Forward injured in practice on Sunday, adds to growing list of injured Blues forwards; Fabbri gets bigger role moving into top six; Toropchenko activated off IR, will return against Predators
ST. LOUIS -- The news isn't good for Dylan Holloway.
The St. Louis Blues forward was injured in practice on Sunday when he was tripped up in a drill and got tangled with Pavel Buchnevich towards the end of practice and went down immediately and was needed to be helped off the ice.
The prognosis is Holloway was placed on injured reserve and will be reevaluated in six weeks with a right high ankle sprain.
Just when the Blues (12-14-7) thought things were trending in the right direction with Alexey Toropchenko (leg burns) activated off IR and will return on Monday against the Nashville Predators (12-15-4) at 7 p.m. (FDSNMW, ESPN 101.1-FM), Holloway now joins Jordan Kyrou (lower body), who hasn't resumed skating yet, Jimmy Snuggerud (wrist), Nick Bjugstad (upper body) and Nathan Walker (upper body) out with injuries.
"It’s all in one position that we’re getting hurt," Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. "Thankfully, glass half full, we’ve got Toropchenko coming back tonight, so we only have five out, but we’ve got a lot of guys that are playing really good hockey for us right now. We’ve got contributions. (Hugh) McGing has scored, (Matt) Luff has scored, (Logan) Mailloux scored last game. A lot of guys feeling good about themselves right now and we’re just going to march on."
Holloway, who missed the end of last season with a torn oblique off the pelvic bone, was really coming on with 17 points (eight goals, nine assists) in 33 games.
"The downside of Holloway getting injured is his last five games was his best five-game segment of the season," Montgomery said. "You could see him coming on, the physicality, the tenaciousness on pucks, skating through people, skating around people, making plays, that was coming. Everything we saw last year was very evident in the last five games. That’s the downside right now with that injury is where he was in his game."
With Holloway out of the lineup, Robby Fabbri will get a chance to jump into the top six and play with Brayden Schenn and Mathieu Joseph.
"It seems like it's been a tough go with injuries here," said Fabbri, who just signed a one-year, two-way contract last week. "Very unfortunate to see a guy go down in practice like that and a big part of the team like that. It's tough, but it's next-man-up and yeah, just trying to do what I've been doing and bring some energy and play my game."
Fabbri has two assists in two games since joining the lineup last week.
"He’s played two really good games for us, a real good 200-foot game," Montgomery said of Fabbri. "Obviously a great opportunity for him, and also a good opportunity for players that get moved up a line underneath as well."
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With Holloway out, it also impacts the power play, with Pius Suter jumping into one group and Mailloux gets the opportunity to quarterback one unit and Justin Faulk moving down to be a one-time option.
"I think a lot of that, there comes opportunity, right," Montgomery said. "That stems from injuries. We get another one up front, you’re going to start seeing (Philip) Broberg on the power play because our defensemen are a big part of what we think we do 5-on-5 offensively and getting Logan Mailloux the opportunity where he’s played his whole career on the power play, he looked comfortable out there this morning. It allows us to put (Justin Faulk) at a one-time bomb on the offside. So a lot of positives, so hopefully it’s going work out the way we envisioned it to."
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Blues Projected Lineup:
Jake Neighbours-Robert Thomas-Pavel Buchnevich
Robby Fabbri-Brayden Schenn-Mathieu Joseph
Pius Suter-Dalibor Dvorsky-Hugh McGing
Alexey Toropchenko-Oskar Sundqvist-Matt Luff
Philip Broberg-Colton Parayko
Tyler Tucker-Justin Faulk
Cam Fowler-Logan Mailloux
Joel Hofer will start in goal; Jordan Binnington will be the backup.
The healthy scratch includes Matthew Kessel. Jordan Kyrou (lower body), Dylan Holloway (high ankle sprain), Jimmy Snuggerud (wrist), Nick Bjugstad (upper body) and Nathan Walker (upper body) are out.
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Predators Projected Lineup:
Steven Stamkos-Ryan O'Reilly-Luke Evangelista
Filip Forsberg-Fedor Svechkov-Matthew Wood
Michael Bunting-Erik Haula-Jonathan Marchessault
Reid Schaefer-Michael McCarron-Tyson Jost
Nicolas Hague-Roman Josi
Brady Skjei-Nick Perbix
Adam Wilsby-Nick Blankenburg
Juuse Saros will start in goal; Justus Annunen will be the backup.
The Predators have no healthy scratches. Ozzy Wiesblatt (upper body), Cole Smith (lower body) and Justin Barron (lower body) are out.
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