LA Kings: Three players to watch on the St. Louis Blues
Thanks to COVID-19, the LA Kings are going to have some new division rivals for this season. Let’s get to know the St. Louis Blues a bit better.
The LA Kings and St. Louis Blues actually had a pretty good rivalry going not too long ago.
Both were consistent contenders in the Western Conference and met in the playoffs in back-to-back years in 2012 and 2013. Though the Blues had home-ice advantage for each series, the Kings ended up winning both of them. The first match-up was a second-round sweep en route to LA’s first Stanley Cup championship.
The rivalry has cooled in recent years as the Kings have gone into a rebuild. The Blues, however, have remained a force in the West and won their first Cup in 2019.
These two teams will have plenty of chances to renew hostilities in the coming months, though, as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the NHL into a drastic divisional realignment for this season. The Kings will say goodbye to their Pacific Division rivals north of the border in the Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, and Vancouver Canucks. Instead, they will welcome the Blues, Colorado Avalanche, and Minnesota Wild into what the NHL is calling the West Division.
Since LA Kings fans will be seeing plenty of the Blues this season, here are three players on St. Louis you should be keeping an eye on.
Torey Krug
The Blues lost long-time captain and top defenseman Alex Pietrangelo to the Vegas Golden Knights in free agency. However, they were able to grab one of the other top blueliners available to replace him, signing former Boston Bruin Torey Krug to a seven-year, $45.5-million contract.
Krug isn’t a big guy, but he doesn’t let that hold him back. He hits and shoots hard, plays with a mean streak, and isn’t afraid to mix things up with players who are a lot bigger than him.
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Signed as an undrafted free agent by the Bruins, Krug turned into an excellent offensive defenseman. He’s scored at least 39 points in each of his seven full NHL seasons, including a career-high 14 goals and 59 points in 2017-18. Last season he recorded nine goals and 49 points in just 61 games before the regular season was cut short.
Given the edge Krug plays with and the amount of times teams in their own division are going to face each other this year, there’s a pretty good chance you’re not going to like him very much by the end of the season.
Brayden Schenn
Here’s a familiar name for LA Kings fans.
Drafted fifth overall by LA in 2009, Brayden Schenn was the top prospect in their farm system and expected to be a big part of the team’s future. However, he played only nine games for the Kings before being included in a stunning trade for Philadelphia Flyers captain Mike Richards in 2011.
Schenn was a solid player in Philly, but he’s taken his game to another level since being traded to St. Louis in 2017. He set career highs with 28 goals and 70 points in his first year with the Blues. Last year he scored 25 goals and 58 points in just 71 games.
Schenn took a bit of time to reach his potential, but he seems to have gotten there. It will always be hard for Kings fans to lament the trade too much since Richards did help them win two Stanley Cups. He didn’t work out long term, though, and this season Schenn will get plenty of chances to remind his original team what they gave up.
Justin Faulk
As terrific of a replacement as Krug may be for Pietrangelo, it’s still going to take a collective effort to fill his skates. In particular, St. Louis is going to need more from Justin Faulk this season.
Like, a lot more. The Blues acquired Faulk from the Carolina Hurricanes prior to last season and proceeded to sign him to a seven-year, $45.5-million contract extension. That happens to be identical to the deal they signed Krug to.
Faulk then proceeded to have the worst season of his career. Known as an offensive defenseman, he scored just five goals and 16 points in 69 games. He notched just one goal and three points on the power play, where he’d been such a weapon in Carolina.
It was an enormous drop in production for Faulk. Over the prior six seasons, he’d never scored fewer than 31 points, topping out at 49 in 2014-15.
That’s the kind of production the Blues were expecting when they acquired Faulk. Given that his massive seven-year extension is just now kicking it, they badly need him to get back to that kind of production, especially with Pietrangelo gone.