St. Louis Blues center Paul Stastny was placed on injured reserve Tuesday because of a lower-body injury.
Stastny was injured during the Blues’ 2-1 overtime win at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 9 when he appeared to collide with Maple Leafs forward Nazem Kadri following the faceoff that started the second period. He remained on the bench for several minutes before leaving for the locker room and did not return.
Stastny’s 35 points (15 goals, 20 assists) are fourth on the Blues, who are also missing forwards Robby Fabbri (torn ACL) and Kyle Brodziak (foot).
“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,” coach Mike Yeo told 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. It’s got to be a next-man-up mentality here.
“We have more than capable players and 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.”
The Blues (29-22-5, 63 points) play the Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena in this week’s Wednesday Night Rivalry game (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV) and return to Scottrade Center to face the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; SN, SN360, FS-MW, NHL.TV).
