A tough break for St. Louis, Kuznetsov and Markov with five-pointers, hat tricks for Boedker and Ward and lots more in Scott Cullen’s Statistically Speaking.

The St. Louis Blues are off to a solid starts, with a 5-2-1 record, but they have run into injury problems early, most notably a broken ankle suffered in practice last week by left winger Jaden Schwartz, an injury that will keep Schwartz out of the lineup for three months.

Even though Schwartz had yet to find the net in seven games this season, this is a significant loss. Since the start of the 2013-2014 season, Schwartz has 123 points in 162 games, ranking 47th in the league over that time.

During those two-plus seasons, Schwartz was also a strong possession performer, with the Blues controlling 54.6% of even-strength shot attempts with Schwartz on the ice.

What makes this more challenging for the Blues is that they are already missing a couple of quality forwards, as centre Paul Stastny is out with a broken foot and left winger Patrik Berglund is on the shelf while he recovers from shoulder surgery. Effectively, St. Louis is working without three top nine forwards.

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