THUNDER BAY – Robert Bortuzzo is still trying to find his place in the NHL.
The rugged, stay-at-home defenceman thinks he’s getting closer – and he may be right.
The 27-year-old, playing his first full season for the St. Louis Blues, saw action in all three rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs, after dressing for just 40 games during the regular season.
That’s a great sign the Blues, who had a crowded and talented blue-line in 2015-16, have plenty of confidence in Bortuzzo, who they acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2015 for fellow defenceman Ian Cole.
“It was a great year. Fortunately for myself I’ve been on two pretty good hockey teams here. Sometimes that hurts you coming into the lineup, but it was nice to get in. I played in all three playoff series this year and we had a lot of good team success,” said Bortuzzo, who collected two goals and one assist with the Blues this past season and has seven goals and 18 assists in 166 career NHL games.
The former Fort William North Star, who this will be joined by ex-junior teammate and close friend Carter Hutton in the Gateway to the West, said getting to the Western Conference final was a great achievement, but the loss to the San Jose Sharks still stings.
The Blues haven’t been in a Stanley Cup final since 1970, the year Bobby Orr scored the championship-winning goal and was captured on film flying through the air in celebration in hockey’s most famous photograph.
St. Louis captured the series opener and tied the set 2-2 in Game 4, but the Sharks, who would go on to lose the Stanley Cup final to the Penguins, scored three-goal wins in Games 5 and 6 to advance.
It was disappointing, Bortuzzo.
“Any time you lose out it’s emotionally tough, but any time you make it that far there’s a little more stink to it,” he said.
“Everyone knows the Western Conference is so deep and talented. Our first two rounds were wars. We didn’t get some breaks, San Jose played well at the right time and that’s sports. But we did a lot of great things and we can carry it into next year.”
It’ll be a different Blues team that opens the 2016-17 campaign on Oct. 12 against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Forward Troy Bouwer and goalie Brian Elliott left for Calgary, while captain David Backes shipped out to Boston.
Bortuzzo admitted the losses were tough, but thinks the team can overcome them.
“Like most teams you’re going to have to make those adjustments. We lost a big piece in our captain, but having said that we have a lot of young core guys and a lot of talent and a lot of veteran guys who have been around a long time to step up and take on bigger roles,” he said.
“Hopefully that’ll lead to better things moving forward.”
The addition of Hutton is great, he added.
“Obviously he’s done great things in Nashville and we had a lot of fun playing for the North Stars. I was just a 15-year-old and he was the veteran, teaching me the ropes,” Bortuzzo said. “But it definitely makes my job easier as a defenceman having a guy like that back there.
"He’s going to fit in great and it should be a lot of fun.”
