St. Louis Blues: Alex Pietrangelo Truly Is A Sneaky Player

Alex Pietrangelo has tons of personality in the locker room. He’s one of the most liked players on the St. Louis Blues. In terms of performance though, he does everything so quietly that it’s easy to assume he’s not doing anything.

In all honesty, when this article began and research was being done, it was with the idea that Alex Pietrangelo needed to step up his offensive game. Pietrangelo on the eye test seems to defer a bit too much. He doesn’t let fly much from the point even though he’s often on the powerplay.

The idea behind all that was remembering what kind of offensive player he was very early in his career. When Pietrangelo was playing on Team Canada in the World Junior Championships, they actually structured their offense around him.

On powerplay attempts, Pietrangelo was the focus. They would play almost a box and one system with Pietrangelo taking root in the slot because he had a good shot/release.

You don’t see that anymore. Granted, that system is hardly used in the NHL regular season, much less the playoffs and the competition is much different. Still, you don’t get the feel that Pietrangelo is involved as much offensively.

However, as ESPN’s Craig Custance pointed out on local talk radio and in his article as well, Pietrangelo does everything for this team. He just does it quietly.

When you actually look at the stats, Pietrangelo is doing what he’s always done. His point totals were down a little bit in the regular season, but he scored as many goals this season as he did last year. He played more games last year as well.

In the playoffs he’s been silently putting together his best season as well. He’s scored a goal, which equals the most he’s done in any playoff year and he’s got five assists. That gives him six points and the most of his career in the postseason.

The problem Pietrangelo has, if you even want to call that, is he does everything well so that nothing stands out over the other. He’s focused on defense, so he isn’t known as the prototypical offensive defenseman. He’s looking to set up his teammates, so nobody focuses on when he scores.

His teammates are quick to point out that he comes up big for the team in “small plays.” He makes that poke check to avert pressure or ties up someone in a key moment that fans just don’t really see because, to us, it seems like nothing. It seems like just another play or a player doing only what’s expected of anyone.

If it seems like Pietrangelo isn’t doing as much as we’d like, it could also be because we see so much of him too. In this postseason, he’s averaging the most ice time he’s ever had at any point in his career (30:34 per game).

When you see so much of a person, you tend to notice what they aren’t doing just as much as what they are. With a player like Pietrangelo, who does it so quietly and nonchalantly, the positives go by without a blink.

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There are still knocks against him. For as good as both players can be, he and his linemate Jay Bouwmeester sometimes get caught in poor positions. There has been more than one occasion when Pietrangelo and Bouwmeester are taped to the sides of the goal while players roam free in front of the crease.

There’s also the powerplay offense or lack thereof. Pietrangelo spends a lot of time on the man-advantage squads, but doesn’t score much. He picks up points to be sure, but over the last four years he’s never had more than two goals on the powerplay in the regular season. Additionally, he has zero powerplay goals in his postseason career.

However, to flip that around, he’s asked to do a lot more defending in the postseason. Pietrangelo is almost always going against the top line of the opposing team. As his coach points out, he knows how big the moments are. “Petro is always a good player when the stakes are highest,” said Hitchcock.

You or I might like to see a bit more offense from Pietrangelo. We might like to see more big goals that you sometimes see from the blueline from guys like Duncan Keith. However, Pietrangelo is good all around.

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He keeps the offense flowing. He keeps pucks in the zone. He gets pucks out of the zone. He isn’t blowing players up, but he’s strong enough to keep them out of positions they want to get into.

He does all of this without many noticing. He is quite the sneaky player. He does his job, does it well and many of us barely even notice because he’s just not that flashy player that some want. As long as he keeps stepping up big in those “small moments” then he’s doing just fine.

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