According to a report made to ESPN, Jaroslav Halak is expected to miss approximately three weeks with a lower-body injury. Halak suffered the injury with about a minute left in the first period against the Minnesota Wild when he stretched his legs out to make a save.
Barring a trade before today’s deadline, the Blues will be forced to roll with Brian Elliott and Jake Allen in net for effectively the remainder of the 2013 regular season.
Halak just can’t catch a break. He suffered an injury in the playoffs against Los Angeles. He missed time earlier this year with a strained groin. Now, he’s back on the shelf with a “lower-body” injury (possibly his groin again). Is Halak a victim of bad luck or should we slide him into the susceptible to injury column? It’s a bit too early to tell, but it’s pretty worrisome that he has gone down with three injuries in recent memory.
Jake Allen is back with the NHL club after being sent down just a few days ago. He now comes in to either back or split time with Brian Elliott, depending on how Elliott handles the #1 job now that Halak is injured.
There’s some speculation that the Blues might try to find help in net before the deadline, but that seems like it might be a bit of a stretch. It’s certainly not impossible (most of us thought the Jay Bouwmeester trade was almost impossible), but it’s unlikely the Blues will give up assets to acquire help that might not be needed in three weeks.
The Blues are in an awkward position. They hope that Elliott can handle the role now that he’s been given it by default, but there are some legitimate concerns that he’ll stumble as he did the last time Halak was injured.
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