Blues Blank Stars 4-0, But Lose Toropchenko to Injury and Carlo to Ejection

The St. Louis Blues walked into Dallas on Friday night and handed the Stars a 4-0 shutout, but the scoreboard is officially the least interesting part of the game. If you had multiple casualties and a major penalty ejection on your bingo card, congratulations on the payout.

According to Daily Faceoff, Blues forward Alexey Toropchenko was forced to leave the game with an injury, while defenseman Brandon Carlo was given an early shower after being ejected. The report points directly to a kneeing incident involving Stars center Roope Hintz, which is exactly the kind of play that gets the NHL Department of Player Safety firing up their laptops.

"Daily Faceoff reported the injury and ejection, noting the incident involved a knee on Roope Hintz."

Winning a road game by four goals is a great night for the standings, but losing two key pieces of your lineup in the process is a brutal tax. Toropchenko is a heavy forechecking presence, and Carlo eats massive defensive minutes. Pulling both of them out of the rotation mid-game forces the rest of the bench to skate in quicksand to cover the gaps.

The NHL's disciplinary wheel of justice is notoriously unpredictable, but a knee-on-knee hit usually guarantees at least a phone hearing. For context, trying to defend the Colorado Avalanche without your shutdown defenseman is like trying to put out a grease fire with a water pistol.

That is exactly the problem St. Louis faces next. The Blues have to turn right around and play the Avalanche in Colorado on Saturday night. Anyone looking at the puckline for that matchup needs to hit refresh on the Blues' morning skate updates, because a depleted blue line on a back-to-back is prime fade territory.

Meanwhile, the Stars have their own problems to sort out. Getting blanked 4-0 on home ice is bad enough, but if Hintz misses any time from the Carlo collision, their center depth takes a massive hit just as they head to Nashville to play the Predators.

We should get an update on Toropchenko's timeline and Carlo's potential suspension before puck drop on Saturday. Until then, both teams are limping into the weekend with a lot more questions than answers.