<![CDATA[Alex Pietrangelo has consistently been the recipient of lots of ice time over the years with the St. Louis Blues. As expected, his time has increased ever since the Blues traded away Kevin Shattenkirk, but it's an area the team plans to monitor closely to avoid wearing down one of their best defenders.
Pietrangelo's increase in ice time has mostly been due to the fact he has assumed Shattenkirk's power play time. Since the trade, he's playing about two extra minutes per night (between 27 minutes and 28 minutes) compared to his usual time of about 25 minutes per game. That doesn't seem too significant on the surface, but that's a lot of extra time for a player to start absorbing this late in the year.
Mike Yeo commented on Pietrangelo's rising time with STLToday:
“You don’t have the same juice getting up the ice. I’m sure we’ll see him come down a little bit.”
If the Blues are going to make a playoff push, they’ll need Pietrangelo at his best. The extra time may not be noticable yet, but it will be soon if the Blues don’t balance things out.]]>
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