St. Louis Blues Alex Pietrangelo Has Triplets; Dropoff In Play On Horizon?

The St. Louis Blues extended family seems to be growing by leaps and bounds in recent years. The only bad thing is that causes sleepless nights.

Now, before we get too deep into this article, let me say that much of what is coming forth is going to be tongue-in-cheek. That said, the St. Louis Blues have a lot of players trying to overcome the joys of fatherhood.

The Blues extended family seems to be multiplying exponentially in recent years. Everyone from Vladimir Tarasenko to Jake Allen to Jay Bouwmeester have all had children over the past couple seasons. I’m sure there are more names on that list too, but those are the ones that spring to mind.

You can add Alex Pietrangelo to that joyous list. The captain is now the father of three healthy babies after his wife Jayne gave birth to triplets on July 21, 2018.

While this is a moment for celebration for the player and fans, there is also just a tiny bit of creeping doubt. The birth of a child should be nothing but a positive, and it is, but for selfish fans, we have that lingering fear that production might drop off.

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Again, remember – tongue-in-cheek. I don’t want to be getting angry tweets from parents.

However, while it is mainly in jest, there is no doubt that being a parent is one of the harder things on the mind and body. Most parents get a little overwhelmed by one baby. Now, triple that, with no child likely to want to adhere to the same schedule as the other and you’re in for a world of difference.

Anyone that has had children can likely tell you that, even if only partially, their job becomes secondary to what it once was. You have these new shining faces waiting for you at home and you either want to be around them or wonder how they are doing while you’re away.

None of that is all that great for a professional athlete, where focus can be the difference between making the play and not.

Before anyone calls me crazy, we have seen this in the past. Nobody talks about it now, but part of Allen’s struggles were due to his wife giving birth. Men do not go through the pain of childbirth or the struggles of carrying the baby, but they have mental strain worrying about their wife or girlfriend. They do think about the safety of their kids as well.

Especially in the goaltending arena, not having complete focus can make a huge difference in the level of your play. You could see that strain start to wear on Allen a little. Late night feedings, even if you had a wife that was willing to do all of them, disrupt sleep.

Tarasenko had a slight dip in production when his child was born as well. No matter how great a wife you have or how much of a support system you have, having a child changes your day to day operations and that is going to affect performance, whether you like it or not.

So, should we expect a dip from Pietrangelo? Of course, nobody wants that, but he is human. He’s going to have three kids to take care of. I can’t imagine going to a 9-5 job and keeping your focus all day if you’re up all night swapping feeding shifts with your wife, let alone playing a sport at the highest level.

The other potentially worrying thing is the up and down nature of Petro in and of itself. He had a career year offensively in 2017-18, but his defensive play fell off a bit. Other years, the defense is there but not as much offense.

So, we don’t always know what we’ll get from him anyway. Add some new babies into to mix and it complicates things even more from a purely sports perspective.

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In reality, there is nothing but happiness and congratulations for Pietrangelo. He is likely to be a fantastic father. Let’s just hope he can buck the trend and play well.