St. Louis Blues' Unsung Players Are Carrying The Load

We are little more than halfway through the 2015-16 NHL season, yet it has been a long, arduous one for the St. Louis Blues. Going into their clash with the Detroit Red Wings, the Blues were fifth in terms of man-games lost to injury. Despite ranking so high, they are still jockying for position within the top five teams in the entire league.

A lot of this is due to some of the unsung and young players stepping up at opportune times. With the exception of Vladimir Tarasenko, and perhaps Alexander Steen, nobody has lit the world on fire for the Blues. However, several players have stepped up at the times when they really needed to, and the game against Detroit was another example of that.

Ty Rattie, written off by many as being too small for regular NHL action, has scored a goal in three of his last four games since being called up from the minor league. Dmitrij Jaskin, who was quickly losing favor with the very coach who had touted him so highly, rushed his way past three defenders to score the game-winning goal against the Red Wings.

In addition to those two in that specific game, Robby Fabbri has 11 goals in his rookie year and Colton Parayko leads rookie defenseman in scoring, and is in the top ten on the team in scoring (one place ahead of Fabbri in fact).

None of these things are earth shattering facts. They’re more interesting factoids if anything. Young players step up all the time. Look at the Chicago Blackhawks. They lose several key players each time they have a good long run at the Cup and they have the league’s leading rookie scorer this season. That said, this hasn’t always been something the Blues have been fortunate enough to have.

While this year’s team has been extremely frustrating in terms of consistency — somewhat due to injury and somewhat due to other factors — it is reassuring that players are stepping up their game.

Teams cannot count on health. The Blues cannot count on Tarasenko alone to carry them in the playoffs. Just ask the Washington Capitals and Alex Ovechkin. Teams need these unsung players who weren’t expected to produce. NHL history is littered with stories of players you didn’t know and might not have heard much from after, doing great things at important times in the playoffs. The Blues aren’t in the playoffs yet, but they’re getting those performances from solid players.