Blues in St. Louis: Jaden Schwartz Nearly Backing Into The Lineup
It appears as though the St. Louis Blues are finally making progress in overcoming their injury problem. That remark seems true for the moment, albeit it obviously requires us all to find a huge piece of wood to pound on. When the team plays the Los Angeles Kings next, we know Tyler Bozak will almost certainly be on the field. Jaden Schwartz might possibly make a comeback in the same game.
The forward will undoubtedly return at some point during their second west coast road trip if he chooses not to play for the Blues in Los Angeles. These rewards could not come at a better moment, with so many players playing above their typical rank and taking on more responsibilities. Bozak and Schwartz won’t be able to assist with the stat sheet right away. But even simply having them on the team balances things out and puts other players back in positions that fit them better.
The peculiar aspect of the Schwartz affair has been how deceptive it has been. Not that someone provided false information, but it has been illogical from the beginning.
On February 12, during the team’s never-ending series against the Arizona Coyotes, Schwartz played his final game. Due to a lower-body injury, he has missed 14 games so far. The strangest thing about Schwartz’s injury was that, despite missing the following game, the TV crew informed us that he would have been available if the club was participating in game seven of the playoffs. Being cautious is sense, but how do you miss 14 games if you could manage to make it through the playoffs?
This is just a question of thought, not an allegation. We would have been talking about a maximum of a few games if he could have participated if the team’s survival was in jeopardy. So far this season, Schwartz has missed half of it. There had to have been more to it than what we were told.
Still, it’s impossible to overestimate the likelihood that Schwartz will return. It’s only positive things. These men need to return to St. Louis. Compared to other NHL teams, they have suffered from more injuries than any other. Jim Thomas of the Post-Dispatch reports that injuries have cost the Blues 137 man-games. That does not even cover the instances in which players, such as Oskar Sundqvist, failed to complete a competition.
The Blues have had as many as seven players listed on injured reserve at once. That doesn’t even include Schwartz, who was never taken off the active roster. As Thomas pointed out, it’s also the most in the NHL. Nashville is the only other team with seven players on IR and 24 of the 31 current NHL teams have three or fewer players on IR at one time. The Blues just hit the halfway point of the 2021 season. If they can get more and more guys healthy and get back on track, this will benefit them. Returning players won’t have as many miles on them. The Blues will also have more experience to rely on, should they have to lean on anyone like Dakota Joshua again in the future.
A player of Schwartz’s or any other team’s caliber is someone you never want to lose. Though it hasn’t been spectacular, the Blues have done a respectable job of moving forward. We might see something that resembles the team and style we expected when 2021 started in a week or two.
