ST. LOUIS — The Blues open a four-game homestand against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday riding a three-game losing streak but getting some good news on the injury front.
Forward Oskar Sundqvist has been activated off injured-reserve and will return after missing the past six games with a lower-body, sustained against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Nov. 27.
To make room for Sundqvist, Nathan Walker was assigned to San Antonio of the American Hockey League.
Sundqvist's return is good news for a Blues team searching for some healthy bodies. He scored two goals against the Lightning in a 4-3 win and is tied for third on the team with eight.
"He had 14, 15 (goals) last year and that's with a little bit of power play time, but not on a consistent basis," Blues coach Craig Berube said of Sundqvist, who is expected to start on the fourth line with Jacob de la Rose and Mackenzie MacEachern. "I think that he is the type of guy that's going to get that many goals, that range of goals. Maybe more, you never know. It's all hard work and being aggressive. That's his game. He wills his way there and wills his way to scoring goals.
"He's a good player obviously, 200-foot player for us. He was scoring for us before he got hurt. He does a lot of good stuff for us, penalty kill. He just makes whatever line he goes on better. That's what he does."
There was some hope that Alexander Steen (high ankle sprain) and Zach Sanford (upper body) could return tonight, but they will not. Both skaters were on the ice for an optional morning skate and could return Saturday.
"Hopefully Saturday but we'll see," Berube said.
Blues Losing Streak Hits 3
The Blues have lost three straight in regulation for the first time since Nov. 17-21, 2018 and are looking to avoid their first four-game losing streak since going 0-6-1 Feb. 11-27, 2018.
"We haven't finished the way we wanted to and we have a chance to regroup at home and to get back on track," Blues center Ryan O'Reilly said. "It's a big opportunity for us and we look forward to it."
Berube said he wants to see the Blues with more compete around the nets tonight, particularly on the offensive side.
"Both nets are important tonight," he said. "We have to get to the net more offensively. Our D are shooting a ton of pucks and we're not at the net enough for tips and rebounds and things like that. I'm looking for us to get to the net a lot more tonight. You have to get traffic on [Marc-Andre] Fleury if he's playing. We've got to get some goals that way. We're not creating enough second and third opportunities around the net. So that's one area we can be a lot better. The other area is our net, cleaning up second and third opportunities the other way. We're there but we're not. We've got to get into people more at our net and be heavier at our net and not allow second or third opportunities. They go to the net, they've got guys who are big players and go to the net. We're going to have to be strong there. Both nets are huge tonight."
