The St. Louis Blues have been one of the worst defensive teams in the NHL to start the season and there will be some changes ahead of their next game.
The most troubling thing to the St. Louis Blues start to the season is the lack of production from the defensive unit. No player on the Blues, let alone a defenseman, has a positive +/- for the season.
Even Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo has expressed his concerns with his and the entire defensive lineup and their lack of production.
One thing is for sure, the Blues do not stand a chance this season in the Central Division if the defense keeps playing the way they are. According to the Blues practice lines this week, there will be some changes to the lineup.
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Vince Dunn was a healthy scratch for two straight games before being reinserted into the lineup against the Anaheim Ducks.
Dunn got the start again in Montreal against the Canadiens and scored a goal on the power play.
This type of production earned him the opportunity to be paired with Pietrangelo on the Blues top defensive pairing.
We have seen these two paired together in the past, especially when the Blues are down late in a game, St. Louis usually puts these two together in order to go with a more offensive-minded lineup.
We took a look at Alex Pietrangelo’s early struggles this season, it’s possible that putting a young guy next to him will help spark his season and turn things around for the captain.
Robert Bortuzzo has been nursing an injury for the past two weeks but looks ready to return against the Maple Leafs. He has been practicing on the second pairing alongside Joel Edmundson.
This is not a combination we have seen very often for the Blues. Edmundson has been paired primarily with Pietrangelo and even Colton Parayko at times. While Bortuzzo has been a mainstay on the Blues third defensive pairing.
Speaking of Parayko, his defensive mistake with 9 seconds left in the third period of the most previous game in Montreal may have cost his team the win. He is practicing on the third defensive pairing with Jordan Schmaltz.
Parayko has been struggling mightily to start the season. The book on Colton was that he needed to work on his offensive game and be more aggressive in the offensive zone. However, it has been his defense that has been the greatest concern this season.
Schmaltz has been one of the Blues best defensemen despite playing in just four games this season. He has not produced on the scoresheet outside of only having one assist but has not necessarily been given the opportunity to while playing on the third pairing.
The most surprising development coming out of practice this week is the absence of Jay Bouwmeester on one of the top defensive pairings. He has been practicing with Jakub Jerabek on the fourth pairing during practice.
There are plenty of words that can describe how Bouwmeester has played this season and not many of them are positive. He has looked slow and lost on the ice to start the year and this may be the start of the end for the 35-year-old.
The defense has not been the only issue for the Blues to start the year, 5 on 5 scoring has been wildly inconsistent but that’s a conversation for another time.
These changes are pretty extreme, it will be interesting to see how these players in new roles are able to adapt to different partners on the blue line.