Let's Go Blues

http://interact.stltoday.com/blogzone/m ... -in-goals/

I didn't realize it was this bad... I mean, knew it was bad, but THIS bad?

It's not just that the Blues are the lowest scoring team. Look at the gaps between the other teams. The biggest dropoff between two teams is what.. 24? And most of the gaps are less then 10... that is, until you get to the Blues who have a 67 goal drop from the team in front of them.

Ugh.

Christ almighty. I thought Florida, Phoenix or Edmonton would have been lower than us.

To be honest, I'm not really shocked about this.

Please forward to Davidson, John.

And that is with a whole bunch of guys over achieving last year.

pathetic

Not really that surprising, considering we sucked really bad under Kitchen and then decided to rebuild and the veteran guys aren't/weren't putting up the numbers they used to.

Kind of the perfect storm on offense...all the fit hit the shan at once.

What do you expect when you haven't had a truly legitimate goal scorer on your team?

ViPeRx007 wrote:What do you expect when you haven't had a truly legitimate goal scorer on your team?

Bring back the 20th century Blues!!

Portland Blues wrote:Bring back the 20th century Blues!!

++ i miss it

Soooooooo, elephant in the room question……..

When does JD start taking some blame for this? He took over in 06 and under his watch we have averaged 24th in goals per game and last year was the only time we cracked the top twenty and we hardly did that at 19th.

He’s a great guy and easily accessible, but at this point his resume is pretty bad. How much longer does he get to blame the previous regime? This is our fourth season under his control.

JD started with shit for a talent base, dwindling attendance, and a tight budget. Not saying he made all the right decisions on how to spend his limited resources (see Jackman, Brewer, Kariya, McKee), but this wasn't a real attractive stop for UFA either. He at least deserves a chance when the team is a playoff contender playing in front of sell out crowds, to spend the money coming off the books this off season.

Leedog wrote:JD started with shit for a talent base, dwindling attendance, and a tight budget. Not saying he made all the right decisions on how to spend his limited resources (see Jackman, Brewer, Kariya, McKee), but this wasn't a real attractive stop for UFA either. He at least deserves a chance when the team is a playoff contender playing in front of sell out crowds, to spend the money coming off the books this off season.

Agreed, I wasn't saying can him.

It was a question. When is the honeymoon over? When should we 'expect' results? He's done his job of making the Blues relevant in St. Louis culture again and he's done a great job selling tickets. I was merely asking when others feel he should actually get results on the ice.

Hell, personally I hadn’t even considered it because it seems like just yesterday that he’s taken over, but it had been suggested to me by more and more fans at the games and when I started to think about it and looked into the numbers it did raise an eyebrow.

Just asking what everyone else thinks his time frame should be. I haven’t even come up with an answer myself as of yet.

that little tid bit of info means very little.....the blues haven't made the playoffs but once in that stretch, they finished dead last a couple years back. is that at all surprising? if you lose games, you score less than your opponent....if you are the worst team in the league, you probably have had more games than any other team where you scored less than your opponent.

paging doogie howser

There are posts at the Asylum already questioning JD. I think, by and large, he's made several good moves here (including the Tkachuk and Guerin trades in '07 that landed us a few first rounders), signing Kariya (at the time, because that was a HUGE signing in terms of bringing fans interest back. Sure, the price was high, the on ice product has been a disappointment, but you can't lay all of the blame on JD for that), the Doug Weight trade that brought us Andy McDonald, the Stempy for Steen/Cola trade, etc.

I'm not saying everything he did has turned to gold. But really, in terms of rebuilding, he's put butts in seats quicker than most franchises after we had the rough '05-'06 season. But the key is that the front office has always asked fans for patience, and time, to allow the young guys to develop. They've had to fast track some of them, whereas a guy like Polak had some time in the AHL and has publicly admitted he's much better for it. It's a balancing act, really. You can't judge Oshie, Berglund, Perron on a year and a half, 2 years, etc. in the league. It's not fair to them, even though it is the nature of the business.

