{"id":20345,"date":"2018-01-07T11:06:42","date_gmt":"2018-01-07T16:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=20345"},"modified":"2018-01-07T12:20:31","modified_gmt":"2018-01-07T17:20:31","slug":"st-louis-blues-defensemen-stopped-defending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2018\/01\/07\/st-louis-blues-defensemen-stopped-defending\/","title":{"rendered":"The St. Louis Blues Defensemen Stopped Defending"},"content":{"rendered":"

The St. Louis Blues have had a franchise year. They’ve shattered team records, and have held a spot in the top five of the league all year.\u00a0\u00a0Brayden Schenn<\/a><\/strong> has played better than arguably any Blues player in the past 20 years. Schenn, Vladimir Tarasenko<\/a><\/strong>, and Jaden Schwartz<\/a><\/strong> have been a deadly top line for the team. The three have combined for 108 points already this year.<\/p>\n

The St. Louis Blues defensemen have also been a popular headline. In the beginning of the year, they were the main reason the Blues were winning. The defensemen are still a factor in the team’s offense, but not nearly as much as they were earlier on. Between the eight defensemen who have donned a Blues jersey this season, there are a combined 82 points. About 62 percent of these points have come from star defenders Alex Pietrangelo<\/a><\/strong> (28) and Colton Parayko<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(23). Unfortunately, those scoring streaks are drying up.<\/p>\n

The St. Louis Blues Defensemen Stopped Defending<\/h1>\n

The defenders have calmed down with their scoring, for now. The three D who see the most ice time, Pietrangelo, Parayko, and Joel Edmundson<\/a><\/strong>, have combined for only seven points in the past five games. Without their prolific scoring, the Blues back six simply haven’t looked good.<\/p>\n

Dumb Mistakes<\/h2>\n

It’s not that the team’s defense is terrible in their own end. They aren’t. All six players who man the Blues blue line have great defensive awareness, but slip up in little areas. These little mistakes snowball into bigger ordeals, and it’s costing St. Louis their winning record. In the 4-0 loss to the Winnipeg Jets<\/a>, the defense had a lot of these slip-ups.<\/p>\n

Adam Lowry’s Goal<\/h3>\n

The first came early in the second period when Adam Lowry<\/strong><\/a> opened the scoring<\/a>. Jets Kyle Connor<\/a><\/strong> skated the puck into the zone on a typical break-in. He carried it around the net and was chased by both Parayko and Edmundson, the two defensemen on the ice. Some coaches would argue even having one defenceman chase behind the net is intolerable. Having both players\u00a0chase the puck carrier below the goal line would be enough to make some older coaches’ heads explode. For good reason too. When Parayko and Edmundson both sandwiched Connor to the boards, he kicked the puck to Andrew Copp<\/a> <\/strong>who was in the corner.<\/p>\n