We are finally getting some Respect

[PGABluesFan]

I frequent other teams game day threads like I'm sure some of you do. Lately, I have seen tons of praise from other teams. Most of the predictions on the Canucks forum was that the Canucks get killed tonight.

One guy said "I think that anyone who says the Blues are dull just haven't seen them yet. I have watched several games against PHI, NYR, MTL, etc and they are a very fast and big team that forechecks the crap out of the opposing team. Everyone complains about Hitchcock and the "trap". In the 6 or 7 games I have seen, they didn't play the trap at all. Their forwards may not have that one big name but they are skilled and deep. It should be an entertaining game."

Finally, it's great to be seen as a real threat. This season has been amazing, I just hope I don't wake up soon and it was all a dream and we are actually sitting at 10th in the Conference....

[WaukeeBlues]

... I just hope I don't wake up soon and it was all a dream and we are actually sitting at 10th in the Conference....

Don't worry, it'll happen a week after the trade deadline.

[Cavallinis]

I can't help but wonder what this team would be like with everyone healthy at the same time. Hopefully we will get to see it this season for more than a few games.

[glen a richter]

I can't help but wonder where this team would be if A) Hitchcock had been the coach from day one, B) the power play didn't suck quite as bad as it sucked early in the season and C) if we had one guy, just one guy, who we could count on to be a PPG player.

Probably between 8-10 more points in the standings right now and sitting pretty atop the entire NHL. These guys are for real, which lends the question: Who still hates Hitchcock?

[cprice12]

I can't help but wonder where this team would be if A) Hitchcock had been the coach from day one, B) the power play didn't suck quite as bad as it sucked early in the season and C) if we had one guy, just one guy, who we could count on to be a PPG player.

Probably between 8-10 more points in the standings right now and sitting pretty atop the entire NHL. These guys are for real, which lends the question: Who still hates Hitchcock?

When Hitch was hired...I was like, eh...not a big fan.

But he is winning...so he's ok in my book.

[cardsfan04]

I can't help but wonder where this team would be if A) Hitchcock had been the coach from day one, B) the power play didn't suck quite as bad as it sucked early in the season and C) if we had one guy, just one guy, who we could count on to be a PPG player.

Probably between 8-10 more points in the standings right now and sitting pretty atop the entire NHL. These guys are for real, which lends the question: Who still hates Hitchcock?

A PPG guy would be huge.

I think the Blues might have benefited not just from Hitch coming in, but coming in when he did. This was supposed to be the year we finally turn the corner and are back to making the playoffs consistently. But, we were 6-7-0 and 14th in the West (if memory serves). So, it might have been easier for the team, especially the young guys that Hitch has historically struggled with, to buy into his system than if he was here on day 1.

[kodos]

Every year for the last 5 years was supposed to be the year we finally turned the corner.

[Portland Blues]

Every year for the last 5 years was supposed to be the year we finally turned the corner.

[not_a_wings_fan]

Only to not get respect in the power rankings...

Boston and NY jumped over the blues this week @ espn... and both of those teams lost a game last week.

The Blues were 3-0-0 and only gave up two goals but dropped two spots to 4th.

... Not that the power rankings matter at the end of the day, but hello Eastern bias.

Not to mention that STL beat NYR 4-1 in their head to head match up.

[thedoc]

Every year for the last 5 years was supposed to be the year we finally turned the corner.

Maybe it was just a really long corner

[kodos]

The bottom line is that you need to win to get respect. The best way to get noticed is to make noise in the playoffs. That's when the national media pays attention to your team and your players. Not when they get hot for 3/5 of a season.

[theohall]

The bottom line is that you need to win to get respect. The best way to get noticed is to make noise in the playoffs. That's when the national media pays attention to your team and your players. Not when they get hot for 3/5 of a season.

So when was the last time the Rangers did something significant in the playoffs?? Thus the East Coast Bias.

[goon attack]

OMG we were geting repsect but then we lost a mid-season game in Dewtroit and now we SUCK! OMG! OMG! OMG!

[kodos]

We should take all that respect. Roll it up in a ball and shove it up Detroits ass.

[gaijin]

We should take all that respect. Roll it up in a ball and shove it up Detroits ass.

It's too crowded in there already.

[theohall]

Watching Pens-Devils today listening to the Devils announcers.

They mentioned the Blues coming to NJ on Thursday and were praising the Blues turnaround. They consider the Blues-Devils matchup an excellent game to see how the Devils might fare in the playoffs. Yes, they are saying the Blues are a playoff test for the Devils. Haven't heard that in awhile.

[F Keenan]

Hold on a sec....

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1092 ... tanley-cup
NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs 2012: Why the St. Louis Blues Can't Win the Stanley Cup
By Peter Mills (Contributor) on March 7, 2012 49 reads 0

The St. Louis Blues are quite the impressive team this year.

After starting the season 6-7-0, the team's coach, Davis Payne, was fired, and Ken Hitchcock was brought in.

Since that point, the Blues have gone 35-11-7. They have charged up the conference standings, today finding themselves in second place in the conference, only a point behind the Canucks. They are also sitting first in the Central division (tied with the Red Wings but winning the tiebreaker), unarguably the best division in the west.

Unfortunately, none of that matters, because once the postseason begins, the Blues are toast.

St. Louis' success this year has been based entirely around the goalie tandem of Jaroslav Halak and Brian Elliott. Now admittedly, that duo has been insanely good.


Starts Record SV% GAA SO
Brian Elliott 29 20-8-2 .937 1.63 6
Jaroslav Halak 37 21-10-5 .925 1.91 6


Clearly, the Blues are cheating somehow. Unfortunately, until evidence of that surfaces, we just have to accept that both of the Blues goalies are playing Vezina-caliber hockey this season.

