Joel Edmundson is in and Robert Thomas is out as the Blues will make two lineup changes ahead of the biggest game in franchise history when they face the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final today at TD Garden (7 p.m.; NBC, KMOX 1120-AM).
Edmundson, who was a healthy scratch for Games 5 and 6, will replace Robert Bortuzzo and play alongside of Vince Dunn.
"I spoke with Chief [coach Craig Berube] yesterday so I knew last night," Edmundson said. "I kind of found out for sure this morning. I've played in, I think, three Game 7s now, so this will be my fourth. None of them compared to this one. It's obviously one of the biggest games of my life.
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"It's going to be a helluva game tonight. We're excited. We're a confident group right now. We're just looking to get things going."
Berube cited that there will be a lot of minutes tonight played between Alex Pietrangelo and Colton Parayko, so having two lefties on the third pair won't be an issue.
"With Parayko and Pietrangelo on the right side, they're just eating so many minutes up," Berube said. "There's not a lot of minutes over there. We decided to go with the four lefties then. What [Edmundson] can bring, he can bring a lot. He's got some real good upside, shoots the puck well, big guy, big body, physical player. He does do some things well in the offensive zone. I like his shot."
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Berube cited Thomas not being in as a "coach's decision." Thomas, who returned for Game 6 after missing Games 2-5 with a lingering wrist injury and not stemming from a hit taken by Boston defenseman Torey Krug in Game 1, played just 9 minutes 21 seconds in Game 6 and had no shot attempts.
It's pretty obvious that Thomas was not ready to play.
