ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Blues’ early-season spark after two dramatic comeback wins has quickly fizzled with back-to-back defeats, punctuated by an underwhelming 4-1 loss in Tuesday’s home opener.
Early returns suggest there’s room for improvement on defense, particularly with veteran blueliner Nick Leddy.
Leddy, now 33 and in his fourth season with the Blues, has logged major ice time on the top defensive pairing with Colton Parayko in the early going.
His start to the new season has been uncharacteristically mistake-prone. His eight giveaways (aka turnovers) lead the team through four games and his minus-4 plus/minus ranking currently ranks worst among Blues defensemen.
Advanced stats don’t paint much better of a picture. Leddy is below league average in Corsi factor, meaning the Blues are allowing more shots as opposed to generating shots while he is on the ice.
The eye test is perhaps most telling. In the last two games, Leddy has been on the ice for opponent goals that stemmed from give-and-go plays and dekes around him.
Leddy feels his first few games have been plagued by combination of bad luck and lapses in execution.
“Sometimes the puck goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t,” said Leddy to media members after Tuesday’s loss. “One hits off a skate here, one hits off a skate there and goes the other way. There’s luck involved in the game too. Unfortunately, some of these plays, I’ve got to make stronger plays.”
In Tuesday’s loss, Leddy lost track of his assignment on a penalty kill that led to the Minnesota Wild finding the scoresheet just four minutes into the game.
“I didn’t see [goal-scorer Ryan Hartman],” said Leddy. “I think l originally I thought it was offsides, but [Kirill] Kaprizov made a good play, and [Hartman] scored.”
Head coach Drew Bannister feels Leddy’s early-season mistakes are magnified due to the timing of opponent goals.
“We’re talking about four games,” said Bannister. “I don’t want to make too much about one mistake. Obviously, I think he’d be the first to admit that he has to make a play there [on the Wild’s first goal].”
“He’s going to be a better player for us, I believe he will be. It’s a mistake. There’s a lot of mistakes in that game, he’s not the only one that made mistakes,” Bannister continued.
Bannister acknowledged Leddy’s struggles, though feels he can work through it with time and collective accountability among his teammates.
“You want to give him some time to work it out, but in the same sense, we can’t keep losing games or continuing to make the same mistakes,” said Bannister. “I believe he’ll work himself through it pretty quick.”
“As a group, we can help him out,” Bannister continued. “There’s four other guys on the ice. For [Leddy], he understands what he did. He’ll be the first one to say that was on him, but there’s a lot of other things in the game that happened. It’s not just that one mistake.”
The Blues have other options in the case Leddy needs some games off for a reset. Young defensemen Pierre-Olivier Joseph and Scott Perunovich have been consistent scratches over the first few games.
It appears Leddy may be navigating through sudden physical setbacks as well. Leddy was reportedly held out of practice Wednesday is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. It’s unclear if the injury may hold him out of upcoming matches.
The Blues, with a 2-2-0 record and four points in as many games, will host three more teams in their season-opening homestand, with the New York Islanders (1-1-1) up next on Thursday evening.
