The St. Louis Blues face the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday, October 25, 2025, in the first game of a home-and-home series. Both teams enter with recent losses, as the Blues fell 7-4 to the Utah Mammoth and the Red Wings dropped decisions to the Buffalo Sabres and New York Islanders. Coaches are focusing on line adjustments and strong starts to regain momentum.
The Blues (3-3-1) and Red Wings (5-3-0) meet at 7 p.m. ET, with the Blues holding a 2-0 road record this season after a 1-2-1 homestand where they were outscored 18-11. St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery has reshuffled all four forward lines following Thursday's 7-4 loss to Utah, aiming to build a checking identity. "I think our biggest challenge is creating our identity of being a checking team," Montgomery said. "That's going to be our focus is to be a really good checking team, and that starts in the offensive zone." He added, "I just don't think the consistency with how we're working each line has been there. So we're trying to get at least one to two workers, that that's their calling card, to be on every line."
The Blues' projected forward lines are: Jake Neighbours - Robert Thomas - Jimmy Snuggerud; Mathieu Joseph - Brayden Schenn - Jordan Kyrou; Pavel Buchnevich - Pius Suter - Nathan Walker; Dylan Holloway - Oskar Sundqvist - Nick Bjugstad. On defense: Cam Fowler - Colton Parayko; Philip Broberg - Justin Faulk; Tyler Tucker - Matthew Kessel. Jordan Binnington is expected in net, with the tandem posting a 4.45 goals-against average and .837 save percentage. Leading the offense are Neighbours (four goals, one assist), Buchnevich (one goal, four assists) and Kyrou (one goal, four assists). Injured forward Alexey Toropchenko is out with lower and upper body soreness, while defenseman Matthew Kessel enters the lineup.
For Detroit, aiming to extend its home winning streak to five, the focus is on starting strong—the team is 4-2-0 when scoring first overall and 3-1-0 at home. Recent road losses included 4-2 to Buffalo and 7-2 to the Islanders. "We just got to clean up some of our rush play," defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker said. "Obviously, giving up a few too many chances on that type of stuff... Hopefully, we can get back on track tonight." Forward Alex DeBrincat noted, "It’s nice to get away from the rink and put [Thursday’s game] in the rearview mirror... I think today, we’ll come out strong."
Patrick Kane misses his fourth straight game with an upper-body injury and is day to day. Coach Todd McLellan described the Blues as inconsistent but dangerous: "They’re going through what we are a little bit... Their top two lines have a lot of potential scoring on it." The Red Wings' projected lines include Dylan Larkin centering the top group with Emmitt Finnie and Mason Appleton.