St. Louis Blues’ Ryan Reaves, Vladimir Tarasenko May Not Play Against Dallas Stars
The St. Louis Blues have been dealing with a team-wide bacterial infection for the past couple weeks, and it may have claimed its latest victim, as forward Ryan Reaves might not be able to play in tomorrow night’s game against the Dallas Stars. It was originally announced that Reaves would not make the trip to Dallas, although now he has decided to do so and will be a game time decision tomorrow.
The 27-year-old Reaves hasn’t been a major offensive contributor through the course of his career with the Blues, but at 6-foot-1 and 224 pounds he provides major value as a fourth line player, making important contributions on the boards and as a fighter when necessary. He did register his first point of the season on Saturday night, scoring a second period goal in the Blues’ defeat of the Chicago Blackhawks.
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In addition to Reaves, forward Vladimir Tarasenko’s status is also uncertain tomorrow night. If he ends up having to sit out, it’s likely that reserve forwards Magnus Paajarvi and Chris Porter, as well as recent call-up Dmitrij Jaskin, will be in the lineup against the Stars. Blues coach Ken Hitchcock also discussed the possibility of the team dressing seven defensemen against Dallas, though it’s unclear whether that would be due to the absence of another forward or the pure desire to go defense-heavy rather than using a “grinder” forward like Porter or Paajarvi.
Obviously, it will be important that the Blues display more of the strong offensive form that they did in their 3-2 defeat of the Blackhawks, rather than the lack of offense that they showed in their previous two games against the Anaheim Ducks and Vancouver Canucks, when they scored only one goal in a combined 120 minutes.