{"id":456480,"date":"2024-11-19T17:58:09","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T22:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=456480"},"modified":"2024-11-19T17:58:09","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T22:58:09","slug":"all-star-centre-returning-to-the-st-louis-blues-lineup-tonight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/11\/19\/all-star-centre-returning-to-the-st-louis-blues-lineup-tonight\/","title":{"rendered":"All-Star Centre Returning to the St. Louis Blues Lineup Tonight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Christmas has arrived early for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?s=st.+louis+blues\" target=\"_self\">St. Louis Blues<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/t\/thomaro01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-19_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Robert Thomas<\/a> will be returning to the lineup for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/11\/19\/nhl-predictions-november-19th-with-st-louis-blues-vs-minnesota-wild\/\" target=\"_self\">Tuesday&#8217;s game<\/a> in St. Louis. The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/01\/04\/robert-thomas-selected-as-all-star-game-representative-for-blues\/\" target=\"_self\">2024 All-Star<\/a> centre is returning two weeks earlier than his expected return date.<\/p>\n<h3>Thomas Returning to St. Louis Blues Lineup<\/h3>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Thomas says he\u2019s in tonight. <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/stlblues?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#stlblues<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jprutherford\/status\/1858919826879901911?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 19, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/10\/23\/all-star-forward-placed-on-injured-reserve\/\" target=\"_self\">Thomas fractured his ankle<\/a> on October 22. He was given a six-week timeframe to return, which would have been in early December. Even then, there was concern he would be out even longer.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cHe\u2019s put in a lot of work to get to this point,\u201d head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/bannidr01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-19_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Drew Bannister<\/a> said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t look like he\u2019s missed a beat; he\u2019s in great shape. He went away for 1-2 weeks to do some work in Toronto with his doctors, and I think that really sped up the process.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>Lineup Gets Big Boost<\/h3>\n<p>Thomas was having an excellent start to the season. He averaged 20:33 per game, won 62.6% of his draws, and posted career-best possession numbers with a 58.1 CF% and 64.9 xGF% at even strength. While his scoring numbers were down, just one goal in seven games, we should expect to see him breakout once he returns to the lineup. A point-per-game player last season, Thomas is not one who will be off the scoresheet for long.<\/p>\n<p>To create a spot on the roster, the Blues placed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kapanka01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-19_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kasperi Kapanen<\/a> on waivers on Monday. At the time, some wondered if it meant Thomas was returning early, but it seemed more likely that the Blues were simply looking to shed a little cap space and create more playing time for someone like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/bolduza01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-19_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zachary Bolduc<\/a>. As it turns out, the move is to create a space for the 2019 Stanley Cup champion. As note,<a  href=\"https:\/\/www.twitter.com\/EdmontonOilers\/status\/1858948876646203597\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Kapanen has since been claimed by the Edmonton Oilers earlier today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Forward Group Healthy<\/h3>\n<p>Thomas&#8217;s return means the Blues forward group is officially back from injury. The team is still dealing with some injuries on defence, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/brobeph01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-19_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Philip Broberg<\/a> being the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/11\/02\/st-louis-defenceman-leaves-with-injury\/\" target=\"_self\">biggest absence<\/a> at this time. However, things are trending in the right direction for the Blues. The team is only a few points out of the Western Conference&#8217;s final playoff spot. As the team gets healthier, it will be exciting to see if this team can end their two-year playoff drought.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Jeff Le-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christmas has arrived early for the St. Louis Blues. Robert Thomas will be returning to the lineup for Tuesday&#8217;s game in St. Louis. The 2024 All-Star centre is returning two weeks earlier than his expected return date. Thomas Returning to St. Louis Blues Lineup Thomas says he\u2019s in tonight. #stlblues &mdash; Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) November [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3464,"featured_media":442808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,4547,4548,32],"tags":[1310,5801],"class_list":["post-456480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-blues","tag-robert-thomas","tag-st-louis-blues-news"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3464"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}