It’s officially the Olympic break, which may come as a something of a relief for St. Louis Blues fans. The team is 20-28-9 on the season, and in last place in the Central Division with 49 points, better than only the flailing Vancouver Canucks. We could all use some time apart.
The good news, though, is that the Blues have quite a few players representing their countries in Milan—five, to be exact. Some of that makes sense, as the general manager of the Blues and Team Canada is one in the same: Doug Armstrong. Let’s start with who’s on Team Canada and go from there, as Canada’s representatives are likely the most contentious as well.
First up is goaltender Jordan Binnington, who’s had an awful regular season and sports an .864 save percentage and 3.65 goals against average. Considering some of the other options that were available to represent Canada, Binnington’s inclusion smacks of nepotism. That said, we’ve all seen what Binnington can do under pressure: he steps up and plays like crazy. Blues fans saw it in the team’s 2019 Stanley Cup run, and hockey fans in general witnessed the same just last year at the Four Nations tournament, where Binnington essentially stole the gold medal game against Team USA. When the games matter most, Binnington has shown who he can be—it’s just a matter of finding that gear again in the first place.
The other Blue named to Team Canada is Colton Parayko, a defensive stalwart who will likely be rotating in on the third pair with someone like Travis Sanheim of the Philadelphia Flyers. Given the talent at Canada’s disposal, Parayko was an odd choice, but his stability on the backend will surely be valued by the coaching staff. Canada’s first game will be February 12 at 9:40 a.m. Central against Team Czechia.
In the midst of a breakout season (and a number of injuries), Philip Broberg will be playing for Team Sweden. The Swedes are a good—maybe even great—team, but they’ve been beset by injuries leading up to the Olympics and are nowhere near as good as they could be (on paper, at least). They’ll have an uphill battle to the medal round, and their first game is on February 11 at 2:10 p.m. against Team Italy.
A newcomer to the Blues, Pius Suter has been an effective, versatile middle-six player, despite a good chunk of his season being lost to injury. Suter will be playing for Team Switzerland, who are certainly underdogs in the games but have enough NHL talent to give some teams fits. The Swiss have their first game on February 12 at 5:10 a.m. (hope you’ve got some strong coffee!) against Team France.
The Blues’ fifth and final representative is rookie Dalibor Dvorsky, who’s playing for Team Slovakia. The Slovaks aren’t the deepest or most competitive team but, like the Swiss, they have enough good players to give stronger teams a run for their money. Slovakia will kick off the men’s side of the tournament on February 11 at 9:40 a.m. against Team Finland.
With five players headed to Milan, the Blues are one of the more well represented teams from the NHL—including a general manager running a national team in Doug Armstrong. We could all use a break from the Blues, who will likely be an active team headed into the trade deadline when NHL games start back up at the end of the month, but we can still cheer on a Blue or two as they play for their country in the Olympics for the first time since 2014.