Blues’ Robert Thomas Leaves With Upper-Body Injury

The St. Louis Blues lost their leading scorer to injury in Friday night’s game against the Utah Mammoth. Center Robert Thomas left the game less than a minute into the first period after falling over Mammoth forward Lawson Crouse and hitting his face, hands, and shoulders into the ice, captured by Sportsnet. Thomas needed assistance off of the ice, while Crouse circled to make sure the Blues’ star was okay.

No details on Thomas’ injury were shared postgame. Even one game without the top Blue would be hard to bear. Thomas has returned as a pillar of the St. Louis offense this season. He has 10 goals and 31 points in 41 games, seven points more than St. Louis’ next-highest scorer, Pavel Buchnevich. Thomas also fills rolls on the Blues’ top powerplay unit and, occassionally, rotates onto the top penalty-killing unit. His absence would leave holes across the lineup that St. Louis could struggle to fill.

The Blues are currently carrying Mathieu Joseph and Robby Fabbri as their extra forwards, while weathering injuries to Pius Suter, Dylan Holloway, and Nick Bjugstad. Neither Joseph nor Fabbri could step into Thomas’ role in the center position, which would leave rookie center Otto Stenberg with a big test. Thomas’ 21 takeaways leads the Blues, while his 52.5 faceoff percentage ranks second on the team. Stenberg – a natural center playing wing in his first NHL games – has gone four-for-nine on faceoffs so far.

Missing Thomas would elevate all of the Blues’ rookie in search of more scoring. Stenberg has begun to show a scoring touch at the top level, with two points in his last three games. That’s been more production than offered by Dalibor Dvorsky or Jimmy Snuggerud, who have one and two points over their last five games respectively. Should those three remain uninspiring on the scoresheet, the struggling Blues offense will have to hope that depth wingers like Fabbri or Nathan Walker can spark the offense from a minimal role.