Blues Lose Oshie to Broken Ankle

The St. Louis Blues have lifted off into one of their best franchise starts in recent history, but as the days wear on in the early part of the season, the injury bug is starting to rear its ugly head and the effects may be hard to deal with in the immediate future.  The most recent loss to their line-up is now T.J. Oshie, who leads all skaters on the team in pool scoring; he has suffered a broken ankle after a collision with Columbus' Samuel Pahlsson.  Already, the word is indefinitely for the time he is going to miss and I would have to assume that he is looking at 6-to-8 weeks, as my best guess.

For the most part, the Blues have been scoring well by committee, but Oshie has been the one rising above the rest to lead all skaters in scoring with 1 goal and 9 assists in 13 games, including last night against the Blue Jackets.

I wouldn't say Oshie is the backbone of this Blues team, so I wouldn't say that the Blues success hinges on his heath, but he does play a very important part on it and his presence will be missed.  Oshie gives the team a solid 19 minutes of action every night and is likely a target for opposing teams to centre on, so the team's depth will be challenged a little more in his absence.

In the draft, Oshie was Dale B.'s 9th round pick, 178th overall, taken in a spot where he could have been considered a pretty good bargain, if he was to break out and have a great season.  Oshie was on pace for 63 points prior to this injury, which should be good enough for the top 75 in pool scoring, but that won't come to light now, as Oshie will miss way too much time to have those kind of numbers in his favour.

Even at only six weeks out of the line-up, that would put Oshie back in around Christmas, a couple of weeks after the first waiver draft.  If the injury remains to be considered serious, he would be a pretty good candidate for a drop at that time.

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