The Blues didn’t practice Thursday in Chicago, but the team held a meeting in the visting locker room at the United Center. During the meeting, Blues coach Andy Murray went to the board and wrote the words “Strong Start.”

Bad starts, such as the early 3-0 deficit in Buffalo Wednesday, have hurt the Blues and Murray wanted to know what the players thought they could do to avoid any more bad first periods. So after giving the team the topic for the meeting, Murray invited the players to come up and write down ideas that could help them.

Lee Stempniak took the marker and wrote on the board as the team blurted out some keys. “I was the stenographer, taking the minutes,” Stempniak said.

Here is the list that the Blues came up with:

1. Focus

2. Simplicity

3. Excitement

4. Effort

5. Follow up strong shifts

6. Composure

7. Believe in the system

8. Urgency

9. Compete

10. Be ready for every situation

11.  Be positive

Stempniak liked the list the Blues put together.

“I think a lot of the things boil down to playing with heart and playing with intensity,” he said. “I think it was good just for us to verbalize what we need to do to have strong starts. Everyone has been on teams that have had good starts and teams that have struggled at the start . . . we know what we need to do . . . but for me it boils down to intensity and playing within the system. When we play hard at the end of games, like we did in Buffalo, we were all over them and generating tons of chances. There’s no reason we shouldn’t play like that all game.”

Stempniak said the players appreciated Murray giving them the floor.

“Definitely,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of veterans on the team and they know what they’re doing. The coaches can’t do all of the talking. We’re just as big a part of it. All of that input is great for us.”

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Manny Legace will be back in net tonight after allowing three goals on seven shots Wednesday in Buffalo. Chris Mason replaced Legace and looked terrific, but Murray said today that regardless of what Mason did in that game, he knew when he made the switch that Legace would start in Chicago. Murray feels that Legace is the No. 1 goalie and the Blues have to treat him like it. Murray added, however, that Legace has to play like a No. 1.

Upon further review, Murray felt only one of the three goals Legace allowed Wednesday in Buffalo was 100 percent his fault.

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When I talked to John Davidson yesterday following the team’s decision to send Alex Pietrangelo back to junior hockey, I asked him if any of Peoria’s defensemen would be called up. He said “No” for the time being. That changed quickly last night, however, when the Blues decided to bring up Jeff Woywitka. Woywitka will be in the lineup tonight.

“I felt good in Peoria,” said Woywitka, who says his foot is 100 percent after cracking a bone in the preseason. “When I went down, I worked hard . . . didn’t get down on myself. This is an opportunity for me again. I’ve got to make a statement for myself.”

Here are the defensive pairings for tonight:

Eric Brewer-Roman Polak

Barret Jackman-Jeff Woywitka

Steve Wagner-Jay McKee

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Murray said that Wednesday in Buffalo might have been Brewer’s best game of the season. Brewer played 27:06 of the game, which is more than his season average of 25:28. But Murray felt the reason for a fresher Brewer was shorter shifts. He played 34 shifts against Buffalo, with an average shift of 47 seconds.

Wednesday was game No. 14 for the Blues, so I took Brewers’ shift average for the first 13 games and it came out to be 51.4 seconds. That might not seem like a big different (47 to 51.4), but Brewer had some games with averages of 58, 57 and 52.

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After saying that Paul Kariya was likely to play tonight, it turns out Kariya won’t be in the lineup. He was on the ice briefly this morning, but decided that his left foot was too sore. He took a puck off the foot in Anaheim last week.

Here are the probable forward lines for tonight:

Tkachuk-McDonald-Boyes

Stempniak-Berglund-Perron

Stastny-McClement-Backes

Koci-Paddock-Janssen

Cam Paddock will make his NHL debut tonight for the Blues. He’s a grinder-style player in the mold of Dan Hinote, who he’s replacing. (Hinote was hurt Wednesday in Buffalo and today was wearing a boot on his foot.)

The Blues had contemplated calling up Steve Regier from Peoria, but decided on Paddock, who has four goals and one assist with the Rivermen this season. “I’m just playing my role down there and working hard,” Paddock said. “I bring a lot of energy and I want to play physical.”

Paddock said that his father works for Air Canada and couldn’t get off tonight on such short notice, so he will TiVo the game and watch his son’s NHL debut when he gets off work.

JR