The St. Louis Blues will have to make do without their top goal scorer.
Alexander Steen was placed on injured reserve and will be out indefinitely with a concussion as Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Steen’s 24 goals this season put him second in the NHL behind only Alex Ovechkin.
Steen was was listed as day-to-day on Sunday and hasn’t played since last Saturday against Edmonton. He was already slated to miss tonight’s game against Chicago but now he’ll be out further.
Blues GM Doug Armstrong says Steen’s injury is due to a culmination of several hits recently including an illegal check from Ottawa’s Zack Smith back on Dec. 16.
With Steen out, the goal scoring will fall to captain David Backes as well as Chris Stewart, Jaden Schwartz, and Vladimir Tarasenko to pick up the slack. Through 35 games, Steen matched his career-high in goals. Replacing that kind of output will not be easy.
