The Blues will be without left winger Lee Stempniak tonight against the New York Islanders and perhaps for a few more days.

Stempniak tweaked his left knee in the first period of Friday’s 5-2 win over Nashville. The injury happened near the Blues’ bench. He limped around momentarily and then left for the locker room. The Blues went on the power play shortly after the injury, and instead of Stempniak, the Blues used Roman Polak on the power play.

Stempniak did return to the game and finished with 20 shifts and 15:55 of ice time. He assisted on David Backes’ power-play goal late in the second period.

The Blues are saying that Stempniak is day-to-day. They hope that he can play in Toronto Monday, but if not, he’ll be held out until Thursday’s game against Dallas.

With Stempniak out of the lineup tonight, the Blues will suit up seven defensemen and 11 forwards. Mike Weaver will be the seventh defensemen.

That will give the Blues a little insurance, too, because Barret Jackman is still a little tender after getting hit in the groin by a skate last night. Jackman left the game, but skated this morning and said he will play tonight.

In other news, Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro isn’t expected to play tonight. Here’s more from the Islanders blogger.

Here’s the link:

http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/hockey/islanders/blog/

Remember, on the right side of the “Morning Skate” page, you can read blogs from around the NHL.

JR