The roll call already was a lengthy one: Vladimir Sobotka, Magnus Paajarvi, Patrik Berglund, Dmitrij Jaskin and Ivan Barbashev have all started games on the same line as Vladimir Tarasenko.
And that’s just in the 11 games since Jaden Schwartz went down with a foot injury Dec. 9 in Detroit.
So perhaps Scottie Upshall shouldn’t have been surprised when Mike Yeo told him the news in midstream Saturday against Carolina.
“He grabbed Maggie (Paajarvi) and I right at the start of the third, and said he was going to throw us in the mix, we’d be all over the place,” Upshall said. “The next shift he had me out with them.”
By “them” Upshall meant center Brayden Schenn and Tarasenko.
So in a game in which Barbashev started out on the line with Schenn and Tarasenko, Yeo made an in-game adjustment with Upshall getting turns with that pair in the third. Yes, Yeo is searching everywhere for offense lately. He’s done so in head-spinning fashion over these 11 games, not that you can blame him.
In the season’s first 30 games, including that Detroit game, the Blues scored three or more goals 20 times.
In the 11 games since Detroit, they’ve scored as many as three goals only three times. And only 18 goals total in those 11, or 1.64 goals per game.
They needed overtime to get a third goal in a 3-2 win over Buffalo on Dec. 10, and an empty-net goal to reach three in a 3-1 triumph at Vancouver on Dec. 23.
So desperate times call for desperate measures. Yeo has used no fewer than 24 different line combinations to start games in the 11 contests after Schwartz’s injury.
And that’s not even counting the in-game change that catapulted Upshall from his usual fourth-line status to the high-rent district with Schenn and Tarasenko.
Why Upshall?
“I think it was a little more to get some veteran play at that time,” Yeo said. “It was a fresh body with some speed. We tried it out for a few shifts and obviously got the goal, which was big, and then continued with it because he looked good there.”
Upshall scored his second game-winner of the season at the 8:58 mark of the third period, snapping a 2-2 tie on assists from Schenn and Tarasenko.
“Uppy stepped up when called upon,” Yeo said. “I thought Uppy was good all night, to be honest with you. He had a different role tonight, playing with a little mix of everybody. I thought he was real positive on the bench, and I think that was a big factor in why he was ready for that opportunity.”
Yeo also was pleased with the work of Paajarvi in taking turns with Paul Stastny and Sobotka after starting on the fourth line Saturday.
As the players continue to grow accustomed to playing for Yeo — who’s in his first full season as Blues coach — one of the things they’ve mentioned is his ability to make in-game adjustments based on what he sees as the game unfolds.
Moving Upshall up to the Schenn-Tarasenko line was just one manifestation of that. He also limited rookie Tage Thompson to only a few shifts in the third period on a line with Statsny and Sobotka, replacing him with the more experienced Paajarvi.
The move was made largely to get more experience on the ice in what was a tight, tense game in the final period.
“I think (Thompson) was fine in the game,” Yeo said. “It was just a situation we had a fresh body there in Maggie, who hadn’t played the night before. He’s got fresh legs, he’s got speed, he’s got a good mind for the defensive part of the game. That gave him an opportunity to move up there.”
Perhaps the move to keep an eye on, however, was the elevation of fourth-line center Kyle Brodziak to a line with Berglund and Alexander Steen.
Brodziak had a goal and an assist Saturday in that expanded role and now has five goals in his last 18 games.
“Brodzy’s been really good for a long time here,” Yeo said. “We really value the role he has on our team on a night-to-night basis, so for that reason we’ve maybe been a little reluctant to move him up because he’s got such an important role in his checking game.
“But he deserves the opportunity, he’s been playing so well. He’s working incredibly hard, he’s feeling confident, he looks fast, decisive and I thought those guys — Steen, Bergy and Brodzy — did a great job for us.”
Given that line’s success against Carolina — Berglund also scored a goal — look for Yeo to continue with Brodziak centering Berglund and Steen for at least the final two games on this three-game homestand. The Blues play host to New Jersey on Tuesday and Vegas on Thursday.
“I think it could be a line that sticks,” Yeo said. “We’ve got three home games, three games where we have the opportunity to make the last change, and put a shutdown line together.
“Not just a line that’s going to go out there and defend all the time; they can defend and still build our team identity and force the other team’s top players to have to defend against them. You would expect to see those guys play the next game together.”
And if that doesn’t work? Well, Yeo has shown he will do anything and everything with his line combinations.