St. Louis Blues top-line defender Kevin Shattenkirk went down in February with a sports hernia that he earned battling it out with Alex Ovechkin for the puck. Ovechkin won the puck, and Shattenkirk fell just wrong, sending him a few days later for abdominal surgery to correct the issue.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote on March 10th,

“It was a weird play,” Shattenkirk said. “I just kind of bumped Ovechkin and fell down. I tried to get up and as I was sliding, my toes seemed to get caught in the ice and open my leg up as my body was still moving. “I just felt a pop and instant pain in my belly and in my groin. I knew right away something was really bad. I’ve had little tweaks before, but this one felt instantly like something was wrong.” An MRI showed that Shattenkirk had a torn groin on the right side and torn abdominal muscles on both sides.

He began PT almost immediately, according to the Post-Dispatch and though his timeline was week-to-week, Blues fans knew he would be out for quite a while. Many hoped he would return before the playoffs began.

It looks like they were right.

According to Hitchcock and the Blues’ front office, Shattenkirk will likely return to play this Saturday against the Columbus Blue Jackets, as Andy Strickland of FOX Sports reported on his Twitter account.

March 28th was the date some had circled on their calendar as a possible return for Kevin Shattenkirk at the time of his surgery. #stlblues — Andy Strickland (@andystrickland) March 21, 2015

Shattenkirk had returned to practice some weeks earlier, skating with the team but not participating in full practices right away.

What Does Shattenkirk Return Mean For St. Louis?

Shattenkirk will likely be unable to return right away to the first defensive pairing right off the bat. Coach Ken Hitchcock indicated to media that he would prefer to have Shattenkirk start on the third pairing, giving him fewer minutes to deal with, and move him back up to the first defensive pairing when he’s ready to contribute on a high level.

“It’s going to be hard being that player again right off the bat,” Hitchcock told reporters last week. “You’ve got to be realistic.”

And realistically, Shattenkirk won’t be the power play contributor he was back in January, before he was sidelined by this injury. Since Shattenkirk went down the Blues power play slipped from first in the league, and currently holds at third with 22.7% conversion.

That means that Pietrangelo will probably continue on in Shattenkirk’s place on the power play, in an effort to a) not shake things up too much and b) give Shattenkirk the time he needs to develop back into the All-Star player he was earlier in the year.

As for his line, if all goes as Hitchcock cautioned, Shattenkirk will replace Jackman alongside Bortuzzo on the third defensive pairing. Bortuzzo’s hard-hitting but conservative, net-centric style will allow Shattenkirk a little more room to roam the ice — at least until he’s ready to return to his regular partner in Gunnarsson.

Jumping in against a team like the Blue Jackets is probably one of the best chances Shattenkirk could hope for to reintroduce himself into the lineup and play. Columbus’ offensive output has lessened over the season and is not a team that would pose a terrible threat to the Blues. As always, a game can go either way with just a few skewed bounces, but Saturday’s match-up would be a good one for Shattenkirk to get his feet wet once more.