Nathan Walker sidelined eight weeks with upper-body injury, joining Jimmy Snuggerud, Alexey Toropchenko long-term, Pius Suter on day to day basis
ST. LOUIS -- The injury hits keep coming for the St. Louis Blues.
One day after announcing that Jimmy Snuggerud would be reevaluated in six weeks when the 2022 first-round pick scheduled for left wrist surgery on Tuesday and Alexey Toropchenko out week to week with scalding burns to both legs due to a home accident, Nathan Walker was placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury; the forward will be reevaluated in eight weeks.
Walker played 12:21 and was a minus-1 with a game-high five hits in a 4-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Monday; he has nine points (three goals, six assists) in 25 games this season.
Walker was injured with 2:06 remaining in the second period after blocking a slap shot by Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas; he would finish the game.
Those injuries go along with Pius Suter, who has missed two games with a lower-body injury and is listed as day to day.
"It's part of the season and the schedule, the way it is now," Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. "I think teams are going to be dealing with more injuries than they ever have before. It's a great thing that we play in the Olympics with the shortened season, (but) it results in games like the 1-0 game we had against Utah where teams are playing at the end of three in four (days)."
It for certain means that Aleksanteri Kaskimaki, who was recalled from Springfield of the American Hockey League on Monday and was supposed to make his NHL debut but couldn't due to flight delays stemming from bad weather in St. Louis, will most certainly stay with the big club for the foreseeable future.
With Walker sidelined, the Blues' fourth line, their identity line, has taken a big hit for the foreseeable future, with only Oskar Sundqvist and Mathieu Joseph, who bounces around from third to fourth lines, remaining as healthy bodies.
"We've lost our two most physical forwards (in Walker and Toropchenko) consistently and the ones that create anxiety on other teams with the forecheck," Montgomery said. "You need guys, [Nick] Bjugstad, Matty Joseph, Kaskimaki now coming in, these guys have got to replace that kind of anxiety. They can't do it exactly the same, but they might not be as naturally as physical. You've got to do it with your feet and how you pressure 'D' whether it's pressuring them offensively or pressuring them when they have the puck. You've got to be able to create turnovers to sustain and get more offense."
Walker is certainly a hit; he plays like a pit bull on the ice despite his smaller stature at 5-foot-9, 181 pounds.
"He's just a heart-and-soul guy, a guy that plays the right way every night," Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. "You can never have enough of those guys. You worry about energy in the locker room because he's an energizer bunny in the locker room, on the bench, a guy that breeds positivity because of his energy."
The Blues (9-11-7) don't play again until Thursday when they begin a three-game road trip against the Boston Bruins.
The good news is that Montgomery said they believe Suter will return to the lineup, but Montgomery wasn't certain if another call-up from Springfield was in the works as of Tuesday.
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