ST. LOUIS — Philip Broberg couldn’t have asked for a better start to his St. Louis Blues career.
After signing a two-year, $9.16 million ($4.58 million average annual value) offer sheet from the Edmonton Oilers, the defenseman would certainly have eyes placed on him to see how his career progresses.
Broberg will get the chance to put his name in the Blues history books when they host the New York Islanders (1-1-1) at 7 p.m. today (BSMW, ESPN 101.1-FM).
Broberg has a four-game point streak (one goal, three assists) to begin his Blues career and can become the first Blues defenseman to extend that streak to five.
Only three active defensemen have posted a point streak of five games from the start of their tenure with a club in the NHL: Shayne Gostisbehere (with the Detroit Red Wings in 2023-24), Ty Smith (with the New Jersey Devils in 2020-21) and Cale Makar (with the Colorado Avalanche in 2019-20).
“It’s been good so far coming to this team. I feel confident and comfortable,” Broberg said. “… I think (the offense) is all a learning experience. It’s by playing. You’ll see when you should go in, when you should not.
“It’s been a pretty comfortable transition from Edmonton to here. I think he’s helped me. It’s been going good so far.”
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It’s a safe assumption to make that the pairing of Broberg and Justin Faulk has been the Blues’ most consistent through four games.
“I think he’s a great player obviously,” Broberg said. “It’s been good playing with him. He’s a great veteran as well that you can learn from. You always try to get the chemistry going quickly. I think it’s been good, but we just want to keep working on it.”
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Nick Leddy will not play for the Blues tonight due to a lower-body injury and will be replaced in the lineup by P.O. Joseph, who will play for the first time since last Friday in a 4-3 loss against the Vegas Golden Knights.
“Leddy’s out, so he’s day to day right now with a lower-body injury and P.O. will go in for ‘Leds.’
“It’s not about just the one game, but I think [Joseph’s] overall camp was really good for us; his exhibition games were good. We want to get him back in there. We like his ability to skate, his length, his ability to move pucks. I think that’s something defending-wise, we’ve got to be able to kill plays.”
Ryan Suter will move up and play with Colton Parayko and Joseph will skate alongside Matthew Kessel.
Also, Kasperi Kapanen returns after being a healthy scratch and will replace Nathan Walker, and Joel Hofer will get the nod in net tonight. He has faced the Islanders once in his career, a 4-2 loss on March 29 last season, stopping 29 of 32 shots.
Alexandre Texier (upper-body injury) will miss a fourth straight game tonight but was on the ice for an optional skate today.
“I think he’s getting better. He’s close,” Bannister said. “I would put him as day to day. He’s going to be out tonight. We’ll see how he feels tomorrow, but he’s getting close.”
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One area the Blues want to get back to is their play through the neutral zone, which lacked in a 4-1 loss against the Minnesota Wild in the home opener Tuesday.
“I thought [Tuesday] we struggled,” Bannister said. “Our counters, which was concerning for us. That’s something we worked on quite a bit here [Wednesday]. Something that we didn’t see in the first three games, we thought we countered the puck pretty well. For whatever reason, we got away from what we did well, which led to not being able to get to a forecheck, which led to less time in the offensive zone and getting numbers in on the puck quick. Our support through the neutral zone has to be a lot better.”
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Blues Projected Lineup:
Brandon Saad-Robert Thomas-Jordan Kyrou
Zack Bolduc-Pavel Buchnevich-Jake Neighbours
Dylan Holloway-Brayden Schenn-Mathieu Joseph
Alexey Toropchenko-Radek Faksa-Kasperi Kapanen
Ryan Suter-Colton Parayko
Philip Broberg-Justin Faulk
P.O. Joseph-Matthew Kessel
Joel Hofer will start in goal; Jordan Binnington will be the backup. Healthy scratches include Nathan Walker and Scott Perunovich. Nick Leddy (lower body), Alexandre Texier (upper body) Oskar Sundqvist (knee) and Torey Krug (ankle) are all out.
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Islanders Projected Lineup:
Anthony Duclair-Bo Horvat-Mathew Barzal
Maxim Tsyplakov-Brock Nelson-Kyle Palmieri
Anders Lee-Jean-Gabriel Pageau-Simon Holmstrom
Casey Cizikas-Kyle MacLean-Oliver Wahlstrom
Alexander Romanov-Noah Dobson
Adam Pelech-Ryan Pulock
Mike Reilly-Scott Mayfield
Ilya Sorokin will start in goal; Semyon Varlamov will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Julien Gauthier and Dennis Cholowski. The Islanders report no injuries.
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