(12-20-24) St. Louis Blues-Florida Panthers Gameday Lineup

The St. Louis Blues (15-16-3) are back at it again completing their two-leg Florida trip before heading off to face the Detroit Red Wings on Monday, but first, it's a matchup on Friday against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers (20-11-2) at Amerant Bank Arena (6 p.m.; FDSNMW, ESPN 101.1-FM).

The Blues, who have dropped two straight, including 3-1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, a game in which they outshot Tampa 32-18, have scored just one goal in three of their past four games and nine times this season.

The team did not hold a morning skate today so take the lineup with a grain of salt, but Joel Hofer, who relieved Jordan Binnington Thursday after the former allowed three goals on 11 shots, was the projected starter for this game and we'll leave him in this spot for tonight.

Hofer only faced seven shots -- stopping them all -- in 24:21 of ice time and the fact he's played in just 11 games (7-3-0, 2.72 goals-against average, .907 save percentage), fatigue shouldn't be a issue.

We'll project that Radek Faksa, who's missed five games with a lower-body injury stemming from a skate cut near the groin area, will play tonight. Also, defenseman Philip Broberg, who missed Thursday's game due to illness, could play in this game and we'll project him in until further notice.

* Blues coach Jim Montgomery addressed the media and confirmed Hofer will start, and Faksa, Broberg and Oskar Sundqvist will be in the lineup. Brandon Saad, Mahieu Joseph and Tyler Tucker will be healthy scratches.

* According to natstattrick.com, all four lines last night had better than 50 percent Corsi-for ratings, with Dylan Holloway, Brayden Schenn and Jordan Kyrou leading the way at 73.68 percent (14 for, 5 against).

Kyrou has some of the best career numbers against the Panthers with eight points (four goals, four assists) six games.

The Blues have won four of the past five games against the Panthers and have points in seven of the last nine (6-2-1).

This is the Blues' fourth back-to-back set this season. They are 1-2-0 in the second game.

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Blues Projected Lineup:

Jake Neighbours-Robert Thomas-Pavel Buchnevich

Dylan Holloway-Brayden Schenn-Jordan Kyrou

Alexandre Texier-Oskar Sundqvist-Zack Bolduc

Alexey Toropchenko-Radek Faksa-Nathan Walker

Cam Fowler-Colton Parayko

Ryan Suter-Justin Faulk

Philip Broberg-Scott Perunovich

Joel Hofer will start in goal; Jordan Binnington will be the backup.

Healthy scratches are Brandon Saad, Mathieu Joseph and Tyler Tucker. Nick Leddy (lower body) is out.

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Panthers Projected Lineup:

Carter Verhaeghe-Aleksander Barkov-Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Luostarinen-Anton Lundell-Sam Reinhart

Evan Rodrigues-Sam Bennett-Mackie Samoskevich

A.J. Greer-Tomas Nosek-Jonah Gadjovich

Gustav Forsling-Aaron Ekblad

Niko Mikkola-Dmitry Kulikov

Uvis Balinskis-Nate Schmidt

Sergei Bobrovsky will start in goal; Spencer Knight will be the backup.

The heathy scratch will be Adam Boqvist. Jesper Boqvist (upper body) is out day to day; Bennett is questionable due to illness.