St. Louis Blues: Alex Pietrangelo And Alexander Steen Are The Problem

The St. Louis Blues locker room has gone through plenty of ups and downs over the recent years. However, there has always been this feeling of something brewing under the surface.

Every locker room has issues, even on the best of teams. The St. Louis Blues are no different.

When you get over 20 men in one space – over 20 people in general, really – you are bound to have conflicts. There are conflicts of interests, conflicts of personality and, on occasion, physical conflicts. The latter is the rarest, but when things get heated enough, anything can happen.

The interesting thing is the physical conflicts might actually be the best for the Blues. Maybe just get all your issues out in the open, wrestle around some, get broken up and move on. Or, that could make matters worse. Who knows.

The issue is there have been long standing problems with the Blues locker room. It has been going on for years, but it is always bubbling just under the surface.

The problem from the fans’ perspective is we have no clue who is the actual problem or what sparked this. The 2018-19 season has brought about enough turmoil for us to need to know and, technically, we still do not.

I say technically because I think we do know. Maybe we have always known and just been too afraid to admit it. That is an issue for another time.

As you can tell from the title, I fully believe that Alex Pietrangelo and Alexander Steen are the problem. They might not be the problem individually, but as a pair they have to be.

Admittedly, the evidence is circumstantial. It would never hold up in a real court room. It is becoming enough to hold up in the court of public opinion though.

As far as 2018-19 goes, we have good idea that they are the problem. The Blues have been completely different when they are out of the lineup.

First, Alex Pietrangelo went down with an injury. The Blues did not go off to the races, but they played much better almost immediately.

Just when it looked like the Blues were turning a corner, Pietrangelo came back and the Blues proceeded to go back to looking like one of the worst teams in the league. They had still made some improvements, but there was an immediate regression.

You can chalk it up to coincidence. Most people did after the initial shock.

However, when the reversal happened, it makes it that much harder to ignore. Alexander Steen went down with an injury and suddenly the Blues went on one of their longest win streaks of the year. It was not the stuff of legends, but it was a win streak and the Blues found themselves with a playoff spot on the horizon.

Then, just as before, the Blues fell apart. As of writing this, St. Louis is 1-1-0 with both Steen and Pietrangelo back in the lineup.

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However, they have returned to their garbage way of playing. They barely snuck by the Ottawa Senators, one of the lower teams in the Eastern Conference and then blew a 2-0 lead in Los Angeles en route to a 4-3 loss to the Kings.

Beyond the results, they are making the same old mistakes again. There is a malaise over this team when both of them are in there.

Individually, they are different as well.  Steen seemed to step up his game with the captain out.

Pietrangelo looked more like the Norris candidate when Steen was gone.  When he returned, Pietrangelo went back to being weak on the puck, lost on the ice and a shell of what we expect.

Clearly you cannot pick one over the other as THE problem since the team has played well with one or the other in the lineup. However, it is hard to argue that both of them together do not represent the major issue with this locker room.

Again, we do not know the root issue or why there is a problem, but there is a problem. You cannot lay it only at their feet either.

For all the good things he has brought, Brayden Schenn could be part of the issue. Maybe he grew sour at not being the “top” center anymore. He’s already discussed issues he’s had with other teammates, so maybe he’s not liked by everyone.  But, he has not been around long enough.  These issues have bubbled up in the past.

But that’s the thing that makes this issue so frustrating. None of us like every single person we work with, but you are supposed to find a way to do your job in spite of that.

However, some people simply change the mood and make that more difficult. I believe that is what is going on when Steen and Pietrangelo are in the locker room together.

We all have our own stories, but when working in a retail store, I had a manager that would literally change the vibe of the entire store by their presence. A co-worker described it as a dark cloud that would hover over when they were there.

That could very well be what happens in the Blues locker room when both are there. There seems to be more levity and playing together as a team when one or the other is not playing. They all return to an odd, soulless, stone-faced group with little joy in being out there when both are present.

We do not have any hard facts here, but there are never going to be any to have. No player worth their salt is ever going to rat out a teammate, even if they are fully at odds. It just never looks good. We need look no further than the Mike Hoffman saga. That cost Hoffman a lot of money and suitors and made things untenable in Ottawa.

Most players are smart enough not to do that to teammates because they know it can circle back. That is why we never get names even though it feels like everyone in that room knows what’s wrong.

So, even if circumstantial, the evidence seems to be there that the duo are the problem. The even greater issue is what to do.

Both have their qualities. Steen has been one of the Blues hardest, most consistent workers over the years. However, his offensive production has gone down each year the last four seasons. His defensive play has also fallen off and that was a staple of why he was given a contract extension, one that looms over the team’s head now.

By contrast, Pietrangelo has figuratively fallen off the planet. In a span of a season and a half, he has gone from a candidate for best defenseman in the league to one of the worst on the team. He just seems lost right now and switching defensive partners has only been a band-aid on a gaping wound.

Do you cut ties with the captain now? Other teams would jump at the chance to nab him, which makes one nervous. The Blues have a long history of giving up on players only for them to rebound elsewhere.

Given his age and current decline, Steen would be the better choice to send away. His affection for the franchise and area would make it difficult to get an agreement to waive his no trade clause though.

These are unenviable tasks. You risk much and have no guarantees. The list of players that are no longer part of the core of this team proves that you cannot always pick out the right one.

The Blues have to try though. With each departure, it seems they hit critical mass sooner than the last time.

There are basically only those two left to point the finger at. We can include Vladimir Tarasenko if you want, but being a roamer on the ice does not seem like enough for him to be the disruption in the locker room.

No, we have cleared away the brush. Now the team just has to get rid of the weeds.