The St. Louis Blues have shut down Vladimir Tarasenko for at least 10 days as the team announced today that the star forward will be out with an upper-body injury and will be re-evaluated after that. The injury was sustained on Thursday night against the Kings.
Considering he won’t be re-evaluated for a week and a half, the actual timeline of the injury is likely longer than that. With only four weeks left in the season, there’s a good chance the 27-year-old will miss at least half of their remaining 14 games.
Tarasenko had been the subject of trade speculation at times this season but despite that, he still ranks first on the Blues in goals (28) and second in points (58) with only Ryan O’Reilly ahead of him. He has been particularly hot as of late with 34 points over his past 26 games but fortunately for St. Louis, their run over the past couple of months has given them a little bit of a cushion to work with in the Central Division. They sit four points ahead of Dallas for the third seed and are six points up on Arizona, the first team on the outside looking in at a Wild Card spot in the West.
And the annual slide begins…#shoe drop