The Cardinals Have Mini-Pedro. The St. Louis Blues Have Mini-Petro

The St. Louis Blues have a mini version of the captain Alex Pietrangelo. Granted his point totals aren’t there advanced statistics show they could be given the same opportunity. So who is Mini-Petro?

Take a minute and think about it then when you’ve guessed who that is for the St. Louis Blues and then continue reading. If you thought Vince Dunn you’re wrong. Shockingly it’s Justin Faulk. That’s right. Faulker is Mini-Petro.

The St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong surprised us all trading Joel Edmundson to Carolina for Justin Faulk and then signing him to a 7 yr deal worth $6.5 million a season.

The St. Louis Blues when announcing the deal touted Justin Faulk’s power-play goal production and offensive abilities. The trade made sense from the perspective that the Blues were looking for a tried and true power play “quarterback”.

More from Editorials

One thing they didn’t take into consideration was if Mark Savard, Craig Berube, and Mike Van Ryn were looking for outside help on the power play. It appears, for now, they weren’t. Leaving Faulk to play in a role he just isn’t suited for.

Faulk has never been a solid defensive player. He has forever been the Carolina Hurricanes fan’s whipping boy.

Faulk has been a minus player despite the offensive production, most of which on the power play. Points be darned if you’re a minus player then you probably aren’t very good on defense. Something the Blues say Pietrangelo is.

Faulk in his defense also played on a Hurricanes team that failed to make the playoffs every season and reached over 90 points as a team once in his career there prior to 2018-19.

So one could argue that Faulk was on losing teams and that the overall team play hurt his numbers whereas Petro played on a lot of winning Blues teams and therefore benefitted where Faulk couldn’t.

Looking at the advanced statistics for Faulk I was surprised to see that Faulk’s Corsi for was 50.2. A score of 50 means you are average.

So 50.2 isn’t changing the game, but I was really surprised that he was even slightly above average. It starts to fall apart in the next few categories.

In the shots through percentage, which measures the number of your shot attempts that go on net, Faulk is at 46.3. Less than half of his shot attempts go on net. Shockingly, Vince Dunn is even worse at 44.9.

Here’s the stat that I know every single Blues fan sees and remembers. Justin Faulk is second on the team in giveaways. I’m sure we all can guess who is first on the team in giveaways. If you’re thinking Alex Pietrangelo you are correct.

I have been trying to come up with a nickname for Faulk. Then it dawned on me. Cardinal Nation has Mini-Pedro so now we Blue Bleeders have Mini-Petro.

It’s fitting. I’ll catch some heat for this I’m sure. Nevertheless, Mini-Petro it is! Faulk to me has done nothing but resemble the worst things in Pietrangelo’s game. At least with Petro, he is contributing to the score sheet regularly and that can be attributed to the time on the powerplay where over half his points have come from.

Give Mini-Petro the same opportunities and he’d maybe do the same thing. Just speculation of course. Pietrangelo’s Corsi for is 50.4 by the way. The one place they differ in advanced stats is their shots through where Petro has a 52.6. Logically that shots through percentage should be higher given you’re playing more minutes with the man advantage.

One other area they differ is +/- where the captain has a 0 and Mini Petro has a -6. What’s my point?

The point is that Doug Armstrong made a trade and signed a guy that given the same opportunities as Alex Pietrangelo offensively can and should replicate the same kind of numbers aside from the +/- category.

This isn’t an article to defend Faulk’s poor play, nor is it an article to bash the captain. Although I did both a little. I am just bringing to light some interesting stats. I am also trying to glean whatever I can from what is potentially going through GM Doug Armstrong’s mind.

Speaking of Dougie, he was at the Colorado Avalanche and Toronto Maple Leafs game the other night. The long-running rumor has been Pietrangelo for William Nylander. It’s been in the rumor mill for what feels like a decade now.

Maybe he isn’t shopping the captain. Maybe he’s shopping Mini-Petro? He could also be shopping back-up Jake Allen since Toronto is in the market for a backup. It’s anyone’s guess why he was there.

Faulk has been terrible so far as a Blue, but surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly so has Petro according to the advanced stats we looked at this season. It’s arguable that Mini-Petro could be doing the same thing as the captain given the opportunity. His -6 to Petro’s 0 is the only stat that really separates the two at this point.

It’s going to be a blood bath tonight I believe against the Nashville Predators after Robert Bortuzzo‘s cross-check on Viktor Arvidsson. All I’ll say about that is Bortz should’ve never cross-checked Arvy when he was down.

dark. Next. St. Louis Blues Robert Bortuzzo Punishes Team With Dumb Suspension

Bortuzzo being a right to the edge kind of player and a repeat offender for aggressive play is going to get the fine and the suspension which came to 4 games and $67k paid to the player safety fund. Bad, bad, bad all-around for the game and the Blues.

Drop the puck!

Home/Editorials