It appears the Blues will be without defenseman Barret Jackman for at least the next two games and possibly longer. Jackman said last Sunday that he planned to rejoin the team in practice by Wednesday, but the team was off Wednesday and he was not on the ice today either.

The Blues have called Jackman’s injury an ankle sprain, but today head coach Andy Murray refererenced it as a high-ankle sprain, an injury that tends to take longer to heal than a normal ankle sprain.

“We have to be sure that when he gets on the ice that he doesn’t re-injure himself, so we’re taking our time with it,” Murray said. ”It’s an injury that just requires time. We knew when he went out it would take awhile. He’s such a passionate player that he wants to get out there right away. We’ve got to work with him on that. He can only get out there when he’s ready to go.”

Murray also gave an update on defenseman Eric Brewer, who’s been practicing with the team regularly.

“I think he’s knocking on the door,” Murray said. ”I think ‘Brew’ is getting real close to being able to play. He’s not ready right now, but he’s getting close.

“He’s pretty well there. It’s just a matter of him knocking on my door and saying I’m ready to play. … He’s the only ones that really knows that.”

Brewer said: “I feel better. I’m starting to get more of my feet under me. It’s still an open timetable and we’ll just keep it like that. When I get to a point where I’m wondering why I’m just practicing, then I’ll play. . . . We’re getting close.”

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D.J. King returned to the Blues today, following his two-week conditioning stint in Peoria. King, you may remember, dislocated his thumb in training camp.

In five games with the Rivermen, King had an assist and seven penalty minutes and was a plus-two. He had one fight against Milwaukee’s Triston Grant.

King’s is “ready to play now,” Murray said. ”Before, he hadn’t played a game and it would have been difficult to put him in. I think now, he becomes an option.”

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The Blues’ were reshuffled today, with some significantly different looks:

Andy McDonald-David Backes-T.J. Oshie

Paul Kariya-Patrik Berglund-Brad Boyes

Cam Janssen/D.J. King-Keith Tkachuk-Brad Winchester

B.J. Crombeen-Jay McClement-David Perron

Murray said afterwards that the lines may not look like this for Friday’s game.

On whether McDonald-Backes-Oshie could seem time together, Murray said: “Possibility. What we like to do in practice sometimes is switch guys around so that they have a practice with that line so that if we go to it in a game, there’s familiarity. Sometimes we change them because it’s good to get repetitions with other people.”

On Perron playing on the defensive stopper line, Murray said: “Same kind of thing (possibility). We may do that. I don’t know if we’ll do it from the start, but it’s something we could go to. Right now, I’d say we’re not totally sure. We’ll watch practice tomorrow.”

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I had a lot of questions in my Blues chat today about the club not putting rookie defenseman Alex Pietrangelo in the lineup more often. He’s played only one game out of seven.

Here’s Murray’s response from today.

“The one thing with (Alex Pietrangelo) right now is we’ve got two veteran guys playing,” Murray said. ”One guy being Mike Weaver and one guy being Darryl Sydor. We’re basically playing with four young guys if you consider Roman (Polak) is still a young player. Erik Johnson’s a young player. Carlo Colaiacovo, even though he’s been in the league for a while, take a look at the number of games he’s played. Not many. He’s a young player. And Tyson Strachan to me, Tyson’s 25, but the way we have to look at him … to me, he’s still 21. We can’t differentiate him from a 21-year-old player to a 25-year-old player because his hockey experience up until now is a 21-year-old player as far as maturity. We’re basically playing with four. That’s the issue with Petro. When (Eric Brewer) and (Barret Jackman) come back, then we’ve got some more veteran leadership on the blue line. We’re playing four young guys now, and it’s tough to play five.”

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Thanks to my friend, Lou Korac, from some help with quotes today. You can follow Lou on Twitter @lkorac10, and as a reminder, you can follow me @jprutherford.

JR