St. Louis will be without center Paul Stastny on a week-to-week basis due to a lower body injury sustained last night in the first period against Colorado, reports Chris Pinkert on the Blues’ team website. Stastny had been centering the top line alongside Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Tarasenko.
Further compounding the problem for the Blues is the fact that center Jori Lehtera is also out of the lineup having missed the last six games with an undisclosed injury. Schwartz and Alex Steen both have predominantly played the wing this season but have experience playing down the middle so it wouldn’t be surprising if one of them shifts spots for the time being. Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch adds (Twitter link) that the team is not planning to call anyone up in Stastny’s absence.
Other injury notes from around the league:
- Although New Jersey forwards Mike Cammalleri (upper body), Jacob Josefson (upper body) and Devante Smith-Pelly (lower body) aren’t close to returning, head coach John Hynes isn’t prepared to call any of them out for the remainder of the season, notes NJ Advance Media’s Chris Ryan. With the Devils out of the playoff race, it would make some sense for them to shut the veterans down to allow their youngsters to get some more NHL playing time down the stretch. Cammalleri and Josefson are skating on their own while Smith-Pelly has yet to skate since being injured last week. None of the players are expected back at practice in the coming days.
- The Rangers will have goaltender Henrik Lundqvist back in the lineup either Saturday against the Kings or Sunday against the Ducks, head coach Alain Vigneault told reporters, including Justin Tasch of the New York Daily News. He also acknowledged that the veteran netminder could play now if they needed him but with their postseason situation all but carved in stone as the first Wild Card team in the East, they can afford to give him a few extra days off to make sure he’s fully healthy.