Blues at Capitals projected lineup/GameDay Thread

In case you were wondering who the new seventh man would be, today we’re getting our answer.

It looks like Niko Mikkola will be the seventh defenseman to make room for the newest member of the Blues, Nick Leddy. Leddy will slot in on the top pairing with Colton Parayko. It will be interesting to see the dynamic between the two - after Marco Scandella and Mikkola, Leddy will be Parayko’s third defensive partner of the season. Between Scandella and Mikkola, Parayko has seen more success and consistency with Mikkola. Perhaps being paired with Leddy will be a step forward toward stability for Parayko.

Robert Thomas and Vladimir Tarasenko will be out tonight, so everyone welcome back the Blues’ own Thunder from Down Under, Nathan Walker. The other forward spot will be left vacant to ice Mikkola, so the Blues are working with 7D and 11 forwards.

Here’s tonight’s lines, from stlouisblues.com:

Saad - O’Reilly - Perron

Buchnevich - Schenn - Kyrou

Walker - Barbashev - Toropchenko

MacEachern - Brown

Defense

Leddy - Parayko

Krug - Faulk

Scandella - Bortuzzo

Mikkola

Goalie

Husso / Binnington