Krug wanted to be part of solution in St. Louis, backing that commitment up with early-season play

The biggest reasoning for doing so: his desire to be a solution in fixing what ailed the Blues last season, including his own play, which he said was not good enough.

"He's always been a team guy and he's always been a guy that understood or admitted that he wasn't playing good enough," Blues coach Craig Berube said Tuesday about Krug, who had two assists in a 5-0 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning. "He's not a guy that shies away from that. ... He's a highly competitive person. Like our whole team last year, it wasn't good enough. He didn't shy away from that. It shows a lot of character on his side. He trained hard and he came into camp ready to go."

Fair enough.

But when those words were spoken, true to form for Blues fans, they wanted visual evidence. Remember, this is the Show-Me State, so "show me." Apply actions to those words will speak volumes with this fan base.

And even though the offense wasn't there initially (zero points in the first 10 games), Krug felt it was coming. Now it's starting to heat up just like the rest of the Blues' offense. A four-game point streak (one goal, five assists) has Krug being rewarded for patience because going into the new season, the 32-year-old was solely focused on improving and honing in on his defensive game.

"For sure, D-zone denials, playing well at the blue line with good gaps and forcing teams to make good passes to beat you," Krug said. "You're going to get beat in this league. There's too many good players and you've got to force them to make one, two, three good passes sometimes to beat you. So D-zone denials and then closing quick in the D-zone. When you see guys that are bobbling pucks, and their backs are turned to you, you want to close quick and don't give them a lot of time and space, and I feel like I've done a good job of that."

It certainly shows in his play through 13 games, in which the Blues are 8-5-1 and on a three-game winning streak and winners of five of six.

Not a ton of stock is put into the plus-minus category in this space, but the plus-8 Krug has is telling compared to where his and the Blues' game was a year ago. His plus-minus is on pace to shatter his career-high plus-23 in 2021-22. Krug and partner Justin Faulk are a combined plus-20, and with Krug, who has probably heard a time or a million that being 5-foot-9 is not a recipe for success in the league today as a defenseman, being focused on closing gaps, killing plays, and more important than anything, playing physical, this is as confident as he's been since signing with the Blues in 2020 because he's defying the odds.

"Yeah, I'd say, on both sides of the puck for sure," Krug said of his confidence. "There was a couple years there where I felt really good offensively. On the power play, I was building chemistry with some guys that are gone now. But right now, on both sides of the puck, I feel good. It's about bottling it up and trying to continue it and don't get complacent and satisfied. So just continue to practice hard and keep it going."

It could have been easy for Krug to just play through the motions. Including this season, he has four years and a $6.5 million cap hit on his contract. After all, how would you feel if the team you're playing for doesn't want you anymore and is willing to part with you, a sign that they feel there's a better option out there [Philadelphia's Travis Sanheim] to be a solution than you?

Sure, Krug was upset initially, and rightfully so, and why wouldn't he be? It's the second time in his stint in St. Louis his name was floated in trade rumors (Calgary in 2022 as part of a Matthew Tkachuk trade). But instead of playing the 'poor pity me' card, Krug came to camp determined to make a difference, improve his game and prove management they were wrong about him.

"Same good personality and a funny guy," Blues goalie Jordan Binnington said. "He seems like a man on a mission. Love to be around a guy like that.

"He's been working hard. You can see it every single day behind the scenes. He's great, he's aggressive, he's finding a way to make something happen, great passing ability obviously and tonight. We love Torey."

That commitment to be a fixture for the solution was important to the Blues.

"Very important," Berube said. "Those conversations that we’ve had with him about it because of what went on in the summer. He was all good. He was ready to go and play for the Blues and he a big part of this team, and he’s showing it."

It's all evidenced by Krug's defensive stats thus far, according to naturalstattrick.com. All the defensive numbers are up compared to last season, or each of the first three seasons to be exact, and although the corsi-for, corsi-against numbers are down because of the shot volume system the Blues are playing where they don't mind the bulk in numbers because of the quadrant d-zone system they're playing in, that's fine because Krug is part of a group determined to build this thing back from the defense out, and it's starting to bear fruit.

It's just taken a little bit of time to learn new assistant coach Mike Weber's system.

"It does for sure. I've played this system most of my career. I've seen it work," Krug said. "I think it takes a buy-in from everyone. It takes everyone a few games to adjust to it, understanding not leaving good ice in the d-zone.

"The other team's going to skate into your zone, you've got to take care of it when it does. I think it took about eight, nine, 10 games. Now it feels like we're off and running. We've got to continue in it and feel confident in it."

The Blues spoke to Krug before the season to wipe the slate clean. It's business, whether someone likes it or not, and with the power to invoke his right to not waive his no-trade clause, that's the direction everyone went.

Park the bus and make the best of the situation that could have grown more tense.

"I think from training camp on, he’s been very competitive and defending extremely well," Berube said. "The offense was going to come at some point. He had a great chance at the end of the first period to score one. They don’t always go in, but like I said, he’s playing pretty solid hockey. The defending side of things, competitive, doing a lot of good things."

But that offense, specifically the passing technique, was on display Tuesday. One to Jordan Kyrou, a stretch pass from one blue line to the other going left to right in stride, and another to Jakub Vrana, a no-look cross seam pass to the right dot for a terrific finish that produced the second and third goals.

"To be honest with you, I'm trying to find these areas," Vrana said. "Sometimes you're going to read it, you're going to go to the net at times, stay there, because that's where the goals are. If you find areas like where you see your teammate can make that play.

"I knew it. He saw me. I was ready for it. It was a great pass. He had his head up all the time. I just looked for that area to find the spot to be there for that pass."

And it was tape to tape perfection.

"He's a very good passer, I will say that," Binnington said of Krug.

"He’s made those for a long time now," Berube said of Krug. "He sees the ice well and makes a lot of good plays like that."

All of this is early in the season, yes, but there's reason for optimism that this commitment is evident, not just from Krug but from the group.

"It's just confidence that if you do make a mistake, there's another layer of defense behind you to put out the fire," Krug said. "It's no secret, if you give guys less time and space to make plays, it's going to be harder for them. If I do get beat, I know 'Faulker' is there or our lower forward is there as well to help in the D-zone. Those added layers definitely gives guys more confidence."