Blue's McDonald's injury leaves a void
? To mixed results, the Blues have made it through their last two games without Andy McDonald, but now with his concussion diagnosis official, they must find a longer-term solution to fill the void left by their leading forward in ice time.
McDonald was injured in Thursday's 3-2 loss to Dallas, and four days later, the club put the winger on injured reserve and acknowledged he will be out indefinitely with his second concussion as a Blue in 10 months.
"His symptoms were that the concussion continued to show," Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. "We thought we'd get him on IR and just start to move forward. He's like (David) Perron in the sense that when he's healed and ready to get back on the ice, he'll come back with us."
The Blues will wrap up their four-game trip tonight in Los Angeles, where they'll keep looking for ways to be successful while offsetting the 19 minutes, 1 second of ice time they forfeit with McDonald's injury. After losing him Thursday, the team managed a 4-2 win over San Jose on Saturday, but fell 4-2 to Anaheim on Sunday.
The Blues moved T.J. Oshie into McDonald's spot at left wing on a line with center David Backes and Jamie Langenbrunner. The line scored one goal in the past two games, but it was an empty-netter by Backes against San Jose.
"They've had some tough assignments and they've held up their end of the bargain as far as making sure they're not giving up things," Blues coach Davis Payne said. "They had some chances when Andy was on that line. Now all of a sudden, we need someone to step up and give you some contribution there."
Oshie, who was playing with Patrik Berglund and Chris Stewart, has just two points this season (both assists) and those came in the first two games of the season. He is averaging 18:16 of ice time, which is the fifth most for a Blues' forward, but he has only five shots on goal, 10th among Blues forwards. Oshie had just one shot in 17:17 Sunday, and late in the game, Payne replaced him with Evgeny Grachev on Backes' line.
"We made some adjustments based on some matchups (the Ducks) were going with, but LA will be a little bit of a different story," Payne said. "Right now, we didn't mind the combinations."
When asked if Oshie has proven he can produce offensively, Payne said: "His value is a solid two-way player. He's got some abilities to make things happen. He's got some abilities to defend and be a real good reliable player."
Oshie indicated he isn't happy with his production through five games.
"I haven't done quite what I've wanted to," he said. "I've been playing good in a lot of areas of the game, but offensively, I haven't been creating enough opportunities. Just getting more shots, just getting in the tough areas will get me going."
Oshie is averaging 2:04 of power-play time per game, which is behind nine other players on the team. He had just 42 seconds on the power play Sunday, when the Blues were 0 for four, dropping to one for 20 this season.
"I'm not creating enough on the PP with the time I've been given," Oshie said.
He's aware he'll have to be better all-around to remain a top option for McDonald's minutes.
"With him out, we've still got eight or nine guys that can step in there and fight for that role," Oshie said. "It just comes down to how everyone's playing, but we've definitely got to pick it up as a team offensively."
Vladimir Sobotka, who started the season on the Blues' fourth line, has played in Oshie's spot on the second line with Berglund and Stewart.
"I thought 'Sobi' was one of our best forwards (Sunday)," Payne said. "He's definitely making a statement about where he is fitting in and contributing.
"Our ability to still have depth throughout our three lines and have the fourth line contributing is still important. We're not going to be a top-line heavy team. ... We're going to be four lines that do the job and find our advantages within our depth. That's not going to change."
According to Armstrong, the plan for now is to not call up any forwards from Peoria. Evgeny Grachev and Chris Porter have played the past two games, and Ryan Reaves has been a healthy scratch.
"I don't see us calling up other players to play ahead of these guys right now," Armstrong said. "We'll let these guys see how far they can take it and if we feel that there are other options later, we'll look at them."
--stltoday.com/
