Expected lineup: Dec. 20 at Florida

With back-to-back games, St. Louis Blues not a morning skate ahead of Friday’s matchup with the Florida Panthers (6 p.m. CT, FanDuel Sports Network, 101 ESPN).

Here’s what Blues Head Coach Jim Montgomery had to say about some personnel adjustments:

– Radek Faksa returns to the lineup after missing five games with an injury. Faksa suffered a skating cut near his groin on Dec. 10 in Vancouver.

– Oskar Sundqvist is back in the lineup after sitting out as a healthy scratch n Tampa Bay.

– Philip Broberg returns to the lineup after missing Thursday’s game against the Lightning due to illness.

– Alexandre Texier will play for the second game in a row. Montgomery was happy with what he saw from Texier against the Lightning. “The way he hung onto pucks, the way he was very confident, the speed with which he attacked in the middle of the ice gave us some good looks offensively. He made some really good plays. It was the best game I’ve seen him play and I want him to continue to build on that.”

Montgomery said Brandon Saad, Mathieu Joseph and Tyler Tucker will sit out against the Panthers.

Joel Hofer starts in goal.