Robby Fabbri is expected to be back in the St. Louis Blues lineup on Saturday night when the team pays a visit to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Fabbri was a healthy scratch for the first time in his NHL career on Thursday night for the Blues’ 3-1 loss to the Nashville Predators, and it wasn’t just because he had been limited to just a single goal and three assists through the first 14 games of the season. It was because coach Ken Hitchcock was not seeing enough “tenacity” from the young forward, a comment that came not long after he defended the forwards play.
Based on the lines at the team’s morning skate, Fabbri is expected to play on a line next to Jori Lehtera and Vladimir Tarasenko on Saturday night.
The other interesting development for the Blues lineup on Saturday is that it appears Nail Yakupov will also remain in the lineup. Yakupov had been a healthy scratch for three consecutive games but was able to draw back into the lineup on Thursday when Fabbri sat. Yakupov was skating next to David Perron and Paul Stastny at the morning skate. Yakupov has two goals and two assists in 12 games this season but is currently riding a six-game scoring drought.
After starting the season with three consecutive wins the Blues have gone just 4-5-3 in the 11 games that have followed. They enter play on Saturday having lost two games in a row while scoring just a pair of goals.