St. Louis Blues Reaching Critical Mass...Again
The St. Louis Blues put in another embarrassing performance against the Los Angeles Kings. They may have reached the point where something drastic needs to be done…again.
The St. Louis Blues failed to show up again. Just about anything that can go wrong is going wrong with this team short of them having a string of injries – that’s next I’m sure.
The Blues just can’t get anything to go right at the moment. They do just enough right to win a game here or there so as the losing streaks are never more than a game or two, but their overall play is just pitiful right now.
They are getting bad goaltending from both Jake Allen and Carter Hutton. For me to admit that is tough because I have been such a staunch supporter and defender of both, Allen in particular.
I even wrote a piece talking about how Allen is nowhere near as bad as anyone wants to believe. That blew up in my face against the Kings as the second goal allowed was pretty much all on him. It was deflected, as just about all goals against are these days, but he has to save that shot.
However, the entire game cannot be placed on his shoulders. There is absolutely no fight or pushback by this team right now.
The Blues had eight shots on goal through 40 minutes of play against Los Angeles. They had two shots on goal in the first period the prior game against Boston.
Their powerplay is beyond inept at the moment. Against the Kings, they had zero shots on their first two powerplays. The same was true of the last powerplay against Boston.
Defensively, they just don’t have a clue. Nobody wants to even attempt skating with someone or putting a body through the opponent. In the Kings loss, other than the fourth line, Nail Yakupov was the most physical player. That tells you all you need to know.
It’s all just waving the stick around like a blind man. In fact, I’m pretty sure a blind man (or woman) might actually have more luck at knocking the puck off someone’s stick than the Blues do defensively.
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The Blues just can’t string anything positive together. Their longest win streak is four this season. That’s nothing to sneeze at, but when a team in the division strung together more than 10, it just is not good enough.
Nothing is going right. Even Vladimir Tarasenko is part of the problem as he has now gone two consecutive games without even a shot.
The problem is the Blues are simply unwilling to put in the work. They claim to realize what they need to do following every bad performance and yet there is nothing changed game to game. Once in a blue moon we have a solid game, such as the Winter Classic but those are too few and far between.
So, the team seems to have reached a point of critical mass again. We were all more than willing to do whatever necessary to change things back in mid-November and the situation seems that dire right now as well.
The issue is there is no clear path as to what to change. Coach? Players? General Manager?
The last one probably doesn’t make any sense until the summer. Martin Broduer is not ready to lead the team.
I have never been on the fire Ken Hitchcock bandwagon and still am not. I am now willing to entertain the idea of a coaching change just for the spark though.
The problem is the parts of the team the other guys are in charge of are just as terrible. I can understand the argument that Yeo is going along with Hitch’s plan for five-on-five play, but he is in charge of the powerplay. That unit can’t even shoot the puck anymore. You cannot score if you do not shoot.
Rick Wilson has done nothing positive for the defenders. If anything, the unit has regressed and have the exact same group as last season.
None of that is to say a coaching change might not work. It’s just not guaranteed to make a difference since the current staff is clearly part of the problem as well.
Last, but definitely not least, there could be some personnel changes. The issue there is who to trade and what can you get in return?
There are the obvious names that fans want to get rid of, but there isn’t a large market for underperforming players in return for what we want. The Blues are at a point now where other teams are likely looking to take advantage of them.
I did not have a huge problem keeping Kevin Shattenkirk during the summer, but it appears to be the wrong decision. Shattenkirk has been ok offensively, but bad defensively and now the rest of the league might not be as desperate to acquire his services.
Jori Lehtera needs to go. His contract and current stats make any deal almost impossible.
Regardless of what anyone thinks about Jake Allen, a trade for a goaltender is just dumb. People can clamor for a superstar in net all they want, but that’s just jamming a round peg in the square hole. If you push hard enough it will fit, but it doesn’t fill the entire need.
The Blues need to make some sort of change though. Maybe bring some of the AHL players up for a week to get some energy in there.
It would be sad to see someone from this team go. Individually, there isn’t anyone that stands out as a culprit but as a unit things just are not working.
The Blues cannot continue to hope the switch will magically be flipped. Even the most loyal and cautious of us are to the point where we just want to win and if a drastic change would help, so be it.
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