Blues new defenseman Philip Broberg scored in his debut with his new team and was solid defensively
A lot of questions were asked regarding whether Philip Broberg was worth the money the St. Louis Blues gave him when they submitted their offer sheet to pluck the former top-10 pick out of Edmonton.
Well, a goal in your debut with your new team and a positive impact in the defensive zone will quiet down those questions.
In Tuesday's season-opener matinee game against the Kraken, the Blues triumphed with a 3-2 victory despite a sluggish start, which featured six new players in the lineup. Out of the six new faces, none had a better outing than the 6-foot-4 defenseman, Philip Broberg.
After Jordan Kyrou scored on the powerplay to bring the Blues within one, Broberg displayed his offensive instincts by activating down the backside of the play into the left-side faceoff dot, sliding into a shooting position, and ripping his wrist shot underneath the glove hand of Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer.
Broberg played 20:23, marking just the fourth time in his NHL career that he has eclipsed playing 20 or more minutes in a game, and the first time since the 2021-22 season interestingly enough.
Now, Broberg and his defense partner Justin Faulk had a rough night if you're just looking at the analytical statistics.
According to Natural Stat Trick, the two were on the ice for 15 scoring chances against at 5-on-5 and only five scoring chances for. Broberg also had the third lowest corsi percentage amongst all Blues players at 34.15%.
However, keep in mind that for the first 30 minutes of the game, St. Louis was getting severely outplayed and the chances were heavily favored for the home team.
When you go back and watch and analyze his game, there weren't a lot of negatives to it or glaring mistakes/turnovers to point out. Sure, he could've been more physical in boxing out the front of his net and tying up his man, or use his skating more frequently to transition pucks up ice. But, he made smart decisions on his breakout passes, and was efficient at using his body to eliminate his man from the play when defending the cycle.
He was noticeable on the defensive side of the puck, using his long reach to get his stick on pucks and steer it away from the middle of the ice. He was also solid at keeping a tight gap on the zone entry and forcing dump-ins, which Faulk was usually able to get to the puck first before the forechecker.
There was an adjustment period in the first half of the game for Broberg and the Blues, but he and the team dialed it defensively in the second half.
It's important to note that this was only Broberg's 82nd regular season game of his career. However, he played like the player he was for the Edmonton Oilers during their run to the Stanley Cup Final in his first game in the blue, white, and gold.
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