I Should Send You to St Louis
My question this week once again turns to the
city of St Louis as Mike poised this particular question to me:
“The St. Louis Blues are rebuilding their team, the big money signing of Bouwmeester and the extension of Pietrangelo show the team's commitment to its core group of players.T.J. Oshie and David Backes are great players but will the Blues need to shore up its group of forwards if they really want to challenge for the cup?”
Very good question Mike, so let’s go to work.
In a city still reveling from the St Louis Cardinals victory in the 2011 World Series of Baseball, blues fans have had little to cheer about in recent years. Last year on paper appeared to be a success as the Blues finished Fourth in Western Conference and pushed the LA Kings all the way in their playoff quarter final and were only narrowly defeated in six games.
St Louis now have a potentially great defensive pair after Calgary Flames’ financial problems forced them to trade Jay Bouwmeester last season and now with Alex Pietrangelo officially staying on- this pair could be one of the most formidable next season. But conceding goals wasn’t the Blues main problem last season as during regular season play they only allowed 115 goals past them- their principle problem has been putting the puck in the net at the opposite end of the ice.
For years people have been commenting that this is a team that should be doing better with such an impressive forward line. But if we look closer at this then the story doesn’t play so well- David Backes has been a solid forward for the Blues and has been one of their standout players and bringing in winger Chris Stewart from Colorado proved a good decision as he brought his consistent scoring with him and finished as top scorer with 36 points. But although Alexander Steen and Patrik Berglund were reliable as normal, it wasn’t enough to advance them past the 1st round of the playoffs!
Last season the Blues scored 129 goals which was the fourth highest in the Western Conference- sounds good yes? Well it should have been, but if you really look closely at the forward line roster you would have agree that this line up isn’t one that is going to win them a Stanley Cup anytime soon; no disrespect to these men as they're all thoroughly steady NHL players, but slow and steady doesn’t always win the race and now with star player David Perron leaving for Edmonton- I have a feeling this situation isn’t going to improve this year!
To make things better in the short term, the Blues need to make some clever trades and not just rely on playing the same old hits, also utilise the draft system as there are some real gems just waiting to discovered.
Good luck this season St Louis, I think secretly every hockey fan hopes that one day you will join Lord Stanley’s brigade!
“The St. Louis Blues are rebuilding their team, the big money signing of Bouwmeester and the extension of Pietrangelo show the team's commitment to its core group of players.T.J. Oshie and David Backes are great players but will the Blues need to shore up its group of forwards if they really want to challenge for the cup?”
Very good question Mike, so let’s go to work.
In a city still reveling from the St Louis Cardinals victory in the 2011 World Series of Baseball, blues fans have had little to cheer about in recent years. Last year on paper appeared to be a success as the Blues finished Fourth in Western Conference and pushed the LA Kings all the way in their playoff quarter final and were only narrowly defeated in six games.
St Louis now have a potentially great defensive pair after Calgary Flames’ financial problems forced them to trade Jay Bouwmeester last season and now with Alex Pietrangelo officially staying on- this pair could be one of the most formidable next season. But conceding goals wasn’t the Blues main problem last season as during regular season play they only allowed 115 goals past them- their principle problem has been putting the puck in the net at the opposite end of the ice.
For years people have been commenting that this is a team that should be doing better with such an impressive forward line. But if we look closer at this then the story doesn’t play so well- David Backes has been a solid forward for the Blues and has been one of their standout players and bringing in winger Chris Stewart from Colorado proved a good decision as he brought his consistent scoring with him and finished as top scorer with 36 points. But although Alexander Steen and Patrik Berglund were reliable as normal, it wasn’t enough to advance them past the 1st round of the playoffs!
Last season the Blues scored 129 goals which was the fourth highest in the Western Conference- sounds good yes? Well it should have been, but if you really look closely at the forward line roster you would have agree that this line up isn’t one that is going to win them a Stanley Cup anytime soon; no disrespect to these men as they're all thoroughly steady NHL players, but slow and steady doesn’t always win the race and now with star player David Perron leaving for Edmonton- I have a feeling this situation isn’t going to improve this year!
To make things better in the short term, the Blues need to make some clever trades and not just rely on playing the same old hits, also utilise the draft system as there are some real gems just waiting to discovered.
Good luck this season St Louis, I think secretly every hockey fan hopes that one day you will join Lord Stanley’s brigade!
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