Veteran NHLer healthy scratched for the first time in his 1100+ game career.

A long time veteran of the National Hockey League has just achieved a brand new career first, unfortunately it's almost assuredly one he woulkd have preferred to avoid through the duration of his entire career.

Reports began to surface regarding a strange occurrence during the St. Louis Blues practice early this morning after 6 defensemen were spotted leaving the ice but veteran blue liner Jay Bouwmeester remained out on the playing surface. Bouwmeester was engaged in an intense conversation with assistant head coach Craig Berube and according to Blues insider Jeremy Rutherford that was due to the fact that Bouwmeester was facing a health scratch against the Toronto Maple Leafs this evening.

The uncertainty surrounding the situation was quickly dispelled however when Joshua Clipperton of the Canadian Press was able to officially confirm through St. Louis Blues head coach Mike Yeo that Bouwmeester would in fact be scratched this evening against the speedy Maple Leafs. Now it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why an established NHLer like Bouwmeester would want to have a word with his coaches about such a move but in his case it had to have been a particularly frustrating, and perhaps even infuriating, moment.

You see according to a report from Sportsnet NHL insider Elliotte Friedman Bouwmeester has informed him that this marks the first time in his entire career that he has been made a healthy scratch for an NHL game. When you consider the fact that up until this point in his career Bouwmeester has appeared in a total of 1112 career NHL games for 3 different NHL teams it makes the decision to scratch him considerably more monumental. It has to feel like a low point in his career as an NHL defenseman and I don't think anyone would blame him for feeling dejected after getting the news at practice today. 

[pub]

Now some fans have been quick to lash out at Blues head coach Mike Yeo for his decision to put Bouwmeester up in the press box this evening, largely due to the significance of the moment in his career, but it seems like Yeo was fully aware of how heavy a decision this truly was for himself, the team, and especially for Bouwmeester.

"It's a very very difficult decision for me as a coach ... Hopefully a game like this gives him a chance to reset," said Yeo as per Sportsnet's Chris Johnston.

I will say in defense of Yeo, this move makes a ton of sense when you consider who the Blues will be playing this evening. The Blues are set to face off against the Toronto Maple Leafs, a roster that has a young core of speedy forwards that could very well blow Bouwmeester out of the water at any given point during the game. That's not to say that I do not have tremendous respect for Bouwmeester but even with his long skating stride it's clear that he has lost a considerable measure of his speed in recent years, and at 35 years of age that really come as little surprise. 

Only time will tell how he reacts to the decision from his coach.