The St. Louis Blues' playoff hopes are fading, and now they've lost their best player to an injury.

Vladimir Tarasenko sustained an ailment Saturday night against the New York Rangers that the club would only classify as being of the upper-body variety, and the team revealed just before the second intermission that he would not return to the contest.

Tarasenko played nine shifts in the first period but none thereafter.

There was no indication of anything out of the ordinary on his last shift of the first period, according to Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Tarasenko leads the Blues with 27 goals and came into Saturday's game tied with Brayden Schenn for the team lead with 58 points.

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