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T.J. Oshie to return to Blues lineup tomorrow, donates money to charity

Atlanta Thrashers v St. Louis Blues

ST. LOUIS - OCTOBER 30: T.J. Oshie #74 of the St. Louis Blues is congratulated by his teammates after scoring a goal during the overtime shootout against the Atlanta Thrashers at the Scottrade Center on October 30, 2010 in St. Louis, Missouri. The Blues beat the Thrashers 4-3 in a shootout. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)

Dilip Vishwanat

We’ve had a little bit of fun with T.J. Oshie’s unexcused absence from Blues practice that earned him a team-imposed two game vacation but we’re happy to see today that he’s learning from it and making immediate amends for screwing up.

After all, professional athletes missing practice for any reason at all is pretty inexcusable since this is their life and their careers. We’re not talking about ducking practice to go hang with your buddies at the mall. At least we hope not in this case. For Oshie, it’s a very public mistake and one he’s not happy with himself about even if Brett Hull says his teammates should’ve helped him out by making sure he got to practice.

Oshie spoke with the press today about his mistake and he was indeed very sorry for what happened as Jeremy Rutherford of The St. Louis Dispatch shares.
“I’ve learned from what happened the last couple days. This is kind of an eye-opener for me. I know that this is unacceptable. I’m going to do everything I can to earn the trust back of the fans, who I love here in St. Louis, of management and mostly my teammates. They’re the ones I go to battle with every night. I definitely never want to let them down again.”

Oshie says he feels so badly about what happened that he ‘s donating the money for the games he was sat down for. For that, he’s donating the money he made in those two games to charity.

As a result, Oshie will divide his pay from the missed games and donate it to the St. Louis Blues 14 Fund and the Dream Factory.

“I got paid for the last two days I missed and that’s not right,” Oshie told reporters after Wednesday’s practice. “I’m going to do everything I can to earn the trust back of the fans, who I love here in St. Louis. (My teammates) are the ones I go to battle with every night. I definitely never want to let them down again.”


It’s not just good PR for Oshie to do this, it’s smart too. In professional sports we hear so much about players seem to do things with no regard for the public or how their actions affect the team and those around them. In Oshie’s case he makes his team look bad but makes up for it by doing a really great thing for the community. If you can’t help the team win on the ice, helping them win off of it by helping the community is such a different thing to see a pro athlete do.

Good for Oshie for doing it but we can’t help it if we’re still really curious about just where he was.