Blues lose Bouwmeester, Upshall for rest of regular season

If you were one of those people who were continuing to hold out hope that the Blues made the playoffs, you may want to re-evaluate that today. I’m not saying that you might not be right - because there’s still a good chance that they can manage to start playing decent hockey again - but their hopes took a big blow with the loss of Jay Bouwmeester and Scottie Upshall.

Upshall, who is a key member of the fourth line and a solidly dependable player, has a left knee injury which will be evaluated in a month. That means that he will be more than likely out through the end of the season, maybe returning a month early if fortunate.

Bouwmeester’s hip injury hit critical mass on Saturday, and now he will be out for the remainder of the season. He will have to undergo surgery to fix the nagging injury, which has been significantly bothering the defenseman since December. Bouwmeester was going the “get an injection and play through it” route, but that’s no longer feasible.

The loss of Bouwmeester, who hasn’t been himself this season thanks to the injury, is very problematic for the Blues. The team suffered defensively without Robert Bortuzzo and Joel Edmundson. The former has returned, but the latter is still out, leaving the Blues shortstaffed on the back ind already. The loss of Bouwmeester is certainly a bigger issue than the loss of Bortuzzo, and Bort’s loss was felt more than expected.