Michael Del Zotto (top row, far left), Alex Pietrangelo (top row, second from left), Steven Stamkos (second row, far right) and John Tavares (front row, second from right) at 11 years old with the Ontario Blues
Almost 20 years have passed since then, but one thing hasn't changed: Alex Pietrangelo's outstanding vision and ability to read plays. They were qualities Chris Stamkos noticed right away in Alex.
"You could tell about that time that he was going to be a pretty good defenseman," Chris Stamkos said in a phone interview Wednesday. "I guess the new terminology is that he had a good IQ. He just had a really good understanding of the game, and he saw the ice really well.
"He wasn't the fastest skater out there, and even when we were putting the team together, he wasn't the fastest backwards-skating defenseman. But he always had an understanding of how to play the game, read the ice offensively, read the ice defensively. Overall, he was a really, really smart hockey player."
Chris Stamkos and Michael Del Zotto each pointed to the winning goal in the Blues' 4-2 victory against the Bruins in Game 4 on Monday as a prime example of Pietrangelo's hockey smarts.
The game was tied 2-2 when Pietrangelo noticed the Bruins were late on a line change and immediately started a rush up the right wing into the Boston zone. He paused briefly to give charging forward Ryan O'Reilly time to get to the net, then unleashed a high slap shot.
The plan worked to perfection. Tuukka Rask made the save but couldn't handle the rebound, and O'Reilly batted in the puck to give the Blues the lead at 10:38 of the third period.