They’re following, but it might help if they didn’t have to stop to admire Pietrangelo’s poise. That was particularly the case against Chicago, when he was double-shifting against Kane and Jonathan Toews before the Blackhawks eventually put the pair on the same line.

“It’s great, because when you have a team like that, it just seems like they come wave after wave with their offense, you need a guy to get a puck in the (defensive) zone off a rebound or in a corner and make a calm, cool and collected play ... it sets everything up,” Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said. “It’s great to have a guy like him doing that for us. For the rest of us on the back end, you see it being done, and you think to yourself, ‘If I’m in that situation, I can make that play.’ He’s just leading that for us on the back end. It’s just tremendous.”

“I think it’s just that I’ve been able, throughout my career, to recognize when the team needs a play that’s maybe a little bit more simple, the basic play that’s going to get us out of pressure,” Pietrangelo said. “I try not to make too many mistakes and I think guys look at me to make that simple play under pressure. I’ve been able to do it and it’s kind of been trickling down the lineup.”