If this team could land a bona-fide goal scorer in a trade or by signing a UFA, I think it would make a big difference. That's easier said than done, of course. It's not like goal scorers are just handed over for nothing. I know so many folks think the rebuilding process should be done by now, but the front office wants to build a Cup contender for years, not one struggling to make the 8th spot each season. And that's something you can't just build overnight, or even in just 2 short years. Patience will remain key for awhile, even if some people think we should be hoisting Cups year in and year out already.

dmiles2186 wrote:There are posts at the Asylum already questioning JD. I think, by and large, he's made several good moves here (including the Tkachuk and Guerin trades in '07 that landed us a few first rounders), signing Kariya (at the time, because that was a HUGE signing in terms of bringing fans interest back. Sure, the price was high, the on ice product has been a disappointment, but you can't lay all of the blame on JD for that), the Doug Weight trade that brought us Andy McDonald, the Stempy for Steen/Cola trade, etc.

I'm not saying everything he did has turned to gold. But really, in terms of rebuilding, he's put butts in seats quicker than most franchises after we had the rough '05-'06 season. But the key is that the front office has always asked fans for patience, and time, to allow the young guys to develop. They've had to fast track some of them, whereas a guy like Polak had some time in the AHL and has publicly admitted he's much better for it. It's a balancing act, really. You can't judge Oshie, Berglund, Perron on a year and a half, 2 years, etc. in the league. It's not fair to them, even though it is the nature of the business.

If this team could land a bona-fide goal scorer in a trade or by signing a UFA, I think it would make a big difference. That's easier said than done, of course. It's not like goal scorers are just handed over for nothing. I know so many folks think the rebuilding process should be done by now, but the front office wants to build a Cup contender for years, not one struggling to make the 8th spot each season. And that's something you can't just build overnight, or even in just 2 short years. Patience will remain key for awhile, even if some people think we should be hoisting Cups year in and year out already.

I can't argue with any of that, but he's also the guy that extended Brewer and Jackman and they didn't bring in a single scorer in the offseason.

I understand the 'fast track' thing with the kids and that's why I am not surprised at all by their numbers this year. I just hope it's a case where JD and company knew we weren’t good enough but just tried to sell us that we were ready, instead of a case where they miss evaluated the talent just as many of the fans did.

If has a plan and believes we are still 3 players and a couple seasons from being legit contenders, I’m behind him.

If he truly believed this bunch was going to take the ice this year and bring home a top four seed in the playoffs, I have serious doubts.

Honestly, I think what happens here at the trade deadline and in the offseason will really tell us a lot.

They gained a lot of new season ticket holders last year, but they could easily loose a ton this offseason without some serious moves. Those moves could be as simple as elevating Ellar and Pie and pubbing the hell out of them, or it could be acquiring a big name. But if they basically try to run out this same roster with a middle of the road (20 goal scorer) replacing Paulie, I think you’ll see a ton of folks not renew.

The error this past off season was in expecting everyone to get better, and everyone took a step back together. There is such a thing as a sophomore slump. Plus, did you really expect the goals you got out of guys like Crombeen and winchester to repeat? You couldn't, however, expect 10 goals out of the closest thing you have to a boner-filled sniper.

It's time to drop the duds, all of them. And actually pay for a stud.
It's time for a serious playoff team.

Larry Pleau has to love that JD gets all the blame for personnel decisions. I know JD is a huge part and he influences the direction the team takes. But he is not the GM. We have like 4 of those.

As frustrated as people have been extending Brewer and Jackman... they haven't been signs for 15 years. By the time those contracts run out, the defensive prospects we have developing will be ready. In the meantime, as much as those guys can look like pylons out there, I seriously question whether they've had anybody BETTER to replace them with. I think those signings protect the prospects and allow them to develop. The playoffs led people to forget this team is rebuilding. McKee was one too many of those type of players and they fixed it by getting rid of him.

We all LOVED the Kariya signing when it happened and without hindsight, we would all still feel that way. I mean it was Paul freaking Kariya.

Is JD perfect? No, but he is not the con artist people are making him out to be. He may not have all the right guys in place (yet) and he may have put some poor ones there... but I would rather that happen now then when the team is on the verge of contending for the Cup.

Maybe I'm one of the few, but I still really believe in the direction this team is going.

Leedog wrote:The error this past off season was in expecting everyone to get better, and everyone took a step back together. There is such a thing as a sophomore slump. Plus, did you really expect the goals you got out of guys like Crombeen and winchester to repeat? You couldn't, however, expect 10 goals out of the closest thing you have to a boner-filled sniper.

I know, everyone keeps bashing Brewer and Jackman (myself included)....

This team is actually giving up fewer goals per game then last year .

Upon statistical analysis………IT'S ALL BOYES FAULT!