Tarasenko leaves practice early, Bouwmeester still not ready

Forward sustained upper-body injury against Toronto; 

defenseman no closer to return from fractured left ankle

By LOU KORAC
HAZELWOOD, Mo. -- Blues right wing Vladimir Tarasenko departed practice early Monday for precautionary reasons stemming from an upper-body injury sustained Saturday in a 6-4 victory over Toronto.

Tarasenko, who is second on the Blues in goals (seven) and points (16), took the early portion of the skate before the Blues departed for Newark, N.J. ahead of their scheduled game against the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday and skated on a line with linemates Jaden Schwartz and Brayden Schenn.

But he left the ice midway through the skate.

"It started last game," Blues coach Mike Yeo said. "He aggravated something in the first period and he was able to get through the game. A little sore today, so we just sent him off the ice.

"The precaution was that he was sore, so we'll monitor it and see how he is for tomorrow."

Tarasenko, the team leader in plus/minus at plus-12, was replaced on the first power play unit with Beau Bennett.

* Bouwmeester no closer to return -- Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, out since sustaining a fractured left ankle on Sept. 17 blocking a shot in a team scrimmage, appears no closer to returning to the lineup.

Originally scheduled to be re-evaluated in three weeks, it's been seven weeks since Bouwmeester's injury, and although he's skated a few times on his own, 

"He's just as frustrated as anybody else is," Yeo said. "It's just something that's taken too long here and it's disappointing for him. He wants to get back and he's doing everything he can, but it's just not cooperating right now, so we'll just keep going here.

"He's gone on the ice a couple times, but nothing that's going to push him any close that he's going to be a returning player."

Obviously the injury is more serious than the Blues originally thought, but Yeo said it's more about the bone break's placement.

"It's also kind of the location," Yeo said. "That's the problem here. 'Bouw's always been a guy here who, first off, he's tough and you look at his history as far as making sure he's in the lineup and a guy you can count on as far as that goes. This is just a unique injury."

Bouwmeester has the sixth-longest ironman streak for consecutives games played in NHL history at 737 games. The only active player with a longer current streak is Anaheim's Andrew Cogliano (800).