New Year Predictions

[AjaxManifesto]

1) Petro traded for high potential younger players at TDL.

2) ROR becomes captain.

3) DA fired at the end of season.

4) Blues get 3rd pick in the lottery. Chicago gets #1, LA gets #2.


It's all good. The product currently sucks even though on paper the ingredients look good. The players are mentally defeated, the culture is rotten, there is no identity, the system is broken.

We need a massive overhaul in attitude and leadership.

Click to read more...

 

[ConnorMcMullet]

1) Petro traded for high potential younger players at TDL.

2) ROR becomes captain.

3) DA fired at the end of season.

4) Blues get 3rd pick in the lottery. Chicago gets #1, LA gets #2.


It's all good. The product currently sucks even though on paper the ingredients look good. The players are mentally defeated, the culture is rotten, there is no identity, the system is broken.

We need a massive overhaul in attitude and leadership.

Not a Blues fan, but I could see all of those happening.

 

[Reality Czech]

As I've said before, we have no proven winners on our team. No experienced veterans who can lead by example. I'd make that a priority for next year. Find a grizzled vet with lots of playoff experience to guilt these guys into playing harder. Someone like Erik Staal would be a nice add.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

If Armstrong is going to be fired, I'd rather it happen now. Why fire him AFTER he hires the next coach? The next GM would need time to assess the team, negotiate trades. The end of the season, the draft is already upon you and there is little time to make deals.

 

[AjaxManifesto]

1) Petro traded for high potential younger players at TDL.

2) ROR becomes captain.

3) DA fired at the end of season.

4) Blues get 3rd pick in the lottery. Chicago gets #1, LA gets #2.


It's all good. The product currently sucks even though on paper the ingredients look good. The players are mentally defeated, the culture is rotten, there is no identity, the system is broken.

We need a massive overhaul in attitude and leadership.

Revisions:
1) Petro and/or Tank traded for high potential younger players at TDL.
3) DA fired at the end of the year (2018).

 

[Ghost of Ethan Hunt]

Hello fellow hockey fans...Red Wings fan here, coming in peace. I picked the Blues to be a top 3 WConf. team this year behind NSH & WPG, and have thought they'd be a WC finalist the last ~5 seasons. On paper you guys look great & I was so jealous of the ROR trade...so I just wanna know from Blues fans/insiders perspective, what happened? (Besides sub-par goaltending). I don't need a long novel answer, just a short summary, i.e., underperforming vets, special teams, no transition game, slow team, negative team culture etc. Thanks & best of luck salvaging your season. P.S. I hope you don't trade Petro & or Parayko as you have the pieces to make a run & it would be a knee-jerk reaction imo, but if you do, the Wings would gladly take them (as would any team). Besides, it's not likely you'd get fair value.

Also did the loss of Shattenkirk ~2 yrs. ago effect the team adversely? That Top4 of Petro/Shatty/Parayko & a still decent minute muncher JBo was imho the best in the league the time they were together.

 

[Mike Liut]

Hello fellow hockey fans...Red Wings fan here, coming in peace. I picked the Blues to be a top 3 WConf. team this year behind NSH & WPG, and have thought they'd be a WC finalist the last ~5 seasons. On paper you guys look great & I was so jealous of the ROR trade...so I just wanna know from Blues fans/insiders perspective, what happened? (Besides sub-par goaltending). I don't need a long novel answer, just a short summary, i.e., underperforming vets, special teams, no transition game, slow team, negative team culture etc. Thanks & best of luck salvaging your season. P.S. I hope you don't trade Petro & or Parayko as you have the pieces to make a run & it would be a knee-jerk reaction imo, but if you do, the Wings would gladly take them (as would any team). Besides, it's not likely you'd get fair value.

Also did the loss of Shattenkirk ~2 yrs. ago effect the team adversely? That Top4 of Petro/Shatty/Parayko & a still decent minute muncher JBo was imho the best in the league the time they were together.

Really hard to say the exact cause of it. Early in the season, we were scoring but the goaltending was bad. The past 10-12 games, the goaltending has been good (except for today) but we arent scoring. Injuries to Schwartz, Fabbri and Pietrangelo aren’t helping. And no, this has nothing to do with Shatty. Also, the coaching and team structure isn’t good. We fired Yeo and have an interim in place. Until we get a real coach and a real system, we are going to continue to suck. We are all hoping for a top 3 pick and with a few tweaks, we will be back in the playoffs next year. We have a great core and several top prospects.

 

[izzy]

id trade tarasenko but not petro

i get he hasnt been that great this year but its noticeable how much hes actually missed when hes out even when hes having this poor season. i dont have confidence in parayko being that guy like i used to.

but some other players definitely need to be moved. only forwards id not want to see leave are ROR and schwartz. basically anyone else can go

 

[Ghost of Ethan Hunt]

Really hard to say the exact cause of it. Early in the season, we were scoring but the goaltending was bad. The past 10-12 games, the goaltending has been good (except for today) but we arent scoring. Injuries to Schwartz, Fabbri and Pietrangelo aren’t helping. And no, this has nothing to do with Shatty. Also, the coaching and team structure isn’t good. We fired Yeo and have an interim in place. Until we get a real coach and a real system, we are going to continue to suck. We are all hoping for a top 3 pick and with a few tweaks, we will be back in the playoffs next year. We have a great core and several top prospects.

Thanks for the write up. Wings have been in a rebuild for 3 yrs now, or "retool on the fly" for ~5 mainly b/c we didn't have the core pieces that you guys have. So it'd be premature to pull the plug on the Blues season & certainly way too early to call for a rebuild of any type imo. I've been reading a few of the Blues threads today and see suggestions like "trade core pieces...Petro, Schenn, Schwartz & even ROR iirc etc." which is crazy to me, all that does is perpetuate the problem & prolong the cup drought. The Blues are closer to a cup than most Blues fans/Mgmt. seem to realize, especially with all the core pieces under 30/in their prime, it's just finding the right formula & turning that corner which is the tricky part.

