St. Louis Blues Player To Watch vs. Winnipeg Jets: Philip Broberg

Philip Broberg's dive back into the lineup for the St. Louis Blues lineup was a welcomed sight.

The defenseman missed 12 games with a right knee injury sustained Nov. 2 against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and when Jim Montgomery said, "You got a horse, you let the horse run," the Blues coach wasn't kidding.

Broberg played the second-most minutes of the season (24:08) against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday; he and Justin Faulk (25:35) led Blues defensemen in ice time and will undoubtedly be relied upon to alleviate some of the extra ice time that the Ryan Suter-Colton Parayko pair has accumulating.

"A lot of it has to do with in-game," Montgomery said. "And also the other two have been playing so many minutes, we want to try and balance some of those out a little bit."

Broberg had a season-high three shots on goal and went without a point for only the fourth time in 13 games, but he will increase his responsibilities, starting with tonight's game against the Winnipeg Jets and as quarterback of the second power play unit, his offensive production should increase.

"I think you could tell he's someone that's going to drastically improve the team like he did early in the year," Montgomery said. "I think there was a little rustiness there, just in how quickly he was doing things, whether it was killing plays or jumping. But I really thought in the third period, we really started to see him go north with the puck and use his feet to defend or add numbers to the offense."