St. Louis Blues defenseman Scott Perunovich will miss the final game prior to the All-Star break on Tuesday against the Columbus Blue Jackets because of a lower-body injury.
Perunovich sustained the injury at 9:20 of the third period of a 4-3 overtime win against the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday when he collided and got tangled up near the offensive zone blue line.
Perunovich, who did not practice Monday obviously during an optional practice, was scheduled to have an MRI to determine the extent of the injury.
"We sent him for an MRI today, so no results back yet," Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said following the skate Monday. "It is a lower-body injury and I would imagine that he'll be out tomorrow.
"To early to tell (the length of time) I guess until we see any results. Hopefully the break comes through and he'll be ready to play, but I can't really comment that he would be or wouldn't be at this point. ... I don't know what the plan would be until we find results of the MRI."
Perunovich, who has had a history of lengthy injuries throughout his young NHL career, had 12 assists in 31 games this season thus far, including two against the Kings on Sunday.
"He's doing the things that I've talked about with him, and that I've talked about with you guys too that we needed to see a little bit more of," Bannister said. "The puck play's always been there. He sees the ice really well, he moves the puck real well. [Sunday] he made some real good plays t o set up some goals."
With Perunovich down and Justin Faulk (lower-body injury) also sidelined, Tyler Tucker will be re-inserted into the lineup against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday.
Tucker was brought back up from Springfield of the American Hockey League on Sunday at the conclusion of his conditioning stint.
"Going down to Springfield, he was able to play games similar to like [Nikita Alexandrov] did and get his legs underneath him," Bannister said. "Hopefully he'll be ready to play and get an opportunity here tomorrow to make an impact and an impression on the team."
Tucker last played Dec. 21 against the Florida Panthers and has a goal and an assist in 15 games this season, one that has been filled with inconsistency. He went down and played in six games after missing nearly a month of game action.
"Just defending and playing hard to play against," Bannister said. "Moving pucks, keeping things simple, getting it up to our forwards and then having good gaps. When he was really good for us in Springfield, that's kind of a throwback defenseman that made it harder on other teams' forwards, hard around the net, hard around the goal line and then kept things simple and moved the puck up quick, closes gaps real quick and made the game easy for himself."
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