The National Hockey League is getting faster and faster, especially with the influx of teenage talent. They are young, with the main focus on not only being good with the puck but also being able to accelerate quickly enough to skate upwards of 25 miles per hour.Â
As the game continues to get faster, the St. Louis Blues have yet to keep pace. We have already seen their lack of a smaller, more agile offensive defenseman, which is featured on a good chunk of NHL teams nowadays. But now, they can’t even escape the bottom of the NHL EDGE leaderboards for speed on the ice.Â
Let’s talk about it.Â
The numbers don’t lie
When looking at the NHL rankings for bursts, which is skating upwards of 22+ MPH, the Blues players have reached that a total of 52 times. That is the 25th-most in the NHL. Then, when you dig even deeper, the fastest skating speed recorded by a Blue this season was by Alexey Toropchenko on March 21 against the Vancouver Canucks. He flew at 23.52 MPH, and if you take that high-score, it is the 22nd-fastest speed recorded for each team in the NHL.
One more note on Toropchenko is that he currently holds five of the 10 fastest skate speeds recorded this season, and that is from a fourth-line player. He does his job well enough, because his speed can get him down in the corners almost as fast as everyone else.
Are you understanding the trend yet?
The Blues need to start finding some speed, and stop relying on power. The game is evolving, and there is going to be more and more skaters entering the league that specialize in getting themsevles into that 25+ MPH mark. This franchise needs to start hopping on that trend, before they get left in the dust.