St. Louis Blues: Alex Pietrangelo, Oh Captain, My Captain?

By Dave Stobbe |

ST. LOUIS, MO - DECEMBER 29: Alex Pietrangelo #27 of the St. Louis Blues dresses before the game against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Enterprise Center on December 29, 2018 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Scott Rovak/NHLI via Getty Images)

The St. Louis Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo returned Saturday night, and the Blues returned to their old, bad defensive habits and poor special team play.

While you can’t put all the blame on Captain Alex Pietrangelo for the defensive malaise and penalty killing problems for the St. Louis Blues, as they existed in his absence, however, they did subside and have shown improvement. You also can’t blame him for the team taking bad penalties or questionable goaltending on a couple of goals.

What you can lay at the feet of the Captain of the team is keeping the troops positive and rallying them in the face of adversity. We have seen none of that this season and no evidence of it again against Pittsburgh. Especially after a quick first-period goal.

To further complicate Pietrangelo’s return he was immediately paired Jay Bouwmeester. It is still flummoxing as to why Bouwmeester plays ahead of Chris Butler and or Jordan Schmaltz, aside from the apparent salary disparities. You can’t justify playing him just because of his salary.

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Both Schmaltz and Butler have equal to or better stats than Bouwmeester and are younger.

Bouwmeester has been less of detriment to the team when playing fewer minutes, o why put him back on the number one defensive pairing where is going to log 20 plus minutes of ice time.

The debate is, does Pietrangelo’s play suffered because he is making up for Bouwmeester’s mistakes, or vice versa.

I can not attest last season because I haven’t looked for it, but this season it has been the former more so than the latter. Plus the fact that Jay Bo was gone off his line the next game, and Pietrangelo sowed improvement.

I would use as evidence the games when Bo was a healthy scratch in October, and the defensive play, Including Petro’s, immediately improved. I think reuniting these two was further evidence of the underlying problem with this team and coaching staff coddling their stars.

A player shouldn’t lose his captaincy just because of an injury, but when he probably should not have had it in the first place, it would have been a good time for a transition. You could write an entire article about who should be captain, as it has been done on Bleedin’ Blue at least once.

I am not privy to the goings on in the locker room and other team events, but I am of the old school hockey tradition, where the captain shouldn’t just be the best player. He should be the player the other players look to when times get tough, to rally the troops or call out somebody who needs it.

This not to say that the best player can’t or shouldn’t be, but look back to the days when Eric Brewer, Dallas Drake, Shayne Corson, or Bob Plager all wore the ‘C.’ Not take away from the skill set of any these players, but none of them would have been considered the best player at the time.

Pietrangelo might have been the best defenseman when awarded the ‘C’ but has not even kept that status since then. Also if it is just his wife’s pregnancy and the birth of their triplets, it is not an excuse. If that is the case, he needs an ‘A’ or no letter to lighten his responsibilities until things settle down at home.

I know this gets said a lot, but I think it is no less valid; he is a pro, and it is his job to play defense for the Blues and be their captain. If his personal life is interfering with that right now, the club owes it to him and the rest of team to address it with him, and find a solution.

If it is not his personal life, then it means he cannot handle the demands of his job right now. The first thing you do as an employer, any employer, is to remove the added leadership stress and responsibility recently added to the employee.

It is basic personnel management. Going back to my statement about the Blues coddling their players, especially their stars, it has created this mess. They can’t take away Pietrangelo’s ‘C’ because it might hurt his feelings, plus it would mean them admitting to making a mistake.

The same goes with Jake Allen and a reliable backup, Bouwmeester has had his play time and responsibilities significantly reduced, in addition to Alex Steen and his attitude. This team did not just become fragile they have been made fragile by people unwilling to make hard decisions.

The players know if they pout and perform poorly enough they can get what they want with little detrimental impact to themselves. If they want a coach or player gone, they perform poorly and or start rumors about them. This team isn’t the St. Louis Blues it is the St. Louis Snowflakes.

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