When Paul Stastny was hurt in last week’s win over Toronto, the Blues said they didn’t think the injury was long-term.
But now, it appears a little more serious than first thought.
St. Louis placed Stastny on IR Tuesday, after he sat out Saturday’s 4-2 win over the Habs. Head coach Mike Yeo acknowledged it’s a significant loss for the club, which is back in action tomorrow in a Rivalry Night game against Detroit (8 p.m. ET, NBCSN).
“He’s usually the first guy over the boards for a power-play faceoff or the first guy over the boards for a penalty-kill faceoff, and those are key,” Yeo said, per the Blues website. “He’s a very important player for us. You don’t take out a top-line center from too many lineups where they don’t feel that.”
Stastny had been on fire since the dismissal of former head coach Ken Hitchcock, racking up six points over his last five games (in which the Blues went 4-1-0).
The 31-year-old currently sits fourth on the team in assists and points, while averaging 19:25 TOI per night, so he’s clearly a big part of the St. Louis attack. And given the Blues have already lost Robby Fabbri to a torn ACL, they certainly didn’t want to be down the services another productive forward.
“We have more than capable players,” Yeo said. “Our focus is on the guys that are in the lineup and if we take care of our job, we give him a chance to get better and obviously we’ll be stronger when he gets back.”