GDT Game 62: 2/23/18|7:00 PM CT|vs Jets|FSMW/KMOX

[theohall]

ST. LOUIS -- It was back to business as usual for the St. Louis Blues on Thursday, one day after practice was abruptly called off in favor of a closed-door meeting.

The Blues are 0-3-1 and in the midst of a season-long losing streak that has the team slipping in the Western Conference playoff race. Wednesday's meeting came after a 3-2 loss to San Jose on Tuesday night.

"Practice is one thing, but this late in the season, two days in a row, you're probably not going to practice very hard anyways," defenseman Jay Bouwmeester told NHL.com. "It was good. We're kind of a crossroads in our season. Our start really carried us, but now we're having a little bit of a tough time. We're not necessarily playing the worst hockey we've been playing all year, but we're running into good teams and it's just finding ways to win."

The Blues (32-23-4, 72 points) have slipped to the first wild-card spot and are just a point away from being out of the playoffs entirely.

The schedule isn't letting up as the Blues will host the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night, followed by a trip to Nashville on Sunday. Winnipeg (79 points) and Nashville (81 points) are the top two teams in the Central Division.

"What matters right now is everybody understands the situation that we're in, there's certainly clarity to that; that's easy," Blues coach Mike Yeo told NHL.com. "Now it's about us making sure that we come together as a group and rebuilding the trust in our game and understanding that they we go out and do things the right way shift after shift, man after man, that we're going to get the results that we're looking for."

Forward Nikita Soshnikov, acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 15, could arrive in St. Louis as early as Friday. The Blues have been waiting for his visa paperwork to be completed.

"What you like is we think he's a guy that can add to our group, not only this year but in the future as well," Yeo told NHL.com. "I think the quicker we get him in, the quicker he'll get up to speed with our group."

Friday's meeting is the fourth and final of the season against Winnipeg. The Blues have gone 2-1 against the Jets, including a 5-2 win on Feb. 9 in Winnipeg.

The Jets are coming off a 4-3 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday.

"Some untimely penalties, our penalty kill is leaking oil right now," Jets forward Blake Wheeler told NHL.com. "So just wrong penalties at the wrong time."

Jets goalies Michael Hutchinson and Steve Mason have been cleared to play after missing six and 16 games, respectively, to concussions.

Hutchinson will back up Connor Hellebuyck against the Blues.

"The last few days, getting out with the guys and facing some real shots has been good to get the timing back," Hutchinson told NHL.com. "You feel like you haven't missed any time at all."

[theohall]

Our start really carried us, but now we're having a little bit of a tough time. We're not necessarily playing the worst hockey we've been playing all year, but we're running into good teams and it's just finding ways to win.

No kidding, Jay-Bo. This is what happens when you start having to play games against your own division which happens to be the toughest in the NHL right now.

[gaijin]

Not going to be an easy game. The Blues have shown they can beat the Jets, but they've also shown they really like to lay eggs at home in important games.

The playoff race is already getting to be pretty intense. Not sure if Dallas beating LA last night was good for us or bad for us. On the one hand, it keeps LA from passing us for the final wild card spot, but on the other hand, if LA had won instead, we would have been back in 3rd in the Central, making the wild card position moot. I'm more concerned about catching Dallas for 3rd in the Central rather than jockeying for wild card position.

Also, I get the feeling the Blues' approach to the trade deadline will be heavily influenced by this game tonight.

[cardsfan04]

Sounds like Allen is in net tonight.

I wouldn't be surprised if this game influences the trade deadline. I really hate when GMs do stuff like that though. Army should have a good feel for whether this team can buy or not. A single data point (how we play tonight) shouldn't move the needle that much even though I know it very well might.

[theohall]

Here comes a sacrilege post...

I almost think I want this team to miss the playoffs.
1) It would be a motivator for next season.
2) It might make the owner re-think what his GM has been doing.
3) It might make the GM re-think his coaching hire
4) It might make the GM re-think the way this roster is built.
5) It might make the head coach re-think who makes his team - ie skill over grit, instead of vice versa.

But those are too many "might"s.

The problem if they make the playoffs, GM, owner, and coach will likely continue on the same path rolling out a checking team in a skill era.

[ibldbl]

Blues come out on fire for 5 mins, then fall asleep and give up 2 quick goals..


Just awful....

[ibldbl]

All my friends consider me the biggest Blues fan, but I can't watch this SHIT.

[theohall]

2nd GA - definition of a bad goal. Allen was horribly out of position.

So much for team meetings...

