A Clean Sweep

First of all, I would like to thank Davis Payne, the new coach of the St. Louis Blues.  You have allowed the players to find a sense of composure again and in doing so, brought a new face to the Blues home game. I'm not saying that Murray didn't have way's to win, but the Blues have brushed off the negativity and pressure and have decided to play some pretty good hockey under the new leadership of Payne.

Awesome fight from last year against the Rangers...There you go Cam!

I was reading an article my Dad spotted in the Post. It discussed Oshie's struggles and gave some insight on why the Blues just couldn't get the job done in previous games.  Oshie felt that his inconsistencies were a big problem.  A major contributor to those inconsistencies, was negative feedback from the coaching staff.  Now, obviously the coaches have to tell their players what they are doing wrong, but the Blues needed a little more than constructive criticism. All said and done, the majority of these players are young and they are going to make mistakes.  But players like Oshie are so talented and the one thing you want to make sure they are doing, is having fun. Experienced veteran players play the game composed and controlled and they can make the game look easy. This Blues team know's how to win, but it's the coach's responsibility to make sure the players don't make the game too complicated. That's vital, especially when you're dealing with a young struggling team.

I've been to the last couple of games at Scottrade, and let me say that it has been wonderful seeing the Blues win at home. It makes that cold walk back to the car a little less numbing.

Just a Glimpse

The Blues showed us, yet again, a glimpse of their potential.  The first period of last night's Blues/Blackhawks bloody battle was a flash of some good old time hockey.  I'm pretty sure I was on the edge of my seat the entire first twenty minutes.  But, all good things come to an end, I guess.  There was no way the Blues could match the intensity of the first period and neither could the Hawks.  The difference was that the Hawks settled down and played a controlled, composed game while the Blues, well...fell back into some familiar bad habits.

Missed shots, blind passes, and many failed attempts of clearing the puck...Man, I'm tired of saying that.  Even though the Blues could not catch the Hawks, they had some great scoring opportunities.

The following are some problems the Blues are having (in my opinion):

The power-play - Ok, it's getting better, but not every goal has to be pretty. Spread out, keep your head up, and make crisp, dedicated passes.  Also, use the one-timer! Five on Four is supposed to be an advantage!   Ya know what else helps? A lot of other teams do it too...Get in front of the net! This goes for full strength play as well. Hey defenders, don't carry the puck from blue-line to blue-line and try to force a pass or make a move.  Dump it in and reduce the odd man rushes in our end.  And forwards, where's the forecheck?! It sometimes makes an appearance, but we got to win battles in the corners.

Now, I'm going back to the whole getting in front of the net "thing."  We have some capable big bodied forwards on this team. Backes, Berglund, Winchester, and Tkachuk. Backes has great hands and needs to screen and wreak havoc for the opposing goalies. Berglund, stop being a sissy and use your body.  We all know you can shoot, but I don't even know if you're capable of a penalty. Winchester, has proven himself in some of the recent games.  He might not have the stick handling skill of Backes or Berglund, but he covers a lot of ground and can pose a threat in front of the net.  Tkachuk has a good reputation around the net. He needs to just keep doing what he's doing and retire on a good note.

We'll see what these next couple of practices will do for the Blues. With the new leadership of Davis Payne, it's all up in the air. What I hope to see is a simpler game at home and a newfound respect for the fundamentals of hockey.

Unacceptable?

I was listening to Chris Kerber talk during the Blues post game show, and the word unacceptable came up quite a lot.  Andy Murray has been saying it, the players have been saying it, the broadcasters and journalists have been saying it...This word means nothing.  Kerbs was discussing, for example, when parents use this word, there is some sort of consequence that follows.  What the hell then?! Stop saying, "this is unacceptable." It's obviously acceptable to play one out of three periods because I'm not seeing much of a change.

I have gone to the last two home games and will be going to my third in a row on new years eve.  I have noticed a scary trend as of late, too.  Boooooooo's! The St. Louis crowd booooo'd after that terrible first period last night.  Ever since the third period loss against the Oilers, the fans have found more and more things to boo about... Seriously, I can't believe that last night was the 8th sell out in a row. With the Blues home record looking worse and worse, I can't imagine 19,150 fans constantly coming out to ole Scottrade for much longer.

There were a lot of things the Blues did wrong and very few things they did right, last night.  Give it up to Alex Steen though, he's playing pretty solid right now.  Blind passes and failed attempts to clear the puck summed up last night's effort.  The Blues go from a solid three game sweep against western Canada, to losing three in a row, including two disappointing home games.  The Blues need another wake up call, I guess.  To finish, I just want to say that most of these guys are young professionals; key word young.  I'm going to the Blues/Vancouver on Thursday, and I hope the Blues decide to play the whole game this time.  Unacceptable? Yeah, we'll see...

