I suggest you watch the first goal from the LA game again.
Your weird anti-Hitch Euro agenda is getting old.
If you mean the Blues' first goal, then sure, Ott makes a nice pass to Tarasenko. That assist is 17% of his production. And he still, as of yet, has no goals in a Blues jersey.
But hey, his 0.2 points per game, despite being given Power Play time, along with time with basically every single skill player on our team, totally defends the position that he should see more ice time with our best scorer.
That assist also drug him out of a minus rating, so good, not only does Tarasenko put the teams' position in the standings on his back, but also Steve Ott's +/- rating. Neat.
Meanwhile, Paajarvi should just put up or shut up. Being on a line with Raves and Lapierre once ever 3 games affords him oh-so-many chances.
I don't have an anti-Hitch Euro agenda. Hitch has an anti-Euro agenda. And the sooner Blues fans figure that out, the sooner we can bring in a coach who can actually take this team to the next level. Until then, we're not utilizing the ability the roster has, and we'll continue to be bounced by the contenders in the league come play off time.
Hitchcock is wayyyyy out to lunch on so many facets of this team. We win in spite of him, not because of him.
He called Steve Ott the best player ont he team in our series against Chicago for Christ's sakes!
Hitchcock was great for this team a few years ago, after Payne. I was pleasantly surprised in the players' response to him. But now, he's clearly out of ideas, and reverting to old, bad habits.
Paajarvi was touted in 2009 as one of the best prospects of that Draft. And you can tell me he busted, but that simply is absolutely not true. He got sent to Edmonton, the prospect graveyard, and then to us, where he was never given a chance to actually play the game.
Paajarvi doesn't have a high instinct with this team because he hasn't been given the chance to. We complain about line switching with Hitchcock from time to time, but if the fact that he's had different players on his line all year is being explained away for Stastny's lack of success... then how come we can't afford to give the same courtesy to Paajarvi when he hasn't had any players to play with because he doesn't play!
We give mulligans to Backes for not producing. We give mulligans to Stastny for not producing. To Oshie and Steen and Berglund and half the other repeat-losers on this team. But the young blood, the new talent, the guys who maybe could change things from our repeat pattern of failure? No chance given to them at all.
It's a trend of failure. And it's because of a lack coaching prowess.
I know, this is in the wrong thread. And I know, there are legions of Blues fans who have given up on Paajarvi. And just as many fans who will defend Hitchcock until we exit the playoffs in the first round until our Cup window closes.
I've seen a lot of losers come through St. Louis in my time as a fan. And more times than not, me calling them like I see them is accurate.
Hitchcock is no longer a winner here. Paajarvi could be one if given a chance. In my opinion, of course.
Disagree with me, fine. Call it hubris of me to say that, fine. Tell me I'm in the wrong thread, double fine.
But I don't have an anti-Hitch agenda, or a pro-European agenda.
I have a pro-St. Louis Blues agenda. And I've waited damn long for a team with as much ability as this to come around. And I'm not okay with squandering what we have. Which is what I see Hitchcock doing, and what I've been seeing him do.
It's easy, very easy, to just shrug your shoulders, say this is good enough, and comfort yourself with our record in the regular season right now. But if you're not seeing some fundamental flaws in our team, that Hitchock is exacerbating, then I can't help you because I keep pointing them out.
Skill wins Championships. Paajarvi has skill. We should be molding him into a player for this roster, not dismissing him to the press box or to a line where Steve Ott belongs. Speaking of which...
Skill wins Championships. Steve Ott has no skill. We should be dismissing him to the pressbox or to a line where he belongs, not playing him with skill players in some misguided effort to validate our preconceived notions about how good it is to have some intangible ideals like tenacity or toughness or any other stupid non-existent, immeasurable reason why we're going to keep skill players off the roster.
Ott is being shuffled around the line-up because Hitchcock is desperate to validate his need to be in the line-up. Armstrong is letting Hitch do this because Armstrong is desperate to validate giving Ott as much money as he did in the off-season, when it was a knee-jerk reaction and the obvious wrong one. The Blues PR people are desperate to make Ott look good however they can, which is why, from the stars of the game, to Darren Pang, you'll hear them praise Ott, and never come down on him. And they're desperate to do that because their boss told them to.
And I'm tired of that. I don't care if you made a bad signing. I don't care for your desperate needs to validate ****** players. I just want a God damn Championship. To hell with my pride, your pride, and anyone's pride. If it means sitting $3 million in the press box and giving that European kid some ice time, then do it.
Because skill wins. Not body checks. This organization would have 20 Stanley Cups if that hard-hitting, grinding, mucking, low-skill, high-intensity, "put the Check back in the Checkerdome", "Twist and Chase", "Blues Hockey" was a winning formula.
But it's not. Datsyuk and Zetterberg are the blueprint for a Championship. Crosby and Malkin are. Toews and Kane are.
I'm tired of the futility, and I'm tired of obviously bad decision making.
Tired enough to piss and moan aimlessly for this long on a message board.
