The lord giveth and the lord taketh away. The St. Louis Blues can barely get through a single game without picking up an injury these days.
That would be one thing if it was just small bumps and bruises, but the injuries are getting more serious each time. Making matters worse, the Blues area of strength – defense – has now become a weakness with the players they have lost.
The same day we found out that Colton Parayko will be out for an undetermined amount of time for a back injury, the Blues lost a game to Los Angeles and also lost Carl Gunnarsson. He missed half that game and will now miss the rest of the season.
Gunnarsson went into the boards awkwardly during the second period. Some thought it might have been an ankle since the skate went into the boards, but it ended up being a right knee injury.
For now, the team is going to let the injury sit a bit and then reevaluate. Given that Gunnarsson could not put any weight on it leaving the ice, it seems unlikely that surgery would not be needed, but that is speculation.
The worrying thing is how the Blues get through this. A position of depth and strength has been stretched almost as thin as it can be.
Torey Krug has returned, but he got injured briefly. The Blues have lost Parayko for what could be weeks and now Gunnarsson is out for the season.
St. Louis still has Niko Mikkola to fall back on. Jake Walman has played a couple games too, though he probably has as many shifts played at forward as he does defense.
Walman is a decent player, but he is an unknown. You don’t know what you can expect from him game to game or even shift to shift.
This is sadly the card the Blues will have to deal with. The dealer has not been kind in 2021, but if they can weather the storm and get a few guys back up front, they should be ok. That’s a lot of ifs though.