Carl Gunnarsson, Kyle Brodziak, Jori Lehtera, and Jaden Schwartz are all battling injuries for the St. Louis Blues. All four, however, are close to playing. Everyone but Lehtera is going on the trip to Canada with the team. During this three-game stretch the Blues will play the Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, and Calgary Flames, in that order; before returning home to play the Flames again on the 25.
Four Injured St. Louis Blues Are Close to Return
Schwartz, who was expected to miss four weeks, is practicing full time with the team and expected to play again in the next few games. However, management doesn’t want to push anything. When NHL.com interviewed coach Ken Hitchcock, about the injuries the team has, he only spoke of three injuries; those being Brodziak, Gunnarsson, and Lehtera.
Lehtera is considered day-to-day, like the other three, but probably isn’t healthy enough to return just yet. He’s out with an unspecified upper body injury, and will most likely play again sometime next week.
Once all three of these players return, it’ll be interesting to see how to Blues fit them into their currently undefeated lineup. Ty Rattie, Magnus Paajarvi, and Dmitrij Jaskin would be the most likely to get less playing time, but it’s all up in the air. Brodziak might be scratched for a while longer in favor of Paajarvi, who has one goal in the two games he’s played so far. Out of the three, he’s the only one with a point. He also seemed to fit in very well with Patrik Berglund and the newbie Nail Yakupov. He and Yakupov could be a dynamic duo in the Blue’s bottom six.
Meanwhile, Gunnarsson should have a spot the first game he comes back, taking Joel Edmundson’s. Edmundson has spent the the last few seasons mainly in the AHL, with the Chicago Wolves. He did play in 67 NHL games last year. In those he only had nine points, eight of them being assists. He stayed in the NHL most of the year, only playing six AHL games. It’s likely he’ll do that again this year. With the Blues’ luck, it won’t be terribly long before he sees more playing time; although he probably won’t see any until another injury occurs.
Main Photo:
