MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- The good news regarding St. Louis Blues defenseman Tyler Tucker is that his season is not done, according to coach Jim Montgomery.
Tucker, who departed Sunday’s 5-1 win in Game 4 against the Winnipeg Jets with a lower-body injury to his right leg when he awkwardly fell backwards and needed help off the ice favoring his right leg with 4:17 left in the third period, did not practice on Tuesday and has been ruled out for Game 5.
The best-of-7 Western Conference First Round series is tied 2-2 with Game 5 slated for Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. (FDSNMW, ESPN, CBC, TVAS, SN, ESPN 101.1-FM).
"He’s day-to-day. He won’t be an option in Game 5," Blues coach Jim Montgomery said of Tucker, who scored the game-winning goal in Game 4.
St. Louis goal!
— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) April 27, 2025
Scored by Tyler Tucker with 09:14 remaining in the 2nd period.
Assisted by Nick Leddy and Alexandre Texier.
St. Louis: 2
Winnipeg: 1#WPGvsSTL#stlblues#GoJetsGopic.twitter.com/YW85khNkaL
It means veteran Ryan Suter, who played all 82 regular-season games and Games 1 and 2 of the series before being a healthy scratch for Games 3 and 4, will return to the lineup and be paired with Nick Leddy.
"He is going back in. I’ve got to give him credit," Montgomery said of Suter. "I’ve got to say it was hard to do when you respect the player so much and what he’s done in the League for years and how much he’s helped us this year. You make a decision and you live with it. But that day I told him, that practice, he was unbelievable. He’s a pro, and I know he’s going to be good for us. It was just a gut feel, and putting him back in, we’re getting our No. 1 penalty-killing defenseman back in.”
The Blues went with Tucker starting in Game 2 when they implemented 11 forwards and seven defensemen before going back to the traditional 12 forwards and six defensemen and made Suter expendable as an extra at the time.
Tucker brought an element needed in a heavy, bruising series. And what does Suter specifically need to bring forward?
“Just to continue to win battles and move pucks north,” Montgomery said. “The strength of his game, which is his brains and his brawn.
“The poise and calmness when games get frantic, he’s an unbelievable voice back there."
* Forwards Brayden Schenn and Robert Thomas did not practice in what Montgomery called maintenance days. But each will play in Game 5.
At practice Tuesday, Nikita Alexandrov and Mathieu Joseph skated in their places.