 

[Pizza!Pizza!]

1) Petro traded for high potential younger players at TDL.

2) ROR becomes captain.

3) DA fired at the end of season.

4) Blues get 3rd pick in the lottery. Chicago gets #1, LA gets #2.


It's all good. The product currently sucks even though on paper the ingredients look good. The players are mentally defeated, the culture is rotten, there is no identity, the system is broken.

We need a massive overhaul in attitude and leadership.

I think if you replace Petro with Tank then #3 doesn't happen as long as the return is good. However if Taratanko is still on the team come July 1 when his NTC kicks in, then I believe Armstrong will be fired. Prior to then it's hard to see that happening because Armstrong's ability to pull off amazing trades is exactly what the team needs to rebuild on the fly. Petro does need to be moved, but there's bigger fish to fry at defense (and goaltending).

If Armstrong is worth a bag of used pucks he's been on the phone with Phoenix since about 5 mins after the Raanta injury was announced. Arizona is chock-ful of young, skilled, fast defensemen and just got handed a one way ticket to compete with Chicago for #Lose4Hughes - which is not something they want since the franchise has been struggling for awhile.

If I were Army I would try to pull off a few bombshells. Allen to Arizona for D+pick. Tarasenko to anyone willing to trade an NHL goalie for him. Steen+picks to Toronto for Nylander (their fans are bitching about needing strength). As much as the Blues don't need another 6million 3rd liner --- they could probably do a swap with CGY at this point - Neal+picks for JBO and that would solve the leadership problem and not look too bad from a PR standpoint since JBO had a lot of good years with the flames and could 'retire' with them in the offseason. Plus there's always a chance that Neal could find his game and actually score a few goals again over the next half decade :-(. It probably wouldn't save this season and longterm could be detrimental if Nylander doesn't live up to his hype or the goalie Tank gets moved for pulls a 'Turek', but it would at least make them more competitive and interesting to watch for the next year or two. If nothing else it would be a sign to the fans that the management actually gives a shit and is willing to try something - because staying the course and hiring more former Dallas Stars to the front office isn't working.

 

[Ghost of Ethan Hunt]

Hello fellow hockey fans...Red Wings fan here, coming in peace. I picked the Blues to be a top 3 WConf. team this year behind NSH & WPG, and have thought they'd be a WC finalist the last ~5 seasons. On paper you guys look great & I was so jealous of the ROR trade...so I just wanna know from Blues fans/insiders perspective, what happened? (Besides sub-par goaltending). I don't need a long novel answer, just a short summary, i.e., underperforming vets, special teams, no transition game, slow team, negative team culture etc. Thanks & best of luck salvaging your season. P.S. I hope you don't trade Petro & or Parayko as you have the pieces to make a run & it would be a knee-jerk reaction imo, but if you do, the Wings would gladly take them (as would any team). Besides, it's not likely you'd get fair value.

Also did the loss of Shattenkirk ~2 yrs. ago effect the team adversely? That Top4 of Petro/Shatty/Parayko & a still decent minute muncher JBo was imho the best in the league the time they were together.

So I thought the Blues were a top 3 WC team the last 5 yrs, nice to see them pull off the comeback, while proving to myself I'm not crazy/delusional. Best of luck to y'all.

 

[Ghost of Ethan Hunt]

Hello fellow hockey fans...Red Wings fan here, coming in peace. I picked the Blues to be a top 3 WConf. team this year behind NSH & WPG, and have thought they'd be a WC finalist the last ~5 seasons. On paper you guys look great & I was so jealous of the ROR trade...so I just wanna know from Blues fans/insiders perspective, what happened? (Besides sub-par goaltending). I don't need a long novel answer, just a short summary, i.e., underperforming vets, special teams, no transition game, slow team, negative team culture etc. Thanks & best of luck salvaging your season. P.S. I hope you don't trade Petro & or Parayko as you have the pieces to make a run & it would be a knee-jerk reaction imo, but if you do, the Wings would gladly take them (as would any team). Besides, it's not likely you'd get fair value.

Also did the loss of Shattenkirk ~2 yrs. ago effect the team adversely? That Top4 of Petro/Shatty/Parayko & a still decent minute muncher JBo was imho the best in the league the time they were together.

^^ Even in preseason, I had a feeling the Blues were due as SC Finalist...Blues win CUP in 6, they win Gm 1, 2, 4, 6

 

[Brockon]

Thanks for the write up. Wings have been in a rebuild for 3 yrs now, or "retool on the fly" for ~5 mainly b/c we didn't have the core pieces that you guys have. So it'd be premature to pull the plug on the Blues season & certainly way too early to call for a rebuild of any type imo. I've been reading a few of the Blues threads today and see suggestions like "trade core pieces...Petro, Schenn, Schwartz & even ROR iirc etc." which is crazy to me, all that does is perpetuate the problem & prolong the cup drought. The Blues are closer to a cup than most Blues fans/Mgmt. seem to realize, especially with all the core pieces under 30/in their prime, it's just finding the right formula & turning that corner which is the tricky part.

Dare we dream? What a 180 in 6 short months since this initial post...

 

[Ghost of Ethan Hunt]

Dare we dream? What a 180 in 6 short months since this initial post...

From a Wings fan 1st, Islanders 2nd, congrats to the Blues for the SCF. STL was like our younger brother (you fight, usually win) during our glory years & they're finally in the big show, good for them. 28-8-5 since last place on JAN 3rd is insane, same roster, new goalie, wow impressive.

Binnington MVP Conn Smythe