Five days before the Blues report for physicals on Saturday, I chatted with head coach Andy Murray at length today regarding a variety of topics.

For an in-depth look at Murray’s thoughts heading into the season, check out my story Wednesday in the Post-Dispatch and on STLtoday.com. But for some quick afternoon reading, here are a few training camp tidbits to munch on . . .

Murray has been very pleased with the player turnout the past month. The Blues have no control over who skates in St. Louis prior to the start of training camp, but on Tuesday, there were two full teams for the morning scrimmage at the Mills.

“It shows that they’re hungry,” Murray said. “I think they’re feeling good about themselves. A lot of guys that had their best offseason training are feeling good about themselves right now. It’s great to see the number of guys that are in town skating and practicing. It’s important because of the shortened year with the Olympics and playing exhibition games right away. Guys are leaning on each other and they’re playing hard.”

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Murray said that the Blues will have 56 players at training camp. The breakdown is six goalies, 20 defensemen and 30 forwards.

Murray said something interesting about how the final roster will be determined. He said it will be less about contract situations and more about which players deserve a spot on the team.

“There will be some battles,” Murray said. “Everyone can look at contracts and say, ‘Well, they don’t have many roster spots open.’ Well, as I’ve told a couple of guys coming to our camp, ‘Put a wedge in their for yourselves. It may look like it’s blocked off, but somehow stick a wedge in and open it up a little bit and push yourself through it.’

“We will keep the best players. If that means creating roster spots by moving guys that aren’t performing, then that will happen. We’ll ultimately find a way to get our best players in the lineup.”

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One new addition to the training camp roster is center Derek Armstrong. The Blues confirmed today that Armstrong, 36, has agreed to a two-way contract. Click here for a look at his career.

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 The Blues will play their first preseason game Tuesday against Minnesota, just two days after the start of camp.

Murray said today that he’ll have a mix of veterans and young players in the lineup for that exhibition opener. He said there’s a good chance the Blues will use line combinations that they’ll try to use during the regular season.

There’s a strong possibility that when the season begins, the lines will look something like this:

Andy McDonald-David Backes-David Perron (I talked to Perron today and he is flat-out giddy about the possibility of those two linemates).

Paul Kariya-Patrik Berglund-Brad Boyes

Alex Steen-Keith Tkachuk-T.J. Oshie

Brad Winchester-Jay McClement-B.J. Crombeen

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Murray said that David Backes will open the season at center and Andy McDonald will open at left wing.

“Andy can play center and will do the job, but I think he can play just as well on the wing,” Murray said. “And I think David is better at center than he was on the wing.”

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There has been much speculation about the Blues being able to have D.J. King and Cam Janssen both on the opening-day roster. I for one have written that they probably can’t keep both. But Murray suggested otherwise today.

“I think both will be here,” Murray said. 

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With Eric Brewer sidelined indefinitely, the Blues will be counting heavily on Barret Jackman, as they did last season. Jackman played much of last season with a knee injury, which wasn’t acknowledged until after the season. Jackman did NOT have surgery, but he did have the entire summer to get the knee healthy. Murray said that Jackman looks good and will benefit as much as anybody from the time off.

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With Brewer absent in camp, there will be plenty of opportunity on defense. After Barret Jackman, Carlo Colaiacovo, Mike Weaver, Roman Polak and Erik Johnson, it appears that there will be six guys battling for two spots.

The six candidates are: Tyson Strachan, Brendan Bell, Alex Pietrangelo, Steve Wagner, Jonas Junland and Darryl Sydor (who is coming to camp on a tryout basis).

“There’s no question that our defense . . . we need to get some answers from our defense and see what they’re capable of,” Murray said. “We don’t have a lot of exhibition games and then we’re off to Sweden. We’ll probably play our last few exhibition games with our set lineup. Guys are going to have to be good early in camp and they’re going to have to play good in the intra-squad games and realize every time they step on the ice, we’re watching them.”

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Murray said the Blues will NOT be naming a temporary captain to replace Eric Brewer while he’s out.

“Everybody respects ‘Brew’ too much to let that happen,” Murray said. “The team wouldn’t like it if I did something like that. ‘Brew’ is our captain.”

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T.J. Oshie and Patrik Berglund will be part of the focus in training camp. Both had good rookie seasons overall, but Berglund tailed off toward the end of the season, and neither were very good in the playoffs. Murray will be looking for them to take the next step this season.

“Why should we accept anything less?” Murray said. “They set a standard for themselves, and we need to expect that. We put them in prominent roles on our team last year, and we’ll put them on prominent roles on our team again this year. There’s no question that ‘Osh’ and ‘Bergy’ in particular need to elevate their game from where it was at the end of last year. I thought David Perron at the end of the year was probably the most consistent of our young players.”

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Both Chris Mason and Ty Conklin were on the ice Tuesday and Mason said afterwards that they are hitting it off well. Mason handled last year’s situation with Manny Legace very professionally, but many believe Mason was able to blossom after Legace departed.

“It’s a great opportunity for Chris . . . he’s in the last year of his contract,” Murray said. “A solid citizen and good team guy, it’s a great opportunity for him. He is coming in as the No. 1 guy. And Ty Conklin, I’d like the success he’s had in recent years to come to us . . . being in the finals with Edmonton, Pittsburgh and Detroit.”

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I’ve been told that Dan Hinote will attend the San Jose Sharks’ training camp on a tryout basis.

More later . . .

JR