St. Louis Blues Might Have An Injury Mess In Goal
No matter how good a hockey team might be they have to deal with one unavoidable factor: injuries. That reality is compounded when those injuries occur among a team’s goaltenders. Just ask the Montreal Canadiens–after looking like potential Stanley Cup Champions during the first month of the season they’ve struggled to win games ever since. That’s almost entirely due to a serious injury to starting goalie Carey Price.
The St. Louis Blues are a talented team that just hasn’t been able to buy a break with their injury situation. On Sunday, there was cause for celebration as backup Jake Allen was activated off of the disabled list after missing 17 games due to injury. He had been the Blues top goalie until the time of his injury but in his absence Brian Elliott took over and tore it up. Elliott currently leads the NHL in goals-against average (2.06) and save percentage (.931). Allen was activated to serve as an emergency backup–he is scheduled to be re-examined tomorrow and at that point it’ll be determined if he’s healthy enough to start one of the Blues’ back-to-back games in in Nashville or Carolina.
That was the plan at least–but on Monday night Allen was forced into emergency duty after Brian Elliott left the Blues’ 6-3 loss to the San Jose Sharks. Elliott wasn’t in great form and looked to have sustained the injury attempting to prevent San Jose’s third goal of the first period–this one scored by Logan Couture. He skated off with head athletic trainer Ray Barile and as of yet there has been no update from the Blues’ camp.
There’s a theory that Elliott might have been given the hook by Blues’ coach Ken Hitchcock but after the game it was confirmed that he left due to a lower body injury. With Allen returning from injury, the Blues had sent goaltender Jordan Binnington back to the Chicago Wolves of the AHL. They might want to get him to turn around and head back to town. Making matters worse, the Blues found out earlier on Monday that Alexander Steen will be sidelined at least a month due to an upper body injury.