Right now, Elliott leads the league in goals-against average, is second in save-percentage and tied for third in the league in shutouts.

Halak is third in the league in goals-against average, tied with Elliott in shutouts and is an embarrassing ninth in save percentage.

Together, they've kept the Blues on top in terms of goals against and have kept up the slack for a pretty unspectacular rest-of-the-roster.



A Whole Other Game

That brings us to the playoffs.

The problem with the playoffs is that a team can't start two goalies. There needs to be one clear starter, not just from one game to the next, but from one series to the next.

In the playoffs, a hot goalie can keep a team going for a long time, and a cold goalie can completely sink a team. But either way, the goalie is a constant. There are rare occasions when one team brings in a backup after losing the first few games and goes on to win, but that is a situational change, not a trend.



So how do you build to winning a Stanley Cup without a clear starter? If the past is any indication, you do it with great offense.

In 2010, the Blackhawks' goalies, Antti Niemi and Cristobal Huet, essentially split time—Huet played in 48 games, Niemi in 39—and they both finished with 26 wins. Then the playoffs started, Niemi got the starts, and they won the Cup.

You know what the difference is here? The Blues don't have Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews.

Likewise, when the Red Wings won the Cup in 2008, Chris Osgood and Dominik Hasek split starts, both finishing with 27 wins. When the playoffs rolled around, Osgood got all but two wins.

But again, the Red Wings had Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Nicklas Lidstrom. The Blues do not.

What I'm saying here is that, despite what old adages might make you believe, goaltending alone does not win Stanley Cups. A team needs solid, reliable scoring to churn out a championship, and that is something the Blues do not have.



No Power Up Front

The vast majority of St. Louis' players are relatively inexperienced in the playoffs. Most have no more than four playoff games under their belts.

Two notable exceptions, Jason Arnott and Jamie Langenbrunner, are both experienced veterans. Unfortunately, both of those players are about three years past the point of being a game-changer.

When it comes down to it, the Blues will need to see above-average production from a lot of players (forwards T.J. Oshie, David Backes, Patrik Berglund and Andy McDonald and defensemen Alex Pietrangelo and Kevin Shattenkirk, to name a few of the most important).

Maybe it's possible that that group comes together and puts on a Cup run, but I don't see it. And say what you want, but a team can't do it on goaltending alone.



The Bruins Example

Last year, in the Stanley Cup finals, Tim Thomas won his team the Stanley Cup, right? Well, that might be how it appears, but look closer.

The series went to seven games. The Bruins lost Games 1, 2 and 5, and in those games, Thomas played superbly: he stopped 33-of-34 in a 1-0 loss in Game 1, 30-of-33 in a 3-2 loss in Game 2 and in Game 5, he stopped 37-of-38.

That means, in his losses, he had an astounding .952 save percentage. But of course, that stat means nothing, because they lost.

In his winning games, Thomas had equally impressive numbers. In Game 3, he stopped 40-of-41, in Game 4 it was all 38 shots, in Game 6 he stopped 36-of-38 and in Game 7, he stopped all 37 shots. That means, in his four winning Finals games, he had the even-more-insane save percentage of .981.

But it wasn't those saves that won the Bruins the Cup, because in those four games that they won, they outscored the Canucks by a margin of 21-3.

That is why the Bruins won the cup. Because, after a hot goalie kept them in games, they still had an explosive offense that could win for them. And when all is said and done, Thomas could've given up an additional 14 goals during those games without it mattering.

That's where the Blues fall short. They certainly have a goalie capable of putting up a .950 save percentage through the playoffs—heck, they have two—but sooner or later, you need more than that. You need a hot offense to cancel out the other team's hot goalie.

After all, while two high-caliber goalies might give an advantage during the regular season, it affords you no such luxuries during the postseason. You can only play one goalie, and if a team is in the playoffs, they probably have a great goalie.

If they want to win a Cup, at some point they'll have to against Jimmy Howard or Jonathan Quick or Henrik Lundqvist or Tim Thomas, and any of those goalies have stronger offenses in front of them.

Do the Blues have what it takes to win a Stanley Cup?

The Bottom Line

The Blues will certainly be in the playoffs, and they might even advance a few rounds. Lord knows Jaroslav Halak is capable of making some insane playoff runs. But sooner or later, they'll hit a goalie just a hot as theirs, only they won't have the offense to overcome him.

There's nothing wrong with building a team around a great goalie—hell, it's probably the best way to build a contending team. But the Blues haven't gotten to the point of building yet. So far, they just have two hot goalies, a couple forwards striving for the 50-point mark and not a single skater who's hit the 20-goal mark.

Next season, who knows? Maybe the goalies stay hot, the younger skaters start to progress a little more and the team gets something going beyond great goaltending, they'll have a chance.

But until they can do better than 21st in the league in goals per game, 23rd in power-play goals and ninth on the penalty kill, they're simply not a good enough team.

I'm not ready to stake out my spot on Market Street for the parade just yet, but WTF is this crap.

[cardsfan04]

meh, that's from bleacher report. Hard to take them seriously. And, it's far easier to predict somebody to NOT win than the other way around. Even if they are dead wrong about the Blues' Cup potential, there is still a far greater chance that they don't win than that they do. So, if we don't win, they can say "look we correctly predicted this," when in reality they could write a similar article about every single playoff team and be right for all but one.

[kodos]

It's also stupid because anyone who is paying attention knows that Halak is the teams starter.

[thedoc]

It's also stupid because anyone who is paying attention knows that Halak is the teams starter.

He is now. But I was one of those earlier in the year that said I really like Elliott. I really think if it wasn't for Elliott pushing Halak they way he has Halak would not have played to this kind of potential. IMO.