It was a rough start to the season for Logan Mailloux. First, Zach Bolduc has been tearing it up for the Montreal Canadiens, with three goals and four points in as many games--tough look for management there. Second, Mailloux was stapled to Tyler Tucker, a defenseman who's more likely to drop the gloves than score points, which isn't the ideal partner for a rookie defenseman finding his way in the NHL.
Looks like the St. Louis Blues have ended that experiment, with head coach Jim Montgomery putting Philip Broberg with Mailloux on the "third" pair. The underlying results are night and day.
Granted, Mailloux and Broberg have only played a hair over 13 minutes together at even strength over the last three games, but, per MoneyPuck, their 80% expected Goals-for percentage is the highest among Blues defensive pairs with over ten minutes played together. The lowest? The pair of Tucker and Mailloux, showcasing an abysmal 34.8 xGF% in almost 18 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time.
The change-up has benefited Tucker, too, as his pair with Justin Faulk now has the second-highest expected goals-for percentage within the same parameters, with Tucker and Faulk posting a respectable 55 xGF% together.
It's too soon to tell who's carrying who on the Broberg-Mailloux pair, but it's certainly something to keep an eye on. The workhorse pairing of Cam Fowler and Colton Parayko is doing just okay together (48.8 xGF%), which means the rest of the defense corps needs to step up when called upon. So far, so good with these new pairings, though we'll have to see how long it lasts.