Jay Bouwmeester’s injury hasn’t attracted much coverage ever since he suffered an “upper-body” injury against the San Jose Sharks. The St. Louis Blues ran a brief story on their website on March 25th stating he would miss at least two games, but there hasn’t been any additional coverage since then. Meanwhile, the national outlets (and finally the St. Louis Post-Dispatch a day later) ran stories suggesting Bouwmeester has a concussion and may be out indefinitely.
The whole situation is rather odd.
First, it took a while for details about the injury to even surface. Concussion-related injuries tend to be discussed early and often due to the unpredictable timeline a player may face prior to returning. Given the big backlash against the NHL and their current handling of concussions, just about every instance has been placed under a microscope … except this one. If it is a concussion, no one is readily willing to admit it.
Next, assuming it is a concussion as the national media presented, it’d be Bouwmeester’s second in roughly three months. He suffered a concussion in January against the Anaheim Ducks. That’s pretty troubling and could play a big role in his current recovery and the rest of his career. As concussions mount, recovery time tends to mount as well. Concussions don’t stack, but they can have lingering effects which become worse as additional concussions are suffered. That’s not ideal for a 32-year-old defensemen who is under contract through 2018-19.
Finally, if those two points above aren’t worthy of this being a bigger story than it is, why aren’t more fans concerned about what this may mean for the playoffs if he’s unable to return? It’s far too early to rule Bouwmeester out, but if the Blues had to roll with what they’ve got, that means three defensemen with under a year of NHL experience on the ice. Petteri Lindbohm skated for the Blues last season, but he has the least experience between himself, Colton Parayko and Joel Edmundson.
As good as the Blues have been of late, a scenario in which three first-year defensemen are in the playoffs and Robert Bortuzzo is your #3 blueliner could spell disaster when the Blues are placed under pressure.
Hopefully Bouwmeester will make a full recovery and this is a non-issue, but this story should be a point of concern for Blues fans – especially since information appears to be at a premium.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
