We’re approaching the point where it will be easier to list the healthy players on the St. Louis Blues than all the injured players.
With five players injured over the last two games, the Blues had a massive injury update to give the media on Monday. There was little good news to be found.
Goaltender Jake Allen (lower body), defensemen Jay Bouwmeester (upper body) and Carl Gunnarsson (upper body) and forward Magnus Paarjarvi (upper body) have all been deemed week-to-week with their respective injuries. Gunnarsson’s injury is not related to the injury he suffered just before Christmas, according to Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
Paul Stastny (upper body) is listed as day-to-day and hasn’t yet been ruled out of Tuesday’s game. Rutherford notes that the team is waiting for “some information” about Stastny before making a call on his availability for Tuesday’s match.
Ken Hitchcock addressed the status of the injured #stlblues. Here's the latest: https://t.co/9tSWXWJ1y3 pic.twitter.com/a8piQVIEiv
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) January 11, 2016
With Allen out, Brian Elliott will take the majority of the work. The team recalled Jordan Binnington to back-up Elliott.
The team has also recalled defenseman Chris Butler and winger Ty Rattie on an emergency basis to fill in the gaps. The Blues were already without Steve Ott, who is expected to miss three months after suffering a hamstring injury in December.
“It’s been that type of season. We’ve battled through this thing and nobody feels sorry for us in the League,” coach Ken Hitchcock said when updating the media, also noting that the team can find a little solace in this all coming so close to the All-Star break, where some healing can take place while the team isn’t playing games.
Here are what the altered Blues depth chart looked like at practice on Monday.
#stlblues D pairs
Shattenkirk-Pietrangelo
Butler-Parayko
Edmundson-Bortuzzo— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) January 11, 2016
#stlblues lines
Upshall-Steen-Brouwer
Fabbri-Lehtera-Tarasenko
Berglund-Backes-Rattie
Jaskin-Brodziak-Reaves— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) January 11, 2016
Though the Central Division is as big of a death match as ever, the Blues are a playoff team. With Bouwmeester out, it may halt any discussions of a Kevin Shattenkirk trade, as losing both Shattenkirk and Bouwmeester would drastically alter what started the season as a very strong blue line.
RELATED: Blues Finding Ways to Lose