That was the hot topic at Scottrade Center. John Davidson won’t address the matter until 7 p.m., but it appears Johnson will miss significant time with his knee injury.

Erik went to Cleveland to get a second opinion, which is never a good sign. Reports elsewhere on the Internet say Johnson could be out for three months after his golf-related mishap.

Whatever the case, Johnson is dififcult to replace. He is the team’s best offensive defenseman, by a lot. Jonas Junland has shown some promise, but moving onto a NHL power play is a big step.

Eric Brewer and Steven Wagner are good enough for the second unit, but neither would be a great first-unit offer. It’s no wonder pundits wanted the Note to make a play for displaced Ducks defenseman Mathieu Schneider.

In other notes:

Hockey Guy had a nice chat with Stars general manger Brett Hull, who works with co-GM Les Jackson to run the Dallas hockey operation. He raved about the people in the hockey operation and expressed no regret over getting into the meat grinder.

Does he yell in the press box, as former Blues GM Ron Caron did in his heyday? “Don’t say a word,” he said. “It looks easy up here, but I know how tough it is down there.”

Besides, why yell at the players when you’re the GM who brought them to the team?

It was fun to see the Blues prospects play the Stars prospects in the preliminary game Tuesday. My guy Nikolay Lemtyugov looks like a potential NHL scorer, but it’s tough to say if he’ll check enough to actually reach this league.