bishop will get his first career start, after stopping 15 of 17 shots in relief last night. Bishop was probably going to get the start tonight anyway. No one wants to see the injury to Legace, but it should be better for Bishop that he got a taste of it last night.
“I felt real smooth, got into a good rhythm and felt pretty good out there,” Bishop said after the game.
The Blues are counting on Bishop because Schwarz has continued to struggle in Peoria. Here’s the account of Peoria’s 6-3 loss to Milwaukee last night from the Peoria Journal-Star:
http://www.pjstar.com/sports/x799707589/Rivermen-come-out-flat-get-flattened
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Look for forward David Perron to be back in the lineup tonight, and I would expect to see some line juggling after Friday’s 15-shot performance.
Perron was disappointed to be a healthy scratch last night. “It was tough, but for me, I just have to come back and play a good game tonight . . . play the game with energy and play the game I can play,” Perron said. “I don’t focus on what happened yesterday. I have to think about what I can do better tonight.”
On how he’s played so far this year, Perron said: “Ups and downs, but I guess it’s going to happen during the season. We’ve seen that a lot with some other guys . . . Joe Thornton just got his first goal. Ryan Getzlaf got his first goal and watching (Anze) Kopitar yesterday, he had three points in five games. A lot of guys will start roughly, but I’m sure I will get it back on track and I’ll be all right.”
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Defenseman Jonas Junland will play in Peoria tonight, and Jeff Woywitka is also expected to play for the Rivermen after being a healthy scratch last night in Milwaukee. The Rivermen played Friday and have games Saturday and Sunday, and the Blues didn’t want Woywitka to play all three. Junland and Woywitka will probably play both games this weekend.
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Peoria forward Matt Foy, who was a key free-agent signing for the Rivermen this summer, will miss 4-6 weeks after having sports hernia surgery . . . Peoria forward Charles Linglet and defenseman Alexander Hellstrom were scratched Friday. Linglet has been a non-factor for the Rivermen.
JR