- The Blues have placed center Jacob de la Rose on injured reserve, notes Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He suffered a lower-body injury early in yesterday’s wild game against San Jose. While de la Rose cleared waivers to start the season, he had been a regular on the fourth line for the past three weeks, averaging just under 10 minutes per name, a total that’s slightly skewed by his early exit on Saturday. He’s the sixth Blue on either regular IR or LTIR with Vladimir Tarasenko being the closest to returning.
Blues Rumors
Injury Notes: Blues, Kuznetsov, Larkin
As the St. Louis Blues embark on a six-game road trip, they are leaving many of their top players behind. While Vladimir Tarasenko appears ready to be activated from the Long-Term Injured Reserve, many other Blues are not as lucky. Alex Steen and Carl Gunnarsson are out for the year, placed on LTIR, while Tyler Bozak, Ivan Barbashev, and Robert Thomas all remain sidelined on standard IR, and you can now add two more to the lengthy list of absences, as Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Colton Parayko and Jaden Schwartz also did not travel with the team. Due to the length of the trip, this implies that both are currently dealing with substantial injuries and will not be recovered within the next two weeks. This aligns with a recent report from The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford that suggest Parayko had been playing through a back injury but simply could not keep going, especially as his performance suffered. Surgery is a potential option for Parayko, but for now he is being given substantial rest and rehab in hopes that it can be avoided. Schwartz remains more unknown, only termed day-to-day thus far, but clearly his injury is more of the “week-to-week” variety. The Blues will have to hope for the best from their top options and trust their depth, as a long bout of the injury bug can be especially debilitating in a shortened season.
- In some surprising news from earlier, Evgeny Kuznetsov was ruled out for the Washington Capitals’ Saturday matinee match-up. Kuznetsov has been diagnosed with an undisclosed upper-body injury and is considered day-to-day, but it is unknown when and how the injury occurred. According to The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir, Kuznetsov was a full participant in practice on Friday, even getting in some early solo work. There is no word on if he will be available to the Capitals tomorrow for their re-match with the New Jersey Devils.
- The Detroit Red Wings will be without their captain and leading scorer this weekend, the team announced. Dylan Larkin has been ruled out for Saturday and Sunday meetings with the rival Chicago Blackhawks and is considered day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. With Tyler Bertuzzi still sidelined as well, the league’s second-lowest scoring teams loses another major name from its short list of weapons.
“Good Chance” Vladimir Tarasenko Returns On Blues’ Upcoming Trip
The St. Louis Blues will start a six-game road trip tomorrow night against the San Jose Sharks and at some point during it, will likely get a big boost. Vladimir Tarasenko was a full participant in practice today and afterward, head coach Craig Berube told reporters including Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic that there is a “good chance” the sniper returns at some point during the trip.
Tarasenko last played in an NHL game during the postseason bubble but hasn’t suited up for a regular season game since October 24, 2019. He was limited to just 10 games last season, the first injury-riddled campaign of his career. The winger had played in at least 76 games in each of the five seasons previous, scoring at least 33 goals in each of them. That kind of offensive consistency is hard to come by, meaning his return should be an incredible addition for a Blues team looking to go on a deep playoff run.
When it was revealed that Tarasenko was likely to return this season, the question became how the Blues would fit him in under the salary cap. That question is at least partially answered now that Alex Steen and Carl Gunnarsson are out for the year, giving the team quite a bit more long-term injured reserve space. The Blues will still have to make a few transactions, but Tarasenko doesn’t push them over the top as much as once believed.
His return comes at a perfect time for the 2019 Cup champions, as they’re actually mired in a three-game losing streak and have scored just one goal in their past two. While they still sit second in the West Division standings, that’s in part due to playing 20 games already–only the Anaheim Ducks have played that many.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Carl Gunnarsson Out For Season
The St. Louis Blues have announced another long-term injury, this time to defenseman Carl Gunnarsson. The veteran will miss the rest of the season with a right knee injury sustained in the Blues’ recent game against the Los Angeles Kings. He is still being evaluated to determine the full extent of the injury. The team also announced that Ivan Barbashev underwent successful surgery on his ankle and will be re-evaluated in six weeks, as reported previously.
Gunnarsson, 34, has been a quiet soldier for the blues the last several seasons, rarely getting into the lineup but being ready whenever he does. A veteran of 629 regular season NHL games, he has just 73 since the start of the 2018-19 season. An injury like this, if it is as serious as originally feared, could potentially end that long career, given Gunnarsson is an unrestricted free agent in the offseason and will turn 35 just after the next season starts.
