I wrote on Twitter last night that, after a conversation with Blues President John Davidson, I could see a case building for Darryl Sydor and Alex Pietrangelo to make the roster.

While I am not diminishing the chances of Tyson Strachan or Jonas Junland making the club, I was further convinced after a chat with Blues coach Andy Murray today that the team is leaning towards Sydor and Pietrangelo.

“I think we all knew how Darryl would play coming in here, and he’s kind of played that way,” Murray said. ”Now we have to determine if that’s enough, and what the leadership factor is.”

When asked about Sydor’s minus-3 rating in training camp, Murray said: “I would discount the stats because I think there was only one goal that he was at fault on. Two of the goals here against Dallas, he had nothing to do with. When we do our (plus-minus ratings), we look at the guys that were directly involved. That way we try to be real accurate. I think three of the four goals-against, he had nothing to do with.”

Later, when talking about Pietrangelo, Murray said: “In all of our eyes, he’s so much better than he was last year . . . I think (this camp) is night and day from how he played in Peoria at the end of the year. I didn’t think he played very good in Peoria. When I watched him play down there, I thought based on that, unless there was a huge improvement this summer with his strength and competitiveness, that he was probably destined to play in junior again. To his credit, he came in and worked really hard this summer. He was OK in our development camp (in June), he was better in Traverse City (in early September), and then he’s been even better with us here.

“I think (Pietrangelo) is a guy that when there’s more structure in a game, some guys look better. He’s one of those guys, and a lot of players are like that, they look better at this level.”

Murray went on to say that, at this point, the Blues are looking for the defenseman who might not be the best player at his position, but he makes the team better for different reasons.

“Who makes our other players better . . . the team chemistry element, the experience factor . . . how does that all weight into it?” Murray said. “What kind of player do we need at this point, not just the best player. We’ve got good players. What fits our team at this point?”

In addition to Sydor and Pietrangelo, Strachan and Junland are still in camp. Strachan played his best game Sunday in Colorado. Meanwhile, Junland has played only one game. How has he managed to stay in camp despite playing only one game?

“We were happy with his first game,” Murray said. “We felt there was a decision to be made between some of those other guys, and the idea was we’d have a look at Junland with this top group (that’s left on the roster).”

So Strachan and Junland still have time, but the way it’s shaping up, Sydor and Pietrangelo will be on the opening-night roster.

By the way, for up-to-the-minute Blues’ news, you can follow me on Twitter at Twitter.com/jprutherford.

JR