St. Louis Blues’ Vladimir Tarasenko out 5 months with shoulder injury

The St. Louis Blues will be without star Vladimir Tarasenko for five months as the forward will have surgery on his shoulder this week.

The St. Louis Blues announced on Monday that 27-year-old forward Vladimir Tarasenko will miss at least five months of the 2019-20 season with a left shoulder injury. Tarasenko is scheduled to have surgery on his shoulder on Tuesday after sustaining an injury a week prior and will be put on injured reserve by the team.

The five-month estimated timetable before the Blues reevaluate Tarasenko’s status will leave him out of the St. Louis lineup until late March at the earliest.

Tarasenko was injured in the Blues’ game against the Los Angeles Kings on Oct. 24. where the forward played only a few minutes before exiting the ice. On a play in the first period as he was driving to the net, Tarasenko got tangled up with Kings’ defenseman Sean Walker as the pair were fighting for the puck. Tarasenko came away from the play holding his left shoulder and did not return to the ice for the rest of the game.

Coming into Thursday night’s game for the Blues, Tarasenko had 10 points in 10 games and was riding a five-game point streak for St. Louis. The blow is a tremendous one for the Blues, who are coming off their first Stanley Cup championship in team history this past summer. Tarasenko was a major player in the team’s Stanley Cup run, as he had 68 points in 76 games last season for the Blues. The forward had 17 points, with 11 total goals, in the Blues’ successful playoff run.

Tarasenko has been a 30-plus goal scorer for the Blues for the last five seasons, maintaining a spot on the team’s top line thanks to his scoring touch. The loss is a major one for the Blues, who sit at third place in the Central Division with a 6-3-3 record and 15 points on the season with the end of October on the horizon.