If it is the end, at least in St. Louis, he’ll leave with the respect of his teammates. Brayden Schenn called Gunnarsson an “absolute warrior” and a “hell of a teammate” after last night’s game. The depth defenseman played in 19 games on the Blues’ 2019 Stanley Cup run, actually scoring the winning goal in overtime of game two against the Boston Bruins. That goal led to one of the most hilarious anecdotes of the playoffs, as Gunnarsson explained after the game he called his shot while standing next to head coach Craig Berube at the urinal during intermission.
For now, he’ll face a long rehab. But he’ll always be a Stanley Cup champion.
Snapshots: Muzzin, Blais, Three Stars
The Toronto Maple Leafs will be without Jake Muzzin for the next little while after the veteran defenseman suffered a broken bone in his last game. According to Kristen Shilton of TSN, Muzzin won’t play tonight for Toronto and will be wearing a full-face shield when he does eventually return. The Maple Leafs will also be without Zach Hyman and Joe Thornton this evening as both wingers are listed as day-to-day.
In Muzzin’s place, Travis Dermott will be elevated to the second pair, an interesting assignment given how little the young defenseman has actually played this season. Despite suiting up in 15 games, Dermott has averaged just over 11 minutes a night, seeing no powerplay or penalty kill time. With rumors swirling about the Maple Leafs’ apparent interest in acquiring another top-six winger, Dermott’s name has come up in trade speculation. The 24-year-old will be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent this summer and has an opportunity now to really show what he is capable of.
- The St. Louis Blues will have Sammy Blais available to them tonight after he was previously placed on the COVID Protocol list. Blues head coach Craig Berube confirmed that it was a false positive that led to Blais’ placement there and he will be eligible to return this evening. The 24-year-old forward is expected to play on the second line alongside Brayden Schenn and Mike Hoffman. That’s quite the step up for Blais, who has just ten goals and 23 points in his 91-game NHL career. Jaden Schwartz and Colton Parayko will not dress as they continue to deal with injury.
- Hard to find a more dynamic trio than Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid, and David Pastrnak. Those are your NHL Three Stars of the week, with Matthews taking the top spot following his seven-goal output. The Maple Leafs forward leads the entire league in goals with 18 through his first 18 games this season, six ahead of McDavid and Brock Boeser who are tied for second. Pastrnak meanwhile has nine in his first nine games after starting the year on injured reserve, including a hat trick in last night’s Lake Tahoe game.
West Notes: Krebs, Strand, Kostin, Wiesblatt, Robins
With the WHL getting closer to a start date, many teams are beginning to send their prospects back to their junior leagues. The Henderson Silver Knights, the AHL affiliate of the Vegas Golden Knights, announced they have assigned center Peyton Krebs to the Winnipeg Ice.
With the WHL shutdown for most of the season so far, the Golden Knights’ top pick in 2019 (17th overall) got a rare opportunity to play amongst men in the AHL. He managed to get in five games with the Silver Knights, posting a goal and five points and looking like he’s ready for his next challenge. However, with the WHL starting back up soon, Krebs either had to be on the Golden Knights roster or return to his junior team. The 20-year-old posted impressive numbers with Winnipeg last season, including 12 goals and 60 points in just 38 games before joining the Golden Knights in the bubble for the playoffs last summer even if he didn’t get to appear in an NHL game.
- The Department of Player Safety announced that they have fined Los Angeles Kings defenseman Austin Strand $3,168 for cross-checking forward Conor Garland. The incident occurred at 19:52 of the second period (video here) in which Strand used the shaft of his stick to strike Garland in the face. Strand received a two-minute minor penalty for cross checking. The fine was the maximum amount allowable under the CBA.
- With Sammy Blais on the COVID Protocol list, the St. Louis Blues find themselves down to 11 forwards. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Jim Thomas writes that despite their lack of depth at the forward position all of a sudden, there is no plan to bring back prospect Klim Kostin from Russia. The 2017 first-rounder was loaned for the season to Omsk Avangard of the KHL in September, but the team has indicated that’s where he’ll stay until the KHL season ends. Of course, their regular season ends at the end of this month, but Omsk Avangard is expected to be in the playoffs, lengthening his stay there. While the forward’s numbers aren’t overly impressive (seven goals and 18 points in 41 games), Thomas notes that he has been much more impressive lately with four goals and nine points in his last six games.