[glen a richter]

I’m 1000% with Theo. I hope they miss the playoffs and are forced into some soul searching and difficult decisions... though I’m not sure those decisions are really that difficult. This team should look a lot younger next season, new coach, new GM. Don’t make any trades now for players, just dump some crap contracts and get picks to move up with.

[evil roy]

Looks like it's time for a team bonding retreat... I hear Banff is nice this time of year.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Toasted Oates]

What's that smell?

[Robb_K]

Wow! I oversleep again and join the game just in time to see The Blues down 4-0!!!! At least they are losing this one to my 2nd favorite, and home town team. AWFUL middle to a season started nicely.

[theohall]

As NHL Tonight pointed out...

Prior to mid-January, the Blues had played 6 more games than any other team in the league. Now that the rest of the league has caught up in games played, for the most part, the standing are more indicative of reality for the Blues, than their inflated place in the standings from those extra 6 games. On top of that - the increased # of divisional games against the playoff teams in the division is starting to show - vice the heavy Eastern Conference schedule with which the Blues started the season. In the Central, Only the Avalanche and Wild have played as many or more games vs the East.

Vs the East
Winnipeg - 6 fewer
Dallas - 4 fewer
Nashville - 3 fewer
Chicago - 1 fewer

Those games vs the East are likely going to help Winnipeg, Dallas, and Nashville. Meanwhile, the Blues keep losing to those same Central teams. Basically, the Blues aren't competitive in their own division right now, largely because the organization is stuck in the "grit" mentality. Until they dump that model, we will see more of "look how hard the Blues work, but don't score" only to see transition and skill burying easy goals in the Blues net.

Although Allen wasn't sharp, it's yet another game in which Allen gets no offensive support. Name the last 2 games the Blues scored 3 goals or more when Allen started. 2 goals doesn't win in this era on any kind of consistent basis. Last one was on the road in Winnipeg. The last before that was the 7-4 loss to the Panthers when they went to sleep at home... again.

We kind of should have seen this coming when the Blues scored 2 goals or fewer in 12 of 20 games in December. While Allen is occasionally letting in a softie, if this team had any kind of offense, that wouldn't matter. Right now, every goal against is amplified due to the lack of scoring.

And this team basically is incapable of winning if they give up the first goal.

[gaijin]

Naturally, Minnesota won again tonight.

[ibldbl]

And we're now in all out freefall... Might be time to sell at the deadline.

[theohall]

There are a few players on this current roster I wouldn't move.

Keep: Tarasenko, Schwartz, Schenn, Pietrangelo, Parayko, Edmundson, Dunn.

Everyone else currently on the roster offer 'em up. Yeah 9 of the 12 forwards who were on the ice tonight, plus Sundqvist. Bring on the prospects next season. Full on rebuild for the rest of the roster with new skilled players - not veteran gritty players. Open up goalie competition. While Allen seems to be fine in the playoffs, the team has to get there and if he's having these in-season lapses 2 seasons in a row, whose to say it won't happen in the playoffs at some point? Or find a goalie coach who is as good as Brodeur at fixing fundamentals. It seems we can't find one of those.

I would probably keep Fabbri, because skilled players are what this team lacks. Don't trade the skilled prospects (Thomas, Kyrou, Kostin, Thompson, Blais, etc). They are the answer.

[tjk002]

As NHL Tonight pointed out...

Prior to mid-January, the Blues had played 6 more games than any other team in the league. Now that the rest of the league has caught up in games played, for the most part, the standing are more indicative of reality for the Blues, than their inflated place in the standings from those extra 6 games. On top of that - the increased # of divisional games against the playoff teams in the division is starting to show - vice the heavy Eastern Conference schedule with which the Blues started the season. In the Central, Only the Avalanche and Wild have played as many or more games vs the East.

Vs the East
Winnipeg - 6 fewer
Dallas - 4 fewer
Nashville - 3 fewer
Chicago - 1 fewer

Those games vs the East are likely going to help Winnipeg, Dallas, and Nashville. Meanwhile, the Blues keep losing to those same Central teams. Basically, the Blues aren't competitive in their own division right now, largely because the organization is stuck in the "grit" mentality. Until they dump that model, we will see more of "look how hard the Blues work, but don't score" only to see transition and skill burying easy goals in the Blues net.

Although Allen wasn't sharp, it's yet another game in which Allen gets no offensive support. Name the last 2 games the Blues scored 3 goals or more when Allen started. 2 goals doesn't win in this era on any kind of consistent basis. Last one was on the road in Winnipeg. The last before that was the 7-4 loss to the Panthers when they went to sleep at home... again.

