Thursday, Nov. 05, 2009

Sydor providing a veteran presence on defense

He's striving to set example for young teammates

ST. LOUIS -- Signed as insurance against the uncertainty of veteran defenseman Eric Brewer's return from back surgery, Darryl Sydor continues be a source of dividends for the St. Louis Blues.

Brewer has returned, but the Blues have been without defensemen Barret Jackman and Carlo Colaiacovo for extended periods because of injury and illness.

Sydor has found a home alongside defense prodigy Erik Johnson and in recent games has been seeing time on the power play. He's also handled penalty-kill duties all season while providing what Blues coach Andy Murray called "another voice of reason" in the dressing room -- and on an extremely young defense unit.

"Working with young players, it keeps you young too and keeps you on a learning curve," said the 37-year-old Sydor. "I had guys like Charlie Huddy and Tim Waters, Mike Lalor and Craig Ludwig, that helped me out when I was younger.

"It's the experience I have that I can give back."

The Blues brought Sydor in on a tryout basis, but that tryout soon turned into a one-year, $1 million contract.

"It was just that I had an opportunity," said Sydor, who won a pair of Stanley Cup championships before coming to St. Louis. "I took all the preseason games and practices like it was Game 7 of the finals, it was do or die. This is the one chance I had, so I had to make the best of it."

Through 12 games, Sydor has two assists and a plus-minus rating of plus-4.

"It's nice to know you're playing with a stalwart guy back there that's been in the league for so long and won two Stanley Cups," Johnson said. "He's been a great influence on me back there. He gives me that comfort zone to be able to join the rush and stay up in the offense."

Brewer has returned, giving the Blues some much-needed experience on defense.

"It's great to see Brewer back," Sydor said. "He's our captain, he's a leader and it's good to see him back."

The Blues roster still includes a rookie in 19-year-old Alex Pietrangelo, a second-year player in Johnson that missed all of last season because of injury, and more youth with Roman Polak (23) and Colaiacovo (26).

"Petro's been thrown into it and Erik Johnson's had to play a pile of minutes," Murray said. "We can only hope the playing time they're getting right now is going to help us --and help themselves -- down the road."

Sydor will do whatever he's asked, but enjoys being such a big part of the mix.

"I'm not going to reinvent the wheel or anything like that," he said. "I know what's expected of myself, and I put pressure on myself to be the Darryl Sydor that I can be. I've been around some good leaders and I've tried to learn from them.

"Every year is a learning experience."

Just as it for Johnson, now in his second NHL season. He's off to a good start offensively with seven assists in 12 games, but is still working on a lot of areas.

"Erik has had phases where he's been good, and other phases where he looks like a young player who missed a year of hockey," Murray said. "He's playing a lot of minutes and he's had good moments."