- The San Jose Sharks announced they have assigned two of their top picks in the 2020 NHL draft to the WHL. Both Ozzy Wiesblatt and Tristen Robins, who were playing with the San Jose Barracuda of the AHL while junior play has been suspended, will return to their teams. Wiesblatt, the team’s first-round pick (31st overall), played in three games for the Barracuda, scoring one goal and will return to Prince Albert of the WHL. Robins, the team’s second-round pick (56th overall), played in two games with the Barracuda and will return to Saskatoon of the AHL.
Poll: NHL’s “Thanksgiving Trend” Revisited
Fans of the NHL are sure to be familiar with the deeper meaning that American Thanksgiving holds each season. With unrelenting consistency, the NHL’s standings on the final Thursday of November have had great predictive ability when compared to the final regular season standings. In fact, over the past seven years the Thanksgiving standings have been about 75% accurate at forecasting eventual playoff teams, predicting 12 of 16 spots on average. Even though American Thanksgiving only rolls around less than two months into the season, three out of four teams in a playoff spot at that time will have retained their postseason berth when the season ends.
The 2019-20 season of course did not have a standard postseason, but if it had then the Thanksgiving trend would have proved even more prophetic in a shortened campaign. Last year, in which teams were limited to between 68 and 71 games apiece prior to the early termination of the regular season, the Thanksgiving standings would have predicted 13 of 16 playoff teams in the standard format. Of the three teams that would have slid out of the postseason, the Florida Panthers trailed the Toronto Maple Leafs by .014 points percentage in the Atlantic Division and the Winnipeg Jets missed out by a measly .001 points percentage behind the Calgary Flames as the final Western Conference wild card. The Thanksgiving standings were that close to predicting 15 of 16 playoff teams in the shortened season, with the unexpected slow start for the Vegas Golden Knights and hot start for the Arizona Coyotes being the other unsurprising course correction.
But how does this trend impact a season that didn’t even begin until well after American Thanksgiving? Based on total games played by Thanksgiving over the past few seasons, Thanksgiving represents about the 30% progress through the NHL season. In the current 56-game season, that comes out to about the 17-game mark. Although postponements and rescheduling have created a wide discrepancy in games played among teams this year, the league as a whole passed that 17-game average on Saturday: Happy Thanksgiving. Admittedly, the 2020-21 campaign does have a different playoff model as well, one that is somewhat stricter than the last few years without the fallback of a wildcard spot for a team on the fifth-place fringe in their division. Yet, it is still a 16-team postseason and the Thanksgiving trend should hold. Using points percentage to rank the standings (the stat may end up determining playoff position for a second consecutive season anyhow) and adjusting for the season’s makeshift divisions, here is the current “Thanksgiving” outlook:
North Division East Division
Toronto Maple Leafs (.789) Boston Bruins (.733)
Montreal Canadiens (.625) Philadelphia Flyers (.679)
Winnipeg Jets (.618) Washington Capitals (.594)
Edmonton Oilers (.600) Pittsburgh Penguins (.594)____
Calgary Flames (.472) New Jersey Devils (.583)
Vancouver Canucks (.405) New York Islanders (.559)
Ottawa Senators (.237) New York Rangers (.469)
Buffalo Sabres (.429)
West Division Central Division
Vegas Golden Knights (.700) Carolina Hurricanes (.781)
Colorado Avalanche (.679) Florida Panthers (.750)
St. Louis Blues (.611) Tampa Bay Lightning (.700)
Minnesota Wild (.571) Dallas Stars (.583)
Los Angeles Kings (.531) Chicago Blackhawks (.579)
Arizona Coyotes (.500) Columbus Blue Jackets (.526)
San Jose Sharks (.500) Nashville Predators (.412)
Anaheim Ducks (.417) Detroit Red Wings (.325)
Now this begs the question, especially seeing how accurate the Thanksgiving standings were in last year’s shortened season but also accounting for the many disruptions for a number of teams early this season, who is the trend currently overlooking? Which teams currently outside the playoff picture, if any, do you think will make the postseason when all is said and done later this season? Use the comments section below as well to discuss which teams may fall out of the postseason and whether you feel the Thanksgiving trend will apply this season.
Which Of These Teams Will Buck The "Thanksgiving" Trend And Make The Playoffs?
