As injuries pile-up, new players to roster and victories increase for Blues

All teams hope for a strong start with increasing wins to establish themselves as the season gets underway. Few expect to accomplish this while also suffering increasing injuries at the same time. Welcome to the story of the 2015-16 St. Louis Blues through their first eleven games.

At 8-2-1 with a 4-0-1 home record, the Blues are 2^nd in the Central Division, behind the Dallas Stars, 2^nd in the Western Conference and 3^rd overall in the thirty-team NHL; few would look at the depleted roster and expect such success. But that is just what St. Louis has experienced in the early going.

The Blues have been without rookie Robby Fabbri, out with a concussion since the second game of the season in Minnesota. He scored the game-winning goal during the home opener against Edmonton. After more than two weeks on the mend, he returned to against Minnesota at home Saturday registering one shot in just more than 12 minutes of ice time.

The game after losing Fabbri to injury, the Kevin Shattenkirk left early in the first period of the victory against Calgary with a lower-body injury. The All-Star defenseman has yet to return.

Two games later, Paul Stastny was lost late in the Vancouver win with what turned out to be a broken right foot. He is out for at least another month and will be evaluated at that time. Adding to the misery, Jaden Schwartz joined the infirmary with a broken left ankle suffered in practice on the Friday before the opening of the home-stand against the New York Islanders on October 24^th. He is lost until the end of January when he will be re-evaluated.

And then in Thursday night’s 2-1 victory against a reeling Anaheim squad, Vladimir Tarasenko was tagged with an elbow from Shawn Horcoff. Tarasenko finished the game, but sat out the 2-1 victory against Minnesota. He returns against Los Angeles in the home-stand finale on Tuesday, November 2^nd.

This is on top of Patrik Berglund, who started the season injured, remains out and will be re-evaluated after the first of the year.

Losing six key players in the first 11 games for a total of 41 man-games would normally knock a team back on their heels and deep in the standings, but not the Blues. And it is because others have stepped up to fill the void left by the top players.

After a slow start, captain David Backes had two goals against Minnesota, his first markers of the season, including the game-winning goal in overtime. Perhaps he is getting back on pace.

St. Louis Blues captain David Backes

Alex Steen had a goal against Minnesota to increase his total to 5 for the year to go along with 4 assists. He is averaging more than 20 minutes a game and has a +2 rating.

Jori Lehtera has 2 assists in the last four games and sits with 2 goals and 8 points with a +2 rating in 17:34 minutes of ice time per game. Troy Brouwer has 3 goals and 8 points with a +4 in just less than 17 minutes of average ice time per game.

Scottie Upshall has two goals and Scott Gomez has one, the game-winner against Tampa Bay in the 2-0 victory.

After being called up from Chicago (AHL) in time for the Anaheim victory on October 29th, Ty Rattie had an assist in the Minnesota game and was buzzing all night, forechecking the defense all night long during more than 11 minutes of ice time.

And reinforcements from the veteran ranks are on the way. Martin Havlaat and Danius Zubrus are skating with the Blues on a professional tryout basis. A decision on their roles with the team should come by end of week.

The defense is the real story during this stretch of injuries. A tightened up group where team play suffocates opponents has gotten stingy during the last few weeks. The Blues have not allowed more than 3 goals at any point during the 11-game season. The Blues are 4^th overall with a 2.09 in goals against, 3^rd overall in shots against at 26.2

In the two regulation losses, they dropped their first game to Minnesota on the road 3-2 and on their last road game to Montreal 3-0. They lost in overtime at home to the New York Islanders 3-2. They won two games by 4-3 scores on the road against Calgary and Vancouver.

But they are getting scoring from an unlikely source on the backline.

Colton Parayko, has contributed in ways no one could have expected. With 4 goals and 11 points in 11 games, he was 2 game-winning goals. Against Anaheim, he held 10 shots, the most by a player since Alexander Ovechkin in 2008. The effort set a Blues rookies record for shots in a game. One of those shots ended up being the game-winner. He is a +7 while averaging more than 20 minutes of ice time per game.

In goal, while Brian Elliott began the season in a lead role, Jake Allen has emerged as the top goalie on the club. Allen, 3-0-0 with a 0.98 goals against average and 0.938 save percentage was the NHL’s second start of the week, joining Brad Marchand of Boston as the 1^st store and Taylor Hall of Edmonton as the 3^rd star. It seems the Blues will ride Allen for the game against Los Angeles before turning to Elliott against the Blackhawks in Chicago Wednesday night.

The Blues continue their five-game homestand with Los Angeles Kings on November 3^rd before heading on the road for a four-game, 9-day road trip against Chicago, Nashville, New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers.