Why the Blues Have Sucked, and a Trade Won't Help

Brace yourselves, citizens. It's been a while since I've written one of these, and I have some things I just want to get off my Ruskie-Polack chest!

It's no secret that the Blues have been doing terrible. 29 allowed goals in our last 5 games. Halak looks lost. Defence is no help. Some of our best forwards and defencemen are shelved.

What do we do? It depends on who you ask. Some say, trade somebody! Trade Brewer, trade Boyes, trade Mac, trade Halak, anyone!

I say, trade nobody. Like trading a vital piece of our puzzle for a short-term bandaid will help us.


Where shall I begin... how about Mr. Halak? Our savior! But look at him now. He looks lost out there. Never mind the fact that defence isn't doing much to take off some of the pressure around him. He's been performing pretty awful out there, hasn't he?

I hate to break it to you, but it had to come eventually. He has been doing phenomenal until our losing streak. He played in all but one game in our 7-game string of wins.

Every goalie goes through a rough patch. You can't expect them to stand on their heads night in and night out. Just like how you can't expect a forward to score every game. Goalies go through slumps just like skaters. It happens. And besides, it's not like he's alone. Conklin gave up 5 goals in Phoenix, if I remember correctly.
Halak is going to struggle. Every goalie does. He can't carry this team on his back.

It doesn't help matters that defence hasn't been doing a whimsical job of toning down some of the pressure on him. Shouldn't some of the blame should fall on defence? Keep in mind, some of our top players here are out. But the fill-ins have been doing okay. Even in the absense of Polak and Jackman, to an extent, we've been doing okay with what we have.

Brewer has been proving what I've been saying since the offseason. He's doing much better, he's doing his job. He may make some mistakes, but they are fewer. And he's shown he isn't afraid to block shots. He's high-ranking on the team in blocked shots, mind you.Oh, he also has the 2nd best +/- rating of all our defencemen.
He's been doing well at winning battles in the corners, in addition to blocking shots. He doesn't need to produce points to be a good defenceman. Just look at Mike Weaver. Now there was a good d-man.

And don't take his career -103 rating into consideration. It wasn't often that he was a part of a contending team.
Mind you, his Blues teammates voted him as captain. So he has influence there. Trading him wouldn't exactly help us there.
Lidstrom made three mistakes that I saw on wednesday. Should he be traded too? Oh, by the way, Brewer made very few mistakes, if any.

Erik Johnson, meanwhile, has been falling in the corner and holding the puck for too long.

But I won't hold individuals accountable. Some are doing better than others, and some are doing worse. But the entire defence as a whole has been allowing too much pressure on Halak and Conklin. Is any one player to blame for that?


Okay, let's shift gears to offence.

First off, Oshie and Perron are out. TJ is a guy who leads by example on the ice. Perron could spit in your direction and some of that talent might, just might, be bestowed upon whichever lucky soul happens to be within a metre of that magic loogey.

Keep in mind, we do have 12 goals in our last 5 games. Yeah that's not much, but it's better than nothing. McDonald, Steen, Backes, and D'Agostini have been doing their part.

Some disagree about the deal we made with Backes. Well, I DO agree. Backes may not be scoring much, but should we just expect him to put 30+ goals up, willy-nilly? I don't. How can you just overlook his overall game? Backes is a player who doesn't need to score goals to be a positive contribution. If you look at him when he doesn't have the puck, you'll see what I mean. There is more to him than just his scoring stats.


Going the more general route, the Blues have a tonne of injuries, in the toughest stretch of games the Blues will have all season. Take that into consideration. We were going to lose some games anyway. But with our best forwards and defencemen out, it's a lot of injuries to deal with at one time. If it was just one or two guys, maybe. But this is a lot. Not many teams would be able to cope with this much at one time.

I'm as upset about this losing streak as much as the next fan. But we can't keep going to red alert and calling for a trade every time we hit a bad slump like this.

We can win with the team we have, as we proved by winning 7 games. BUT, put a bunch of the best players on IR, and things might not go the way we'd like.

Want the team to improve? This is what must be done:
1. Better positioning by our goaltenders
2. Better puck support
3. Better positioning in the defensive zone
4. Just play smarter as well
5. Stay out of the penalty box
6. Win the puck battles we were winning before the columbus game
7. Be Mentally strong

I think the team got too hyped up after the start, and were too pressured by all the media attention they were receiving.

The goals will come. Better defence will come. When we get our starters back from the IR, you'll see. But until then, just take a deep breath and enjoy Blues hockey.