They're Called "Defensemen" For A Reason

A while back, NHL.com was running their "30 teams In 30 Days" feature, basically giving a season preview for all 30 teams. I was reading the Pittsburgh Penguins edition, when something caught my eye. They happened to mention the signing of defenceman Jay McKee. That made me upset because he used to be with the St. Louis Blues, my team. He was one of my favourite players all three years he was with us. And now he was gone, miles away, in a Pittsburgh Penguins sweater. As if that wasn't bad enough, while analyzing how well he'd do with his new team, they gave him a decent outlook, even though "he'll never win a Norris Trophy."

That really raised my blood pressure. As I was talking about it with my good friend Melina, she kindly pointed out Jay's poor point production may have something to do with it. It was the second time someone suggested his lack of scoring had to do with his release from St. Louis. While watching the news one day, the sports analyst also mentioned McKee's low point totals since joining the Gateway City. This confused me. Defencemen aren't supposed to be big-time goal scorers, they're supposed to stop the puck from entering their net. It's the forwards' jobs to score, not the defencemen's. Not that a d-man scoring is a bad thing. I have no problem with it, but it shouldn't be used to judge them. And barring offensive capabilities, there's no reason Jay McKee (or any other shot-blocking specialist) should be labeled as one who has no chance at even being nominated for a Norris Trophy. But I realized, that is probably exactly the reason McKee was released from St. Louis.

After doing some research, I confirmed it. Several Norris Trophy winners had high goal totals. For example, Bobby Orr. He was either 2nd or 3rd on his team in goals scored 4 out of his 8 years as a Norris winner. Paul Coffey is the highest-scoring Norris Trophy winner of all time, with 48 goals scored (not to mention a +61 rating) in 1986. Rob Blake scored 23 goals in his 1998 Norris year, despite a -3 rating, which is, in my opinion, one of the best ways to determine a defenceman's effectiveness on the ice. The lowest-scoring Norris winner was Rod Langway, notching 3 goals in 1983. The average for goals scored among Norris Trophy winners is 18, which is 6th in overall team scoring.

Jay McKee's +/- rating was a -2 in his first season as a Blue, which rose to +2, then +11 this past season. In my opinion, that's improvement. Goalscoring aside, McKee has accumulated acceptable +/- ratings throughout his NHL career, and he has done a tremendous job of keeping the puck out of the net. He is known throughout the league as one of the best shot blockers today. He may be injury-prone, but he is amazing at what he does. He wasn't named one of the Buffalo Sabres' alternate captains in 2006 for nothing. Despite all he has going for him, whoever wrote NHL.com's Penguins preview still feels he'll never win a Norris Trophy.

It's unfortunate that scoring plays a role in determining how good a defenceman is, not just his skills on defence. If Bobby Orr, Paul Coffey, Dennis Potvin, Al MacInnis, all had not scored as many goals as they had, would they still have won the Norris Trophy? If Drew Doughty would have scored more this past season, would he have had a better chance at winning the Calder Trophy? If Mike Green wouldn't have scored as many goals as he did in 2009, would he have been nominated? I tend to think not. What if Rod Langway would have scored as many goals as Doug Wilson before him? Would he have won more Norris Trophies? With the NHL's unneccessary yet growing (and perceived) dependency on offensively-minded d-men, I tend to believe so. People like Jay McKee and Drew Doughty are great players who are crucial to their teams. They don't score much, but there's no reason that should matter. While goals by a defenceman isn't neccessarily a abd thing (goals are goals, after all), but they should not be a defenceman's primary objective. Instead of judging them based on goalscoring, let's take their primary role more seriously and judge them for what they really are supposed to do: stop the other team from scoring.

Why The Offseason raises My Blood Pressure

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/post/_/id/4350334/blogging-nation

It's been a while since I've written one of these. Oh well, there are a few things concerning the state of the Blues that have made me, well, concerend. I've been getting increasingly worried about my boys in blue lately, and so far very little has happened to ease my mind.

