St. Louis Blues Playoffs Push: Five Key Players

Sep 22, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; St. Louis Blues center Patrik Berglund (21) watches from the bench during the game against the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center. The Stars defeated the Blues 4-3. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

No. 5: Patrik Berglund

3C Patrik Berglund is a polarizing player for Blues fans because his points production is one of the lowest among the Blues forwards and his cap hit is, uh…pretty high.

But points are not where Berglund’s skill lies. Patrik Berglund is an amazing defensive forward, and his numbers prove it time and time again.

To understand Berglund’s style of play better, we have to look at his fancy stats. Specifically, his Corsi Rel. For those who aren’t versed in Corsi (or SAT as the NHL now refers to it), Coris is simply a gussied-up plus/minus stat: it measures shot attempts (on net, missed, or blocked) on the opposition’s net as well as the player’s own net when said player is on the ice. Corsi/SAT Rel is more telling with regards to how a team fares with or without a player; Corsi/SAT Rel takes the player’s Corsi/SAT takes that and subtracts the team’s Corsi/SAT when said player is not on the ice. Essentially, it tells us whether the player contributes to offensive play or is a detriment when it comes to allowing shots on their own goal.

When it comes to Corsi/SAT Rel, Patrik Berglund is a marvel at creating offensive chances and stopping all kinds of shots (blocked, missed, or on-net) on his team’s goal. As you can see from this fantastic graphic from War-on-ice, he does this while taking a decent number of starts in the defensive zone, showing his skill at creating opportunities.

Berglund Corsi: graph from war-on-ice

Berglund comes in with a Corsi/SAT Rel of 5.4, the highest out of the Blues, aside from Jaskin and Bortuzzo who have played significantly fewer Blues games than Berglund has. All this while producing only 20 points himself. To give you an idea of the immensity of that accomplishment, the next two-highest Corsi/SAT Rels are held by Tarasenko and Shattenkirk, the former of whom has 70 points to his name for the season, and the latter of whom has 40, twice that of Berglund. It’s a lot easier to improve your Corsi/SAT when you’re the one taking shots on goal. It’s significantly more impressive, however, when you’re doing it the way Berglund is: by creating opportunities for other players while preventing entries into your defensive zone.

Berglund’s ability to give other players the chance to score is hard to measure visually, but will be important in these last few weeks and come playoffs time. But who else will Hitch and the Blues rely on to bring them out of the first round and hopefully even further?

Next: Number Four is....