Hot and Cold

That pretty much sums it up for the St. Louis Blues, thus far.  Some nights they got it and some nights they don't. However, they had it last night against Vancouver, shutting them down for the second time this season.  But, do I dare say that Larry Pleau played a role?

For those of you who did not hear, Larry Pleau (Senior VP and GM of the Blues), was waiting in the locker room after the third period of last Friday's game against Tampa Bay.  The upper management finally had to step into the picture.  The players said that it was a wake-up call/tongue lashing.  It's about time! But, it was good timing...Larry's words would stay nice and fresh in the minds of the players on their trip to Vancouver.  And what do ya know, the Blues won! I speak for myself and probably many other fans when I say that this hopefully will be the kick in the butt they needed!  Everyone needs to be reminded once in awhile of consequences...even professional athletes.

The Blues have the lowest goal scoring percentage in the league right now.  Obviously our "goal scorers" have not been "goal scoring."  But, with Backes finding the back of the net five times out of the last five games, and with Brad Winchester finally chalking one up the other night, we might be slowly meeting our potential.  Maybe?

The blame is on the players.  They are the ones on the ice, making the plays, etc.  It's up to our talent to rise to the task of succeeding in this very competitive league.  We are most certainly not out of the race, yet.  Let's not linger around .500 any longer. GET THE JOB DONE!

LET'S GO BLUES!

Playing With The Lead

Face it, the Blues do not know how to play with the lead. The win in Detroit doesn't count because there was still a sense of urgency...a sense of "oh shit, they could still come back," mentality.  Seriously, the Blues haven't had too many games where they have been up by three or more goals, including last year.  It's something in which they lack the experience.

This recent Blues team, I think thrives under pressure, which is exactly what they have been in since the second half of last season; pressure. It's like anything else, whether it be sports, work, life, whatever...You learn from your previous experiences and situations.  Having and holding a lead is something this team has not quite figured out and unfortunately has little time to learn.

Last night was probably the most devastating loss I have seen in a long time.  Even the last game of the playoffs last year was easier to swallow.

Oh, and I'm kind of sick of reporters asking the players and coaches about the Blues record at home and how they can't win at Scottrade. Last night, for two periods, that didn't matter anymore.  Even after the game, no one should have been asking why the Blues can't win at home.  Instead, they should have been asking, "What are you going to do to better your playing while in the lead?". However, now that the team has suffered this loss, it's going to be hard to recreate whatever they did to get over the pressures at home.  It seems as though they are going to have to start over once again.  Hopefully, this won't take too long...

The Final Note

Last night, T.J. Oshie hit the final note against the San Jose Sharks, giving the Blues a 3-2 win.  With 6.6 seconds left in regulation, Carlo Colaiacovo fired a turnaround snapper right into the back of the net to tie the game at two.  I jumped up off the couch and screamed in unison with my roommate, scaring the crap out of our girlfriends. I had trouble falling asleep, to say the least.

The Blues were relentless until the very end.  They stole the win right from under the Sharks. They were desperate for points and they wanted more, plain and simple.  That desperation is what made them nearly unstoppable the second half of last season. Perhaps that's what the Blues need...desperation. That just might light the fire once again...

They played and won as a team last night.  There was no star player, in my opinion.  It was a complete team effort and victory...an "ole time hockey game."

Blues, please feed off this win, please...Many people have said this win reminded them of last season's game against Boston.  That was the "turn-around" game of the season that sparked the fire.  Let this be a reminder to the team AND the fans...this team is not just built on expectation, but execution.

LET'S GO BLUES!!!

Playing all 3 Periods

The Blues have yet again shown their weakness in the first period.  We played quite well against Columbus last year and they are a team the Blues can beat, no question! Where was the aggression and the forecheck?  The game against Dallas was great.  That was "our" game from the beginning.  The forecheck was the best I've seen all year.  Hey, it reminded me a lot of last year! What do ya know?  Same with the game against Detroit, even though we let it slide at the end.  Last night was just not fun to watch in my opinion.  I really can't find any excuse why the Blues cannot bring that intensity like they had this past week. The forecheck was sooo powerful and productive.  As a fan, I might be missing something, but I do not understand why this cannot be achieved.  Some games we have it, some games we don't...unacceptable.

I can't take many positive points from this game.  However, we did score two and we stopped the number one power play team in the league.  Good job there :)

The second period was all Blues, but we kicked our legs out from under us in the third period.  Back-to-back penalties don't help much when you're down by one.  I know the Blues aren't going to win every game and I know this league is extremely competitive, "BUT" the Blues should "bring it" every game! Start hungry and finish wanting seconds.

By the way, Junland played alright. We'll see what happens with him.  As for Pietrangelo....well, we'll see what happens with him as well.

Bobby Plager "The Wise"

I was fortunate enough to go listen to Mr. Plager last night...He was a guest on Blues Buzz, a sports talk radio show hosted by Andy Strickland. I had never seen Mr. Plager play hockey, but as I listened to him talk, I gained more and more respect for him.  My dad used to tell me stories about Mr. Plager and the ol' Blues teams, so that's how I came to know his name.  But, up until now, I had no impression of the man personally.


Mr. Plager was an original Blue.  Traded from the New York Rangers to St. Louis in 1967, to play for one of the six expansion teams, the St. Louis Blues.  Last night, he didn't talk about himself, though. He talked about the current team and their struggles to find that something special they had last season. But, maybe that's just it...Maybe that was last season and this is this season...Maybe the Blues have to find something NEW.  That's what Mr. Plager discussed with Andy last night.  He said, "...these young guys like T.J. Oshie, Eric Johnson, Patrik Berglund and David Perron are on everyone's radar..."  He talked about how they're not going to be able to get away with some of the stuff they did last year.  Many things that made them so successful won't work unless they figure out some way to shuffle the plays around and occasionally work in the plays that used to create the offense, along with new ideas too.  All the other coaches and players are ready for those "signature" Blue moves from last season.


In an earlier post I wrote, I talked about Brad Boyes and the one-timer.  Well, Mr. Plager covered that one too.  He said those opposing players know to look out at the wing for Brad now.  Every time they see him leak out there, a stick is going to be right there to block it or force a pass.

Another one of the many things he discussed, was again about the youngsters.  He stressed the importance of a mentor. He said that he learned from the greats.  During a discussion about Eric Johnson, one of the things he said was that Johnson's trying to do too much. He's missed a lot of games and hasn't even played 100 in the NHL. He's young and has a lot to learn, and what better way to learn than to pick the brain of #2, Al MacInnis. 

I, myself learned quite a lot in forty-five minutes, last night.  Things that, as a fan, do not really enter most trains of thought.  He gave me a little more insight of what players and coaches have to go through and that it's a little more difficult than finding one thing and making it work. 

I hope our players take heed to Mr. Plager's advice.  Let's Go Blues!

Not Quite A Winning Streak

David Backes discussed the back-to-back wins with Chris Kerber before the lose tonight against Boston. He said it doesn't really count as a streak until you win more than two consecutive games.  I agree...and I can't really say much more.  I haven't been able to watch the last couple games unfortunately, so I'm going to keep this one short.  However, I can say that statistics don't lie.  The Blues power play is of the worst in the league.  This cannot go unchanged if the Blues are looking to take another go in the playoffs.

It's disappointing, I know. The Blues record drops below .500, again. After the Islanders game, New York's coach, Scott Gordon said, "I can't believe (the Blues) are just .500 (8-8-4). That just blows my mind with all the talent they have."  Enough said....

The next game is Wednesday against the Stars in Dallas.  This, as always, is going to be an intense match up.  Look for a lot of physical play and maybe a little payback.

Here, this might CHEER US UP!

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!!

When John Kelly screams, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" ya know something big just happened.  The Scottrade Center erupted last night after Johnson went end to end, scoring the game winning goal in overtime.  The Blues could not let Phoenix get by with another win in St. Louis.  Mason stood on his head last night, I mean "Holy Jumpin'! Did you see that save?"  Mason played absolutely outstanding, which he has this whole season.  But, last night he was fire on ice.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr. Chris Mason...

And what can I say about Keith...You are one of the most talented players to have played the game.  Using that "Big Walt" strength and driving that puck into the net, was classic Tkachuk.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, big Walt....

Hey Phoenix, you just got "OSHIED!"  T.J. Oshie showed us again why he has become such a fan favorite.  The creativity and skill that he has is just outright, scary. To think about the potential Oshie and some of the other young stars the Blues have, makes me wonder if there is an end to how good they could become. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Oshie...oh and thanks for the autograph the other night, too!

Eric Johnson, you have saved us from overtime hell.  You have brought back something the Blues haven't had in a defense-man for a long time...OFFENSE!  I had to defend you in a little argument I had on facebook the other day...This guy was another one of those disgruntled, impatient fans who only picks out the negative points and loves to broadcast them to the world.  Anyways, the fact of the matter is that we didn't have anyone last year that fills the role you do now. Thank you, thank you, thank you, E. J.

To finish off this post, I would just like to say that for all of those people who think Andy Murray is incapable of doing his job, should really take a step back and listen.  Calling into radio stations and writing reviews, questioning if Coach Murray is right for this organization, is the last thing you should be doing as a fan.  Do your research before sounding like an idiot, please.  The management respects him, the players respect him, and so should the fans.  Don't bitch about the coach, save it for the weather.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, Coach Murray...