Blues' depth at center kicks level of play up a notch for everyone else
ST. LOUIS -- More possessions plus more playmakers equals more scoring opportunities and fewer chances for opponents.
That formula offers the simplest explanation of what the Blues are hoping to get from their newfound depth at center. The offseason additions of Paul Stastny and Jori Lehtera should make things even better for a team that posted a plus-57 goal differential in the 2013-14 regular season, tied with Anaheim for the best in the Western Conference.
"It doesn't matter who you play with, you're going to play with a good player," Joakim Lindstrom says. "We've got so many talented players on this team with skill and grit, so it's a good thing."
After playing the last two years in Sweden, the veteran forward will be playing alongside Stastny and left winger Alexander Steen, the team's leader with 33 goals a year ago. If they can find chemistry, it's easy to imagine Steen scoring even more next to Lindstrom's former teammate in Colorado, who has at least 25 assists in each of his seven full NHL seasons.
Hitchcock says the key for whoever plays with Stastny and Steen will be creating space, either with speed or physicality. If that happens, Stastny and Steen have the playmaking abilities to be one of the league's most dangerous scoring duos.
It shouldn't take long for Stastny to adjust to his new surroundings, particularly since he played as a teenager at Chaminade Prep in St. Louis with Blues defenseman Chris Butler. Through international hockey and other leagues, Stastny estimates he's already played with at least 30 percent of his new teammates.
"He's an extremely skilled passer," Steen says of Stastny. "I'm sure a lot of us forwards are going to benefit a lot from him during the year."
Lindstrom agrees it should be easy to play with one of the league's top centers, and so far coach Ken Hitchcock has also been pleased by the play of Lehtera, a 26-year-old from Finland. Lehtera's playmaking abilities are translating well in his long-awaited NHL debut and should provide a nice boost to right winger Vladimir Tarasenko, who scored 22 goals to go with 21 assists in his second season last year.
But the other forwards aren't the only ones excited about the new talent at center, a position Jay Bouwmeester says is often like a third defenseman. That role will be critical to the Blues' success, and it's one Stastny and Lehtera seem to embrace.
"It's great to play with some of these centermen that always seem to be in the right spot," Butler says. "They want the puck, they demand the puck and make great plays with it. It makes our job easier."
Great centers don't need to be the fastest players on the ice, and Hitchcock says they'll most often be the last forwards to enter the zone. Factors like experience and awareness play bigger roles, and that's something St. Louis clearly has a lot more of at the position now.
That depth could mean changing identities for such players as Patrik Berglund and Maxim Lapierre, both of whom Hitchcock said should start seeing some time on the wing next week when St. Louis starts to really implement its game plan and prepare for the regular season. Versatility should be valuable for Berglund, in particular, since Hitchcock says the work he put in over the offseason has made him much more capable of seeing more ice time.
"When he plays center, he has the puck way more, he slows the game down, controls the puck," Hitchcock says. "When he plays as a winger he breaks ahead of the play and he's very dynamic off the rush."
Switching between the two positions will be nothing new for David Backes, who Hitchcock says played 35 percent of his minutes as a right winger a year ago. That will likely happen again because Backes, who is right-handed, will play on a line with a left-handed right winger who takes faceoffs on the left side.
A few games will be needed to sort out the right combinations and figure out exactly what all the new playmakers at center can bring to a team still expected to rely heavily on its defense. But there's no doubt Hitchcock will have a lot more weapons at his disposal to control the puck and create valuable scoring opportunities.
You can follow Luke Thompson on Twitter @FS_LukeT or email him at lukegthompson87@gmail.com.
