The St. Louis Blues announced that defenceman Carl Gunnarsson will miss tonight’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning with an upper-body injury.
Gunnarsson our w/upper body injury; Bortuzzo in.
— Jim Thomas (@jthom1) February 7, 2019
Carl Gunnarsson Out Tonight
The nature of how the injury occurred is a mystery. It doesn’t seem like this injury will keep the Blues top D man out for an extended period of time.
So far this season, Gunnarsson has scored three goals and four assists for seven points to go along with four minutes in penalties. His possession numbers were 54.1 percent Corsi and a relative Corsi of +2.6 percent.
Over his 10-year NHL career, Gunnarsson has played for the Toronto Maple Leafs and St. Louis Blues. He has 28 goals and 101 assists for 129 career points in 574 career games. He was originally drafted by the Maple Leafs in the seventh round, 194th overall in the 2007 NHL draft.
What This Means for the Future
This is a big loss for the Blues as Gunnarson has shown success as a defenceman this year for them. Despite playing in only 17 games due to missing time with an upper-body and knee injury, Gunnarson has been a pivotal part of the Blues blue line. There is a possibility that his earlier upper-body injuries are starting to flare up again. The Blues have only allowed 28.6 shots per game which is third best this season in the NHL.
Robert Bortuzzo will draw into the line-up with Gunnarsson hurt. He hasn’t played in a game since Jan 21. Bortuzzo will play on the third line with Vince Dunn, and Joel Edmundson will move up to play alongside Alex Pietrangelo. The Thunder Bay native has a goal and six assists for seven points in 30 games this season.
With the Blues currently fighting for a Wild Card spot in the Western Conference, they hope to have their top D man back in action sooner rather than later.
Main Image Credit:
