Faulk-Broberg Pairing Playing Better Than Parayko-Leddy

[Robb_K]

Broberg has looked better than I expected in his first 3 games, seeming to be working well with Faulk (who seems to be healthier than at the end of last season), and is playing a lot less tentatively.
On the other hand, Parayko hasn't looked very energetic, and Leddy has looked "listless", as usual. I'd like to see The Blues find a better shiftmate for Parayko, and the two top pairings play minute totals that are closer to each other (more even).

Unfortunately, I don't think Bannister is going to put a young player on our top pairing with Parayko because none of them are really ready for that yet. And really, from what I've seen of Suter so far, I worry about him playing even on The 3rd pairing. He's so slow, and opposing forwards can skate right around him so easily, he reminds me of The late 1970s and early 1980s, when The Blues were broke and always playing a couple of career AHL veteran defencemen as their 6th and 7th D-men. I also wish we still had Larry Robinson working with The younger D-men coaching on their skills, sand working on their weaknesses. With the players we've got on the NHL roster right now, it's hard to come up with 3 viable pairings to keep the team relatively competitive.

I'm curious to find out what other posters here think of how The Blues' pairings will shake out as this season moves forward.

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[Davimir Tarablad]

While they've both had a rough start, they're still taking the heavy defensive lifting that allows for the other pairings to thrive. But, in the long term, we definitely need them to play up to their normal standards to succeed.

That said, I would like to eventually see a shift to playing Broberg-Parayko and Leddy-Faulk and have a more balanced approach to the deployment of the pairings.

 

[Reality Czech]

Three games means very little. We've seen what Leddy and Parayko can do and I put a lot more weight in that than overreacting about the first three games. If anything, they can give more minutes and responsibility to the Faulk pair but I bet they already consider the pairs to be a 1a/1b situation. At even strength, Faulk, Leddy and Parayko are all getting similar ice time and Broberg is only 2 mins behind them, so it seems like that's the approach Bannister is taking.

What do you mean by listless? People really turned on Leddy fast, huh? I guess that's what happens when Krug isn't around. They'll monitor the situation and if things haven't improved in a couple weeks then it's time to shake things up, but not after 3 games.

 

[TheOrganist]

People are really looking at this the wrong way. Broberg-Faulk being a solid second pair is going to be a lot more instrumental to making the Blues playoff contenders than revamping the D pairings. The Krug-Faulk pairing might’ve been one of the worst top 4 duos in the league last yr. Remember how much that pairing was universally hated by the fanbase? Leddy-Parayko will be fine.

 

[Celtic Note]

People are really looking at this the wrong way. Broberg-Faulk being a solid second pair is going to be a lot more instrumental to making the Blues playoff contenders than revamping the D pairings. The Krug-Faulk pairing might’ve been one of the worst top 4 duos in the league last yr. Remember how much that pairing was universally hated by the fanbase? Leddy-Parayko will be fine.

As time moves along, lightening the load on our aging vets will be wise strategy.

 

[Majorityof1]

Keep in mind, as Davamir points out, Parayko-Leddy are still getting the toughest assignments. It's true they have been off. Not as much as many think, but off. I actually think Parayko has been worse than Leddy. But overall, the pair is not up to snuff.

I do think they are just getting off to a slow start. The mistakes look mental more than physical. It doesn't look like they lost a step or Colt's back issues flared up. It may be a slight change in scheme they are struggling to get on page with or just early season ramp up. I think it's way too soon to worry.

They have been our best pair for a lot more games than they have not. I doubt both just dropped off play at the same time, especially outside any obvious physical decline. Let's reevaluate at the 10+ game mark.

 

[BleedBlue14]

I think where we're currently at is a pretty good spot to be.

Parayko-Leddy were unreal last year, because they had to be. If we can get two top 4 pairs rolling to play at least adequately that's so much more beneficial to our season outcomes than having one pair being far and above better than the 2nd. It's also extremely early. I don't think there's any reason we should worry about the Parayko/Leddy Pair. At worst they are a pretty good top 4 shutdown pair, which is what they are designed to be. This has an extremely long track record of being proven.

Broberg/Faulk pair is always going to look better on ice/analytically, because they are designed to do so through usage. What is good is that they both individually have looked pretty good this year. Faulk actually looks healthy which is a large benefit vs last year, and Broberg looks pretty good, which aside from on the PP i'm not sure you could say that 5v5 about Krug or the pairing of Faulk/Krug in general.

For as much flack as Leddy catches, him and Parayko have been a pretty successful pair over the last few years.

Overall in general though, my concern with our defense as is is that there aren't many great puck movers on the back end. It's functional because 3/4 are all very good at exits via skating the puck out. But I think with that skating it at times disrupts the flow of our transition game (It's hard to tell without internal knowledge if this is a defenseman issue or a forward issue).

I think best case scenario right now and what I'd imagine the plan is going forward is to eventually slide Parayko and Broberg into a 2nd pairing role in the years to come and hope to somehow find a true 1D to anchor a top pair.

Nonetheless, we're in transitional years right now as a team. Our pretty evident rough spot over the past couple of years and the area that needs addressed the most is on the backend. I'm pretty excited about our future if our main concern is stating one pairing looks better than the other and not being able to really come to terms with who should be the top pairing versus what we've had of recent memory which is one pairing being absolutely awful and the other trying to keep the ship afloat.

 

[Reality Czech]

I think where we're currently at is a pretty good spot to be.

Parayko-Leddy were unreal last year, because they had to be. If we can get two top 4 pairs rolling to play at least adequately that's so much more beneficial to our season outcomes than having one pair being far and above better than the 2nd. It's also extremely early. I don't think there's any reason we should worry about the Parayko/Leddy Pair. At worst they are a pretty good top 4 shutdown pair, which is what they are designed to be. This has an extremely long track record of being proven.

Broberg/Faulk pair is always going to look better on ice/analytically, because they are designed to do so through usage. What is good is that they both individually have looked pretty good this year. Faulk actually looks healthy which is a large benefit vs last year, and Broberg looks pretty good, which aside from on the PP i'm not sure you could say that 5v5 about Krug or the pairing of Faulk/Krug in general.

For as much flack as Leddy catches, him and Parayko have been a pretty successful pair over the last few years.

Overall in general though, my concern with our defense as is is that there aren't many great puck movers on the back end. It's functional because 3/4 are all very good at exits via skating the puck out. But I think with that skating it at times disrupts the flow of our transition game (It's hard to tell without internal knowledge if this is a defenseman issue or a forward issue).

I think best case scenario right now and what I'd imagine the plan is going forward is to eventually slide Parayko and Broberg into a 2nd pairing role in the years to come and hope to somehow find a true 1D to anchor a top pair.

Nonetheless, we're in transitional years right now as a team. Our pretty evident rough spot over the past couple of years and the area that needs addressed the most is on the backend. I'm pretty excited about our future if our main concern is stating one pairing looks better than the other and not being able to really come to terms with who should be the top pairing versus what we've had of recent memory which is one pairing being absolutely awful and the other trying to keep the ship afloat.

Good post overall, though I will add Krug and Faulk were a damn good pair a few years ago when both were healthy, even if they had to be deployed strategically. However, Faulk and Bro hopefully won't have to be sheltered as much. While Bro doesn't have the puck moving abilities of Krug, he is probably a more steady, all-around guy who can hopefully handle all situations a bit better. He may also allow Faulk to play a little more run and gun, which could benefit the Blues a lot. When Faulk had to be the more defensively responsible member of his pairing, he had to play a lot more conservatively.

Either way, I like where we are right now and hopefully Colt and Leddy can find their consistency in the near future. I also don't mind the fact that we can rotate in third pair guys like Joseph, Kessel, Suter and Peru until a couple of them hopefully stick in the lineup full time. Competition isn't a bad thing. Wonder if Peru get in a game here soon. Might as well give him a shot or put him on waivers/send him down if he's just gonna be scratched every game.

 

[BleedBlue14]

Good post overall, though I will add Krug and Faulk were a damn good pair a few years ago when both were healthy, even if they had to be deployed strategically. However, Faulk and Bro hopefully won't have to be sheltered as much. While Bro doesn't have the puck moving abilities of Krug, he is probably a more steady, all-around guy who can hopefully handle all situations a bit better. He may also allow Faulk to play a little more run and gun, which could benefit the Blues a lot. When Faulk had to be the more defensively responsible member of his pairing, he had to play a lot more conservatively.

Either way, I like where we are right now and hopefully Colt and Leddy can find their consistency in the near future. I also don't mind the fact that we can rotate in third pair guys like Joseph, Kessel, Suter and Peru until a couple of them hopefully stick in the lineup full time. Competition isn't a bad thing. Wonder if Peru get in a game here soon. Might as well give him a shot or put him on waivers/send him down if he's just gonna be scratched every game.

Would agree, they had that extremely good season I think it was 21-22. I think the catastrophe of the last two seasons clouded me while typing that up.

I'd imagine Perunovich's tenure here at this point is based upon whether or not one of the regulars can at least keep our PP above the bottom of the barrel league-wide. I'd imagine after a few weeks seeing where it settles they'll either put him in the lineup or put him on waivers. It's not really a great situation for the player, but it's hard not to see that the organization has given him a longer leash than is necessary to get his footing. Sucks, because he's a pretty good puck mover on a team that direly lacks it.

 

[PocketNines]

Leddy Faulk and Parayko are three known quantities. Broberg is establishing what he is. Need more time for this to shake out.

 

[TK 421]

So........are we a little more willing to see what Broberg-Parayko and Leddy-Faulk look like?

Or are you wanting to stay the course and give them 10-15 games to work out the kinks with the current pairings?

 

[Reality Czech]

So........are we a little more willing to see what Broberg-Parayko and Leddy-Faulk look like?

Or are you wanting to stay the course and give them 10-15 games to work out the kinks with the current pairings?

What's the rush? If Faulk and Broberg are doing well, why break that up? It's not all on Leddy, Colt hasn't exactly impressed with his play so far this season. I'd say reevaluate at the 8-10 game mark of the season. Many veterans tend to be slow starters.

 

[TheDizee]

The new normal for Leddy is our replacement for Krug

Can you imagine both of them in the same lineup? Find out next fall!

 

[PocketNines]

Leddy may not be a known quantity. I have been fine with him as Parayko's partner, but last night he was BRUTAL. That cannot happen