Krug sucked last night. Trade the bum.
Seriously though, I’m going to cringe when the Blues get unceremoniously punked in the playoffs and all we have to show for it is a new three-year deal for our coach. His shelf-life is uncertain and his team has been stale since the Covid-shutdown. Stillman and Army are too loyal to think it was a possibility; but I’d have fired Chief before giving him three more years…but would have postponed any decision until after the playoffs were over.
Does Berube get any credit for the development of Kyrou and Thomas, among others?
I expected his teams to be defensive grinders, and we’ve seen plenty of that style over the years. The Blues play more of an offensively creative game than I expected. It’s really fun to watch when it’s on. But they seem to have lost their ability to play suffocating defense as a 5-man unit. It’s hard to watch them get outshot and outchanced period after period. The amount of offensive talent allows them to overcome that with a better shooting percentage. That’s not just good luck shooting, it’s better talent. But I don’t see this as a style that will translate to the postseason.
They have a few weeks to batten down the hatches and relearn the type of shot suppression that served them during the Cup run. I think Leddy can help there. If Berube can’t get them to do that any better than they are now, I doubt he’ll ever coach a contending team in St Louis again.
Mayeb when all is said and done, the Cup run will end up just being a glorious confluence of improbabilities where Binnington played over his head and Berube pushed the right buttons at the right times like an evil genius….but turned out not to be one after all. I can live with that, but I still think this year’s team has a level within reach which could stir things up in the postseason. Colorado is a pretty high bar though, and a lot of very good teams may not be able to beat them.