MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- The St. Louis Blues will have to be without one of their promising young forwards for at least the next two games.
Dylan Holloway did not practice on Friday due to a lower-body injury he suffered in a 5-4 overtime win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday and will not play at the very least against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday and the Winnipeg Jets on Monday.
“He went and saw a doctor today and he’s not back yet so we don’t have information, but he’s not going to be a player for the next couple of games,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “Saturday and Monday, he’s not going to play. That I know.”
Holloway, who has 63 points (26 goals, 37 assists) in 77 games, was checked in the offensive zone by Penguins forward Rutger McGroarty at the 17:09 mark; he came on for a final shift with 1:16 remaining but left the ice quickly hunched over and was ruled out the rest of the game after leaving the bench area.
At practice on Friday, the Blues shuffled around their forward lines, only leaving the line of Radek Faksa, Alexey Toropchenko and Nathan Walker together.
Jimmy Snuggerud, the No. 23 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft who had an assist – his first NHL point – on Thursday in his second game, moved up to the top line and was paired with Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich, while Jake Neighbours slid down to skate with Brayden Schenn and Jordan Kyrou, and Mathieu Joseph, a healthy scratch the past two games, moved onto ‘The 70s’ line with Zack Bolduc and Oskar Sundqvist.
“The good thing is we have a lot of options,” Montgomery said. “You have Bolduc, you have Snuggerud, you have Mojo. I don’t want to split up the ‘Faksi’ line, they’re just too important to our team identity and how I use them. We have a lot of guys that are playing really good hockey. Unfortunatey, ‘Tex’ is out or he would be another option. Snuggerud has shown a lot. I like ‘The 70s’ line. I like it a lot. That and moving Jake with Schenn and Kyrou is going to allow me to get more ice time for Jake.
“[Snuggerud’s] shown us a lot. He’s a hockey player. He’s making plays and he’s competing. As long as that maintains and stays up, I say that cautiously. This is the NHL and to be an every day player in the NHL is not easy. You see it a lot with young players.”
Texier, who played in four straight games before being a healthy scratch the past two, has an upper-body injury and is also unavailable for Saturday’s game against the Avalanche.
“Upper body issue that he went to see a doctor about, what treatment he needs to get back as soon as possible,” Montgomery said. “I think he is day to day, not a player tomorrow. That’s all the information I have. He’s not back from the doctor either.”
As for reuniting ‘The 70s Line’ again, Montgomery said,.”Speed, how they attack the blue line with speed and how ‘Sunny’ gives that line incredible details, especially in our own end and in tracking. And the other two work.”