New York Islanders
23.09%
(263 votes)
Chicago Blackhawks
18.88%
(215 votes)
Los Angeles Kings
9.66%
(110 votes)
None - "Thanksgiving" goes 16/16
8.96%
(102 votes)
Columbus Blue Jackets
7.73%
(88 votes)
Calgary Flames
6.41%
(73 votes)
New Jersey Devils
5.62%
(64 votes)
New York Rangers
4.39%
(50 votes)
Arizona Coyotes
3.69%
(42 votes)
Vancouver Canucks
3.69%
(42 votes)
Buffalo Sabres
2.19%
(25 votes)
San Jose Sharks
1.58%
(18 votes)
Detroit Red Wings
1.49%
(17 votes)
Nashville Predators
1.23%
(14 votes)
Anaheim Ducks
0.79%
(9 votes)
Ottawa Senators
0.61%
(7 votes)
Total Votes: 1,139
Ivan Barbashev Out At Least Six Weeks
The St. Louis Blues will be without Ivan Barbashev for at least six weeks after he suffered a left ankle injury in last night’s game. The team says he will be re-evaluated at that time, meaning it could be even longer. In a corresponding move, the Blues have recalled Nathan Walker from the AHL and moved Barbashev to injured reserve.
The 25-year-old forward had six points in 17 games on the season and was being used more and more by head coach Craig Berube of late. Versatile and talented, he’ll be a tough player to replace even for the West-leading Blues. Six weeks means he’ll miss close to 20 games, more than a third of the shortened season.
Not only does that remove a piece of the Blues lineup as they try to secure their position, but for Barbashev, it means this injury could cost him real dollars too. The young forward is scheduled to become a restricted free agent at the end of the year and still hasn’t experienced much of an offensive breakout. With just 83 points in 249 games so far in his career, his arbitration case won’t be very strong. That’s a silver lining for the Blues, but they would obviously want him in the lineup instead of rehabbing an injured ankle.
Blues Get Scandella And Krug Back But Lose Parayko
- While the Blues are getting Marco Scandella and Torey Krug back tonight from their respective upper-body injuries, it’s not all good news for their back end as Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch relays that Colton Parayko’s nagging injury is enough to keep him out of the lineup. The 27-year-old was expected to have a big season following the departure of Alex Pietrangelo but has managed just a goal and seven assists through 16 games and was only able to play 15 minutes on Monday against Arizona.
Blues Hoping To Sign Jordan Binnington To Contract Extension
Two years ago, Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington surprised many by taking over the starting job in St. Louis, eventually leading them to a Stanley Cup title. However, with no real track record of success before that point, the two sides eventually agreed on a two-year, $8.8MM contract, a deal that gave the Blues some financial wiggle room but also allowed the netminder to reach unrestricted free agency in his prime. That comes this summer and not surprisingly, GM Doug Armstrong told Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic (subscription link) that their intent is to work out an extension with their top goalie:
Yeah, we try and keep (contract negotiations) behind closed doors. But you know, we drafted him, and he took the long road to get here, but since he’s been here, we’ve had success, and obviously we’re hoping to find a way to keep him here.
If you look at this age and you look at what he’s accomplished, you know most teams have a No. 1 guy, and we have a No. 1 guy. Certainly, if he’s not here, we’re going to have to go find another partner for Husso. So our goal is to keep him here, obviously.
Binnington is off to a strong start this season with a 2.37 GAA and a .918 SV% through his first dozen starts, numbers that are a bit better than his 2019-20 performance (2.56 GAA, .912 SV%). Those are certainly number starting-caliber numbers and with that means a sizable raise is coming. Rutherford reports that the expectation around the league is that the 27-year-old is in line for a deal between five and seven years with a price tag between $5.5MM and $6.5MM.
That falls in line with several deals that starters received over the offseason including Jacob Markstrom, six years, $36MM, Robin Lehner (five years, $25MM), and Matt Murray (four years, $6.25MM).
Cap space will be tough to come by for St. Louis, however. They have $59MM in commitments to just 12 players for next season, per CapFriendly, with the cap not expected to go up. Spending a quarter of that or more on Binnington – or a replacement goaltender – really will make things difficult in terms of filling out the rest of the roster with Jaden Schwartz and Mike Hoffman among the other notable pending unrestricted free agents. However, given Binnington’s importance to the Blues, it’s a price that Armstrong would be wise to pay even though it will present even more salary cap challenges in the near future. But for now, he isn’t commenting on the status of any possible talks.