First and foremost, Jay McKee is now a Pittsburgh Penguin. Just thinking about Jay in a 'Pens jersey raises my blood pressure. In the past several years, McKee has been among my favourite defencemen to watch. He is one of the best shot blockers this league has ever seen. There's a reason he was named alternate captain of the Buffalo Sabres during his last season with them. Sure he may be injury-prone (he's suffered a leg infection, knee injury, other various lower-body injuries, and almost had his finger taken off during a shot block), but when he's not injured, he does his job, and does it well. Ever since joining the Blues, his +/- rating has steadily improved, his biggest improvement coming this season, jumping from a +2 to a +11. So what if he was slightly overpaid, he's worth it. Unfortunately, the powers that be sure didn't think so. Bad move.

Since we're on the subject of defencemen, why have the Blues not re-signed Roman Polak yet? Our defence situation is rocky to say the least. Brewer might come back next season, but that's a pretty big "maybe." McKee is Pittsburgh-bound. Pietrangelo might... MIGHT... make the squad. Cole is staying in college for one more year. Peluso still has a ways to go. It's safest to keep Wagner in Peoria for at least one more season. Signing Polak would be a big step in securing our defence lineup. The front office needs to get on it and make the deal happen. Now. I know sometimes these things take a while, but seriously, stop beating around the bust and get this done.

At first, I didn't care whether we re-signed BJ "Breadcrumb" Crombeen or not. But now, I can't help but wonder why we did. We already have enough young, talented forwards to hang onto Breadcrumb any more. But now that he's a sealed deal, I think it would be best to send him to Peoria for now. That likely won't happen, but I really think it would be in the team's best interests.
The man, the myth, the Lagace... oops! Oh well, it won't be the first time someone mispelled his name. Like when he won the Stanley Cup in 2002, and his name was spelled "Lagace" on the 'Cup. At least he took the news better than Adam Deadmarch... I mean, Deadmarsh.Manny Legace has been a huge question mark since he got demoted to Peoria. When you have a goalie who has won Olympic silver, played in an AHL All-Star Game, won the Holmes Memorial Trophy and the Bastien Memorial Trophy (best AHL goalie and AHL goalie with the fewest goals against, respectively), played in an NHL All-Star Game, and won a Stanley Cup, and win over a city like St. Louis in the process, and his performance slips so badly he is demoted to the AHL, that can leave his future in the NHL uncertain. Despite injuries, he hasn't done a a bad job in St. Louis. That is, until the 09 season. I'm all for second chances, but I'm just not sure about Manny. With the exception of losing to Curtis Sanford twice, and having to be bailed out by Ben Bishop and Chris Holt, he did an okay job in Peoria. Although he couldn't get past the first round of the AHL playoffs, still, he had a 2.00 GAA (10th in the AHL playoffs) and a .935 save % (12th in the AHL playoffs). As much as I'd like to see him get a second chance, I'd also like Bishop to get more time in net, and resume development, with Holt backing him up, who did a great job of it this season. With Jean-Phillippe Lamoureux gone, perhaps signing Legace can leave more possibilities for filling the void in Alaska?

Why the hell did we let Trent Whitfield get away? He was everything the Rivermen could want in a veteran leader. So what if he never was NHL material? He was an invaluable piece of the system in Peoria. With so many talented up-and-comers, it was a no-brainer to keep Trent. He said himself he liked the way things were in Peoria, his family was comfortable there, and he trusted the coaching staff. There was nothing wrong with him or what he was doing. To say he did a tremendous job is an understatement.

I know some of the other teams have bigger issues than these, and this likely is the least of the Blues' worries, but I just don't understand the moves this organization has made recently. Signing Conklin and Tkachuk were some of the best moves made so far, but other than that, it's been quite questionable. I don't want to lose faith and confidence in this team all over again, but it's getting harder and harder not to. The Blues better start making better moves, I want to actually believe in my team when the season starts. And right now, the outlook for that isn't very bright. Here's hoping that can change by the time the Blues hit the ice in October.