By Jordan Long
The St. Louis Blues are tied with Calgary for the top Wild Card spot in the Western Conference. They have to make the playoffs without forward Robby Fabbri who is out for the season with an ACL injury. The injury occurred this past weekend in a game against the Penguins. Fabbri was hit midway through the first period and he didn’t return to the game. This is a big loss for the Blues.
Fabbri is in his second season with the Blues. This season he scored 11 goals and 18 assists for a total of 29 points and is valuable on the power play. Fabbri can score on the power play with 4 goals. He also passes to his teammates when the Blues are on the man advantage for them to score goals. Fabbri has 5 power play assists.
The Blues will miss his play. His speed makes it difficult for opponents to check him off the puck. That speed ends up in odd man rushes. Fabbri finds his teammates on the open ice so they can put the puck past the goaltender.
The Blues called up forwards Kenny Agostino and Magnus Paajarvi from the Chicago Wolves of the AHL to take Fabbri’s place. Kenny Agostino appeared in 10 games at the NHL level scoring a goal and assist. He doesn’t have experience playing on the power play.
Magnus Paajarvi is the better option to replace Fabbri in the lineup because he has more experience at the NHL level. Paajarvi has played in 279 NHL games scoring 36 goals and 45 assists for total of 81 points. He can play on the power play. Paajarvi scored 5 goals on the power play and he locates his teammates on the open ice for goals.
The Blues are in a decent position to make the playoffs. They must keep winning. If they miss out on the postseason, hopefully they won’t look back at the injury of Fabbri as the turning point of the season.
How will the injury of Robby Fabbri affect the St. Louis Blues’ chances of making the playoffs?
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