Capitals at Blues Preseason GameDay Thread

The Blues’ preseason lines for tonight’s homegame look very much like those the team could ice in a regular season game. That’s by design.

And honestly, look at the lines:

Forwards: Ivan Barbashev, Sammy Blais, Tyler Bozak, Jordan Kyrou, Pat Maroon, Ryan O’Reilly, David Perron, Brayden Schenn, Jaden Schwartz, Alexander Steen, Vladimir Tarasenko, Robert Thomas, Chris Thorburn

Defense: Robert Bortuzzo, Jay Bouwmeester, Vince Dunn, Joel Edmundson, Colton Parayko, Alex Pietrangelo, Jordan Schmaltz

Goalies: Jake Allen, Chad Johnson

Not counting the absence of Carl Gunnarsson, still recovering from off-season surgery, that’s a fair approximation of what opening night looks like on the defensive end.

Up front, you’re missing Fabbri, Jaskin, Sanford, Shoshnikov, and Sundqvist. Other than swapping Fabbri for Barbashev, and Jaskin for Blais, that is more than likely what opening night should look like. The preseason’s the time to get a good read on how players click, and to try to predict the direction of the team during the year. Tonight’s the best chance so far to see how that goes.

This is your GameDay Thread. Comment like you’re cautiously optimistic on Jake Allen.

Let’s do this. Let’s go Blues.