Thursday, October 30, 2014

Concussions Rock the Blues

The list of teams that are not safe from the injury bug appears to be growing exponentially in the last few days, as the St. Louis Blues have been dealt a couple of major blows this week.

Forwards David Backes and T.J. Oshie are now on the shelf with concussions, as per the team's coaching staff, which means they will have to follow league protocol for their head injuries.  This means both players will be out for at least a week, but until all their tests are passed, they will remain out of the line-up, which today, is an indefinite period of time.

Backes has not exactly been off to a rocking start in the 2015 season, scoring only 2 goals and 3 assists in the first eight games of the season, just above half a point-per-game.  He goes on the shelf in 178th in pool scoring overall.

Oshie has not been any better, much worse, actually.  Only 1 assist for Oshie in the first eight games, which has him ranked a way down in 521st spot.

ImplicationsThis takes down a couple of key pieces of a couple hockey pool teams, both going in opposite directions.  Backes belongs to Grant, who is in a dog fight for 1st place at the moment, going into Thursday's busy night, 5 points back of the leaders, while Oshie belongs to Benson, who is 2 points out of getting out of the basement.

Both teams had their projected games cut down with the losses, which doesn't help them going forward.  Grant now has 27 games to work from for the rest of Week Four, while Benson now has 28 games.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.

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