Mid Rivers Newsmagazine 9-22-21

18 I ST. LOUIS BLUES I
September 22, 2021
MID RIVERS NEWSMAGAZINE
@MIDRIVERSNEWS
MIDRIVERSNEWSMAGAZINE.COM
MARCH TO THE CUP :
Blues defense looks to never rest
By WARREN MAYES
Jersey to be retired
Hall of Fame member Chris Pronger will be
honored this season by having his jersey retired.
Back in February 2020, Al MacInnis surprised
his former teammate with the news that
Pronger’s No. 44 jersey would be retired by the
St. Louis Blues.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the
jersey retirement was postponed. With restrictions
lifted for this season, allowing full capacity
at the Enterprise Center, a new date has been set.
Pronger’s jersey will be raised to the rafters on
Jan. 17 when the Blues play Nashville.
The defenseman, who was inducted into the
Hockey Hall of Fame in 2015, played 18 seasons
in the NHL, nine for the Blues, and was named
one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in 2017.
One of the oldest adages in sports is
“defense wins championships,” and now
the St. Louis Blues have locked up their
top defenseman in Colton Parayko.
The Blues signed Parayko, 28, to an
eight-year contract extension worth $52
million this summer. He would have been
eligible for unrestricted free agency after
this season without a new deal.
Parayko is a key to the Blues making a
deep run in the postseason.
“I can’t wait to wear the Blue Note for
another nine years,” Parayko said in a
video conference. “St. Louis has been
my home now for six seasons, and this is
where I want to be. Winning here in 2019
was special, and I want the chance to stay
here and do that again.”
The 6-foot-6, 230-pound Parayko has
spent his entire career with the Blues.
Parayko was originally drafted by the Blues
in the third round, 86th overall, of the 2012
NHL Entry Draft. Parayko has been an
outstanding player for most of the past six
years and played a key role in the team’s
2019 Stanley Cup championship run.
Since entering the NHL, Parayko is one
of 10 defensemen with at least 170 points
and a plus-50 rating.
In his six seasons, he’s appeared in 418
games, scoring 41 goals and 171 points.
That prior production was enough to earn
him the “A” on his chest as one of the
team’s alternate captains last year.
“It’s a great place to play,” Parayko said.
“When you’re on a team that’s been winning
(and) obviously want to continue to
win, it’s fun, it’s exciting. I think it makes
coming to the rink that much better.”
The Blues have been regarded for years
as one of the best defensive teams in the
NHL. It was one huge reason the franchise
won the 2019 Stanley Cup.
But that changed.
A year ago they lost longtime standout
Alex Pietrangelo in free agency to the
Vegas Golden Knights. The Blues dropped
to the bottom half of the league in most
major defensive categories, from goals
against, shots against, chances against,
expected goals against and penalty killing.
Then, the bottom fell out on them in the
first-round series against Colorado, where
they were never really competitive.
The previous year the Blues were upset
by the Vancouver Canucks in the bubble
in 2020, losing in six games to a team that
was a heavy underdog. Then came this past
season when the Blues were just fair in
the regular season before losing a decisive
four-game sweep at the hands of the Colorado
Avalanche.
“We’ve always been good defensively and
we’ve taken pride in playing good defense
and at the same time, from playing good
defense, we scored and were a productive
team,” coach Craig Berube said. “You look
at last year (2019-20), our scoring was up
and was really good and our defensive play
was good. We could do both and we were
good at it, but we lost that identity this year
because neither one was good. We didn’t
score enough goals and we didn’t defend
well enough this year.”
Parayko was injured
last year and took a step
backward in his play. He
was also limited to just 32
games. He continues to
deal with a lingering back
issue but says he is “ready
to tackle the season.” Fortunately,
he did not require
surgery.
“I don’t really know about
surgeries. Luckily no need
for that, we didn’t even have
to get that far,” Parayko said.
“I honestly feel just as good
as I feel coming into any
other season. To be honest,
I would say, ‘Yes, it feels as
good as it has and I’m ready
to tackle this season with all
the games.’ It’s doing really
good.”
He added that it was
“nice to have a little time
off, a little bit of treatment
for it” but now
he’s excited.
“I’m looking forward
to getting this year going
... I’m ready to rock and
roll,” Parayko said.
Berube is optimistic
about a rebound for Jordan Binnington
Parayko.
“He’s one of the players
that can control the game in my opinion
with his size and strength and skating
ability,” Berube said. “That’s something
that I think going forward, we’ve got to
be talking to him about that a lot and how
significant it can be for the team and for
him. He wore the ‘A’ this year as part of the
leadership group, I think he did a good job.”
This summer the Blues defense took
a big hit. The Seattle Kraken selected
24-year-old Vince Dunn in the 2021 NHL
Expansion Draft on July 21. Dunn scored
20 points (six goals, 14 assists) and averaged
19:15 in ice time in 43 games last
season.
Colton Parayko
(Lou Countryman photo)
Losing Pietrangelo and Dunn left some
big holes on the blue line.
Justin Faulk, who was signed two years
ago, has been solid on defense. The Blues
acquired Faulk from the Carolina Hurricanes
for Joel Edmundson, Dominik Bokk,
and a 2021 seventh-round pick (No. 209,
Nikita Guslistov).
Torey Krug was added last year to replace
(Lou Countryman photo)
Pietrangelo. With the signing of Parayko,
the Blues’ top blueliners now are set in
stone for several years, as both Faulk and
Krug signed through the 2026-27 season.
The Blues will be counting heavily on
Parayko, Krug and Faulk to bounce back
this season. A big year and a return to form
from Parayko would go a long way toward
the St. Louis defense improving.
Doug Armstrong, the St. Louis general
manager, is happy with his set of top defensemen.
“We drafted and developed Colton and
now having him under contract for the next
nine seasons is great for our organization,”
Armstrong said. “Having Colton, Torey
Krug and Justin Faulk under contract long
term gives us a strong and reliable defensive
core for the foreseeable future.”
Parayko said he thinks and hopes his
career is still young.
“I’m looking forward to obviously continuing
my career playing a long time,” he
said. “It’s on me now to make sure that I
just continue to come to the rink each day,
prepare myself properly and make sure I
can play a long time.”
With the defense looking set, St. Louis
will need goaltender Jordan Binnington
to produce this year. The Blues believe in
Binnington. They signed him to a six-year,
$36 million contract that begins this season.
Binnington was outstanding in his rookie
season and helped the team bring home the
Stanley Cup. However, he has been somewhat
inconsistent in the last two seasons.
He did not play particularly well in the last
two playoffs, although he shouldn’t shoulder
the entire blame for those losses.
Training camp and the march to the Stanley
Cup begins Sept. 22. The Cup is the
goal, Berube said.
“Well, we’ve got to make sure that we’re
pushing our players for it and we’re working
on it,” Berube said. “That’s a big part
of our identity. Going forward, we’ve got
to demand it out of our players.”