Scoring a highlight reel goal does not excuse missing an absolute gift. He absolutely has to score that. You rarely get chances that wide open in the playoffs, and if you want to win you better put them away.
As I said go back and watch the play. It was not an easy play and most guys miss that. Of course the Goal he scored meant nothing. If he doesn't score that Goal does the 'easy' miss (as you call it) even matter?
What exactly is your point here? Armstrong has gotten lambasted on these boards for that trade. I can at least commend him for attempting to make the team better instead of sitting on his hands and doing nothing.
So now you get credit for just trying? I guess the players just didn't try did they?
Hey teacher. I made an attempt to do really well on that test I flunked.
So you would fire Ken Hitchcock after last year's playoffs? There's not a smart GM in the league that would have done that. In case you missed it, Gary Angew is gone. Care to guess who ran the powerplay? Hitch has been put on notice. He's on a one year deal, and this is make or break for him. Who exactly would you replace him with?
You are the one who brought up the coaching staff not adjusting. Not me.
The players are just as accountable as the coaching staff and management. For all our complaining about Armstrong, this team was up 2-0 on the Hawks. If you're good enough to win the first 2 games, you are good enough to win 2 of the next four. They players deserve to get called on their inability to go for the kill.
Obviously they haven't the past 2 years have they? Much tougher to win the 3rd & 4th game than the first 2.
You can call out the players all you want. When it happens 2 years in a row and have not won a road game in 3 straight series it becomes a pattern. It's the GMs job to change that pattern. Has he done it? The results sure don't say he has.
You did by acting like the players and coaching staff weren't responsible at all, and that it was entirely on Armstrong because, in some apparently alternate universe, the GM controls every single little thing that happens.
The GM controls the coaching staff & the players. The 2 very items you have complained about.
The GM is the guy in charge. If the product fails it is on him regardless if one likes it or not.
Have you even bothered to read this board before you make ridiculous posts?
Yep. ridiculous because I don't give the guy in charge a free pass or make excuses for him like yourself.
Armstrong has gotten absolutely raked over the coals on this very point since we got knocked out.
and yet you defend him.
Do you expect every single move a GM makes to work out? That's totally unrealistic.
Nope. What is unrealistic is thinking the GM has nothing to do with the final product.
He didn't have plenty of prospects. Our pool has never been that deep. We've had some top notch prospects, and they don't stay prospects long because we promote them quickly.
Ummmm. I guess all those ratings in years past when the Blues were at or near the top in prospect ratings didn't matter?
They had prospects & picks. Those are called assets.
Complaining about the first in the EJ trade is pointless. We still got Rattie out of that draft, and he was a first round talent. Anybody who complains about the Bouwmeester trade is clueless. He's given up exactly one first round pick that people can complain about. That's not some travesty.
Complaining? Those are actually facts. The facts are he has traded 3 of the last 5 first round draft picks the Blues have had. Again...what do we have to show for them?
Why could the Blues not have signed Bouwmeester as a FA? He traded a 2nd & 5th rd pick for another soft defensemen a couple days earlier. What has done for that in the Playoffs the last 2 years?
You seem to avoid the question. In what way has this team performed better with Armstrong at the reigns? I guess going 4-12 in your last 3 playoff series against lower ranked teams is acceptable for a GM.