We kind of should have seen this coming when the Blues scored 2 goals or fewer in 12 of 20 games in December. While Allen is occasionally letting in a softie, if this team had any kind of offense, that wouldn't matter. Right now, every goal against is amplified due to the lack of scoring.

And this team basically is incapable of winning if they give up the first goal.

Great post, and I agree with everything except for the "grit" mentality. Please explain to me how this roster is built with a grit mentality. This team is freaking charmin soft. There is zero grit, zero toughness and it begins with #27. Trying to see him emulate Backes at the end of the game was hysterical. He is not a leader.

[theohall]

Great post, and I agree with everything except for the "grit" mentality. Please explain to me how this roster is built with a grit mentality. This team is freaking charmin soft. There is zero grit, zero toughness and it begins with #27. Trying to see him emulate Backes at the end of the game was hysterical. He is not a leader.

3rd and 4th line are checking lines, which is what I meant by grit. There isn't enough focus on skill players going at least 3 deep. Steen is a 2-way guy. Same for Stastny at this point in his career. So - now that's 2 lines and 2/3rd of that line that are basically more effective as checkers. Where is the skill in the skill era? What I don't get - when Thompson was on the line with Stastny, they were producing. So what did Yeo do? Demoted Thompson to the Berglund line, and then sent him packing due to roster constraints - so they could keep Sundqvist.

They keep rolling out guys with size and not skill, in spite of having skill players available at the AHL level. See Sundqvist, Jaskin, Paajarvi (when he was here) over guys like Thompson, Blais, and Megan. Megan's opportunity over the past 2 seasons - 4 games played for a whopping 34 minutes. Meanwhile, Sundqvist who has looked like crap all season has played 31 games, 350 minutes, 0 goals, 3 assists. When is enough, enough with the size over skill mentality? So what if he was part of a trade? It's ludicrous to keep rolling out a guy who isn't producing anything for this team.

I don't know how much say Yeo has in terms of moving players up and down, but it sure seems like Yeo is doing the same crap to the "new to the NHL" players that he did with the Wild. Limit them and not play them if there is any kind of player with even a little NHL experience who is older and bigger, regardless of their skill level.

[flyingnote38]

well its not like the Blues came out and gave a good solid 7 minutes, then had a goal against and completely turtled and gave up.

oh wait, actually it was like that.

I think sweeping changes are in order. Don't trust Army to be the guy to do them; he's twice done a fine job of unbuilding a cup contender. But the owners signed him to an extension this year so we can anticipate a few more years of mediocrity before we attempt to get better again.

[theohall]

Just to point out how flawed it is to emphasize size at Center, which is what the Blues are still doing, let's take a look at the Lightning.

Tyler Johnson 5-8 183 (3rd line Center)
Yanni Gourde 5-9 172 (although he plays wing more often with Point than C)
Brayden Point 5-10 166 (2nd line C) Gourde shoots L, Point shoots R, so the two being on the same line works really well. They will often switch taking draws based on where the faceoff happens.
Vladislav Namestnikov 5-11 180 (1st line C)
Stamkos 6-1 194 (he plays wing with Namestnikov more than C) Stamkos shoots R, Namesnikov shoots L. Same deal as Point/Gourde. They sometimes switch who takes draws based on location and situation.
Paquette 6-1 198 (4th line C)

The Blues
Barbashev 6-0 187 (playing wing, instead of C)
Berglund 6-4 219
Brodziak 6-2 209
Schenn 6-1 200
Stastny 6-0 193
Sundqvist 6-3 209

So much for size being important. This USED to be true. The Lightning ownership (when Vinik took over) and management (Yzerman was named GM around the same time) embraced the changes in the NHL back in 2010 which started to open up the game, drafted accordingly, and built their roster around skill and speed, regardless of size. They also re-tooled their AHL franchise to make sure it was on the same page as the NHL club, developing skill and speed. It worked. Meanwhile, the Blues are still in the size first mentality and refuse to invest at the AHL level to provide the support which actually develops the type of players that fit your club. Until these things change, the Blues aren't going to be a contending team.

One other thing, the Lightning only have 2 forwards over the age of 30. Ryan Callahan and Chris Kunitz who are on the 4th line. Compare that to the Blues. 5 forwards over 30. 3 on the 4th line. 2 on the 2nd in Steen and Stastny. Blues need to get younger and quit relying on aging veterans to be top producers. Steen and Stastny on most other teams would be 3rd line forwards at best.

The place where the Lightning emphasize size is on defense, with which I completely agree.