Bleedin' Blue
Fansided

St. Louis Blues Pros And Cons From Game 9 Vs. Columbus

By Todd Panula

ST. LOUIS, MO - OCTOBER 25: Vladimir Tarasenko #91 of the St. Louis Blues and Oliver Bjorkstrand #28 of the Columbus Blue Jackets battle at Enterprise Center on October 25, 2018 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Scott Rovak/NHLI via Getty Images)
ST. LOUIS, MO - OCTOBER 25: Vladimir Tarasenko #91 of the St. Louis Blues and Oliver Bjorkstrand #28 of the Columbus Blue Jackets battle at Enterprise Center on October 25, 2018 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Scott Rovak/NHLI via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 6
Next
St. Louis Blues
ST. LOUIS, MO – OCTOBER 04: St. Louis Blues’ Alex Pietrangelo takes a shot during the second period of an NHL hockey game between the St. Louis Blues and the Winnipeg Jets on October 4, 2018, at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, MO. (Photo by Tim Spyers/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

Cons: Alex Pietrangelo

Things seem to be going from bad to worse for the Blues captain. In this game, he might not have been directly to blame for many goals, but it’s just not happening for him or anyone he is playing with.

Petro was a minus-3 for the night and on the ice for at least five goals against. The only thing that save his stat line was the fact that he was on the ice for a couple Blues goals. He had nothing to do with the goals though as he went pointless for the eighth of nine games.

Again, as I mentioned, there was only one (maybe two) goals you could directly attribute to Alex Pietrangelo. The one that stands out to me was lazily hooking an opponent by not keeping his skates moving and then getting scored on during the next play.

However, when you have an offensive defenseman not scoring points and not contributing to the defense, he’s basically just a body. There is very little visual leadership either. I rarely rip Pietrangelo for his captaincy, but they seem to be floundering with him at the helm. I doubt anyone on this team would do better, given their overall team weakness, but it does not reflect well on him.

Maybe you strip him or maybe he just gets it together. One thing is for sure, kids seem to affect the players right after birth and the Blues don’t have all season to wait and see if he’ll be the captain and top defender they need.

Home/Analysis