Since posting the Blues’ lineup in an earlier Morning Skate blog, I had a chance to speak with Blues coach Andy Murray about why he chose the players he did for tonight’s game. Here’s what he said:

“I want to play Paul because he hasn’t played . . . so his line was going to play. I want to get Perron, Backes and McDonald playing together. They played a little bit at the end of the year, but I want them to get familiar with each other. Stastny has had a good camp, Cam’s had a good camp . . . I wanted to get them in there. I put Palushaj in the lineup because I think he’s played well. Porter is a guy that has a chance to play for us. And Derek Armstrong is a veteran that is here to battle for a job.

“On defense, Pietrangelo is battling for a job, Bell is battling for a job, Sydor is battling for a job, Wagner is battling for a job . . . I wanted to get Erik Johnson in there. I wanted to give each guy a solid guy to be evaluated with. Wags can be evaluated with Erik.”

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Johnson said he’s “pumped” about his return to the lineup.

“I’m just excited to get back out there and shake some of the rust off,” Johnson said. “I’m playing with some good players tonight and I just want to get back to where I can be.”

I asked Johnson if he’s shaken some rust off already . . .

“Yeah, I think the biggest thing is timing,” he said. “I’m pretty close to getting that back and that’s what these games are for. This is as close as you’re going to get to the real thing as you’re going to get right now. I’ve got to treat every game like it’s the regular season.”

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Tonight’s game will be important for a lot of players, but particularly Stastny. He has been considered the odd-man out because an abundance of forwards, but Stastny is having a good camp and will likely make the Blues’ decision a tough one.

The Blues have 12 forwards on one-way contracts: Kariya, Boyes, McDonald, Backes, Winchester, Tkachuk, Steen, McClement, Crombeen, Janssen, King and Stastny. They have three others who are on two-way contracts, but will play in St. Louis: Perron, Oshie and Berglund.

Unless the Blues keep 14 forwards (and they haven’t carried 14 very often in the last three years), two of those 15 will not make the team.

One factor that can’t be ignored is that Stastny is on a one-way contract this season, meaning that if he’s sent to Peoria, he will make his $500,000 NHL salary.

“The more people you have battling for jobs . . . it creates a better environment,” Stastny said. “Sometimes it’s a little more hostile but we’re all friends here and we all know it’s a business. It’s just trying to stand out . . . playing my role and playing my role to the best of my ability. You’ve always got to look for an edge one way or another.”

Stastny altered his summer training plan and that’s given him an edge. In the Blues’ on-ice conditioning drill Saturday, he finished first in his group.

“I changed my training up a lot,” Stastny said. “I went with everything that (strength coach) Nelson Ayotte does. I feel more explosive than I have in the past. It’s good to feel that coming into the season, and I’m hoping to take advantage of that.”

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Goaltender Chris Mason will play half of tonight’s game and Ben Bishop is expected to play in the second half.

“That’s the plan,” Murray said. “If (Rick Wamsley) comes to me partway through the second period and says, ‘I think we should finish this period with Mase,’ we will. The plan is for a half, but sometimes you get into it and you think this guy needs a little more, so you leave him in a little longer.”

Murray said that after tonight, whenever Mason is dressed for a preseason game, he will play the entire game.

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Murray said that he wanted to play D.J. King tonight, but King has an undisclosed minor injury and won’t suit up.

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Some NHL teams have already made roster trims, but don’t expect the Blues to cut anybody from camp until after Thursday’s scrimmage finale.

“I think we’ll assess things Thursday, after we finish the Wendy Pleau tournament,” Murray said. “We’ll see where we are and what we’re going to do with the three games on the weekend. We pretty well want to be down to our roster for our last two exhibition games (Sept. 24 at Minnesota and Sept. 26 at Dallas).”

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Blues prospect Lars Eller confirmed that his mono is a “mild” case. He was on the ice Monday and this morning and said he feels fine. Eller is hoping the Blues will consider playing him in an exhibition game.

JR