Blues at Blackhawks preview: Offense needs to click without Schwartz

This seems early this year, but Jaden Schwartz is out tonight with an injury and will probably miss tomorrow’s game against the Ducks as well. He got popped with a shot Thursday night and finished the game, but the team’s playing it safe this weekend. It’s not a long-term problem, so that’s good.

With Schwartz out, Chris Thorburn sneaks onto the fourth line with Ivan Barbashev and Robert Thomas, and Sammy Blais will take Schwartz’s spot on the second line.

What’s bad is that after getting outscored 10-5 during their first two games, the Blues put on a scoring clinic against Calgary, winning 5-3. They also netted four goals against the Blackhawks last week. Tarasenko had two of them, but the…