St. Louis... looks bad

[TheBluePenguin]

Lets get that now Flyers pick to 11th Overall please! Keep sucking, but don't suck toooooo much.

lol pretty much the entire game thread last night was trying to figure out if we could suck enough to get in the top 10... I think out only hope is winning the lottery

 

[The Winter Soldier]

Not sure what happened to the Blues, games earlier in the year, they looked awesome to me. Now they are treading water. Yeo effect again?

 

[MN_Gopher]

Yeo did this every year in MN. Still has not figured it out.

 

[Note Worthy]

We'll be fine. Not this year of course and I wouldn't be shocked if next year wasn't a bump in the road but we do have several high end forward prospects and Army knows he has to have a big offseason.

This isn't something where our time is up or anything like that. We're going through a transition year or two before it looks like we'll be back in the playoff picture on a regular basis again.

 

[westc2]

They are really squandering the prime years of some fantastic players and it sucks to see, especially since it’s a great city for hockey. Not sure what’s going on over there but I hope they can figure it out.

They aren't squandering any prime years. The Blues have been a great and competitive team the past several years. They had a bad past couple of months and traded away their 2nd line center but that doesn't mean the team is doomed. We have a great goalie prospect coming up (Husso) and 4 good/great forward prospects who are almost ready to step up into a normal role (Thompson/Thomas/Kyrou/Kostin).

The top 3 of Schenn/Schwartz/Tarasenko are only 25/26 years old.
Pietrangelo is 28.
Edmundson/Parayko are 24.
Fabbri is 22.
Dunn is 21.

The core is still plenty young enough for the team to re-tool a bit and be better than ever.

I don't think Bouwmeester/Steen/Berglund/Sobotka will be hanging around much longer if possible.

 

[westc2]

Mayb e Blues' fans can affirm or negate this:

Yeo, in Minnesota, left the impression that he prefers a very disciplined, structured, defense-first-so-not-give-up-good-chances-and-our-time-will-come philosophy. But, what happened here was that it takes tremendous mental fortitude to play that way for months and months and months. NHL forwards are more accustomed to reacting with instinct toward offensive openings, but the word seemed to be that Yeo tried to instill a greater measure of caution.

And, then, at some point, the players' minds wear down, and they can't concentrate that like for a full year. But, it goes really sour because you have also broken the offensive-reaction response, so offense doesn't come naturally any more, either.

Not able to watch the Blues, but does this seem to describe what's happening?

As a side line--goalie equipment rules and slashing penalty calls have raised average scoring league wide this year. On average, that makes it more difficult to play defense-for-60-minutes, because the rules themselves open up more scoring, making a strict system more of a risk.

Anyone?

Maybe...The Blues major downfall has been their terrible Powerplay. They just can't finish. They'll control the puck well and set up but can't put the puck in the net.

They're still one of the best defensive teams statistically, they just can't score to save their lives on the Powerplay, which is huge, considering they lose so many 1 goal games.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

Well, the team is playing like sieve in all zones at the moment and has extremely passive "leadership."

 

[District 5]

That's a pretty hot take there bud. Seems pretty credible.

Maybe the issue is Yeos decision to stray away from playing Pietrangelo as our top offensive defenseman. His ozs along with Schenn Schwartz and Tarasenko went down 5-10%. We can't score because these so called 'B' players have no help behind them.

Or maybe we should start with the atrocious play of some of our Defenseman. Eddy went down leaving A 50% Jay Bouwmeester, Carl Gunnarsson playing top pairing minutes and Vince Dunn still a rookie taking on a much expanded role.

Maybe next we should think about the black hole that has been rotating of equally offensive inept players that isnour 3rd line. With some of these players having to jump into the top 6 with injuries to Schwartz, Fabbri and the subtraction of Stastny.

Could also be the fact that Allen has been pretty shaky a lot of the year. Yet we have the 4th... probably 7th after tonight best GAA.

Maybe the powerplay could be the issue, which for some reason features a guy walking the puck with nobody moving, waiting for something to miraculously open up.

Is "bud" the worst word that circulates through hfboards?

 

[Lapa]

It's all thanks to Prosser.

 

[BleedBlue14]

Is "bud" the worst word that circulates through hfboards?

Yes right up there with ... looks bad.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

I almost started believing in Yeo with how St Louis was looking, Based on Blues fans comments, I think he is the same coach he was in Minnesota.

 

[Daisy Ridley]

 

[KingBran]

PUT A FORK IN EM!

The Central isn't as tough as you all thought. WPG and NAS are the only real teams in that division.

 

[KingBran]

St. Louis Blues fans have never seen their tragic history or any time they are playing poorly ever linked to Blues music or music referencing the Blues or a Blue state of mind.

What a fresh and interesting take.

 

[Daisy Ridley]

St. Louis Blues fans have never seen their tragic history or any time they are playing poorly ever linked to Blues music or music referencing the Blues or a Blue state of mind.

What a fresh and interesting take.

Easy there guy

 

[PiggySmalls]

It doesn’t help that Yeo’s mindset was too similar to Hitch’s. They gave up on Hitch, once the honeymoon was over with Yeo. They realize he is just a bald, skinny version of Hitch. So I’m honestly not surprised the players have turned on him so quickly.

 

[TK 421]

It doesn’t help that Yeo’s mindset was too similar to Hitch’s. They gave up on Hitch, once the honeymoon was over with Yeo. They realize he is just a bald, skinny version of Hitch. So I’m honestly not surprised the players have turned on him so quickly.

Now for the important question... how long till Armstrong realizes Yeo isn't a good enough coach?

And if he does when will he buyout that contract?

 

[Davimir Tarablad]

The problem started after two games against Edmonton and Minnesota, they played less than stellar games and scored 14 goals combined. They bought into their own hype and stopped putting in a consistent effort or playing for a full 60min outside of a couple games here and there. And it's spiraled completely out of control to where there's little effort and when there is effort, there's no confidence.

 

[CanadianPensFan1]

They aren't squandering any prime years. The Blues have been a great and competitive team the past several years. They had a bad past couple of months and traded away their 2nd line center but that doesn't mean the team is doomed. We have a great goalie prospect coming up (Husso) and 4 good/great forward prospects who are almost ready to step up into a normal role (Thompson/Thomas/Kyrou/Kostin).

The top 3 of Schenn/Schwartz/Tarasenko are only 25/26 years old.
Pietrangelo is 28.
Edmundson/Parayko are 24.
Fabbri is 22.
Dunn is 21.

The core is still plenty young enough for the team to re-tool a bit and be better than ever.

I don't think Bouwmeester/Steen/Berglund/Sobotka will be hanging around much longer if possible.

IT blows my mind that Pietro is only 28. It feels like I have been watching him be awesome for EVER now. Crazy.

 

[fallingquarters]

It's been really sad to watch. They are playing like a bunch of guys that just met who all have the flu. Slow, predictable, and passive as a team. They've usually been able to depend on someone like Schwartz to put the entire team on his back and spark some life back into their game, but that's not happening. And I was letting him get away with it before, but it's really frustrating to watch Vladimir Tarasenko slowly stickhandle against the boards directly into a defender game after game.

If there's any solace to be had, for me as a fan, it's that they seem to have a massive meltdown every year, and always figure it out - to some extent.

 

[PiggySmalls]

Now for the important question... how long till Armstrong realizes Yeo isn't a good enough coach?

And if he does when will he buyout that contract?

Probably be a combination of who is out there that would be a better option and how his contract is structured.

Then you have the revolving door of assistant coaches. I like Sydor, I think he has done a good job with the D Corps. Gunny has looked better the he ever has with the Blues. I’m not a fan of Berube, our offense and PP is too predictable and is very stagnant. The rest of the coaches I don’t have any qualms with.

 

[Burke the Legend]

I still don't get why St Louis gave up on their season when they are right there in a playoff spot. Yeah I know things look miserable in a big losing streak but you still have time to turn it around and get back to something to early season form. Very troubling message sent to fans and players.

 

[BrokenFace]

The teams who acquired those players still haven't won. It's still teams who have developed their own top centers. And that's revisionist history. Only Seguin and Carter have been remarkable since those trades and Carter only after he landed in LA, behind Kopitar. Not only was that trade a disaster for Columbus, the Blues didn't have either a top 10 pick or a young player of Voracek's pedigree at the time to make such a deal. And the Blues were a rebuilding, non-playoff team coming off good seasons for young Backes and Berglund. Criticizing Armstrong for not outbidding Columbus for Carter is madness.

He signed Stastny and tried to acquire Spezza in the same offseason. Other general managers were surprised to hear about the Seguin deal, so it's apparent that he wasn't openly shopped. Would the Blues actually be better if they traded their equivalent of Seth Jones (Parayko) for Johansen? Or Dunn+ for Turris? And, then, what, keep Shattenkirk for a price they can't afford and have a downright terrible defense and an abundance of second-line centers? Nashville could do what they did because they went from fifth best team in the league to fourth worst and gathered extra assets on top of already having Weber, Suter, Josi, Ellis, and Ekholm - a core of players they built before Armstrong was GM of the Blues.

I advocated replacing Armstrong in February last season, so I'm not trying to defend everything he's done. But that particular line of criticism is unreasonable.

My only point was that top 6 centers aren't impossible to acquire. I also don't think it is reasonable to blame these individual centers for their team's lack of success. By that logic you should never trade for or sign any player who never won a cup

 

[Weiss1604]

Look at Schenn's history, which is the norm the first 21 games this year or the last 41...be objective and not listen to the Blues media hype.

Grow up !!!

 

[rumrokh]

My only point was that top 6 centers aren't impossible to acquire. I also don't think it is reasonable to blame these individual centers for their team's lack of success. By that logic you should never trade for or sign any player who never won a cup

That's not the logic; the logic is context. Armstrong is necessarily working from a formula that hasn't produced results, yet. Somebody will very likely come along and win without developing their own elite centers, but through Armstrong's tenure, he's been short a top-6 center twice: the year before signing Stastny and last year, after Backes left. He addressed it both times by signing Stastny and acquiring Schenn. It did take him a full season to do it, so maybe that's a flaw. Maybe somebody was available each time. Maybe he offered to overpay and there were no takers. But those other centers acquired by other teams mostly haven't been better than what the Blues have had - or have outright not fit their situations. You can't gloss over the context.