What happens January 4th?

[flyingnote38]

The Blues went 6-6-1 in December, finishing 1-4-1. They have gone from one win out of first to one loss out of 4 th in the division. The west is deep enough that a lengthy stretch of bad hockey is not inconsequential. If my last post was "a reaction to a single game," then I'm Bill Murray in Groundhog's Day cause I keep seeing that game over and over. Anyone not think the Blues looked slow compared to the Preds? Anyone have any trouble picking out the real elite defenseman on the ice last night? (Hint: he scored 2 goals including the game winner)

So why do I bring up Jan 4 th? Well the Blues start the new year with back to back games in Anaheim and San Jose. They haven't won a game in California in 2 years (?) and playing like they did last night, I don't see them beating the Ducks. Then they travel up the coast to San Jose for the back half. If we chalk up two more losses, we run our string to 1-6-1 (eg), what happens then?
Nothing?
Hitch gets fired?
We recall Paajarvi and re waive him?
Recall Rattie and McRae and waive Lapierre and Ott?
We make a trade? Or trades?

If we make a trade involving core players, who gets voted off the island? Oshie seems to have gotten a little desperation in his play like he's heard the rumors. Berglund? Not a huge amount of cap relief there. Steen? Seems like the most plausible option. I like Steen a lot. But his salary is consistent with his career half season last year, not his career production. I don't see how you could move a Defenseman other than maybe Cole at the moment. With the ones making elite money being the on ice liabilities, you can't give up on them but you can't afford to deal the others with out making matters worse.

Moving Berglund and Steen subtracts $9 mill which would allow you to add guy making $6 mill and still have some left over cap space for other deals or to ink Tank next summer.

It will be interesting to see how things play out over the next 3 months.

[ecbm]

I'll say it again, I think this is overlooked by many.

Berglund's new contract is for $3.7M per year. Tank could be given a raise from $900K to $4.5M+ just by clearing that salary. So moving him would bring significant cap relief but then again that completely bloated salary, guaranteed for two more seasons after this one, is a big part of why there is no taker so far. Such a self-inflicted wound.

Jackman, Berglund, Ott, Lapierre: 4 guys, $10.5M cap hit and who, to use baseball terms, offer nothing above replacement level players.

Something needs doing, something that will jolt this team. Someone here recently cited the analogy of the Allen Craig trade and the effect that had on the Cardinals-probably what this club needs. But only because I'm not an advocate of firing a coach mid-season. If this isn't turned around by the end of the season I'd can Hitch for Bylsma or De Boer in a heartbeat.

[flyingnote38]

Berglund's new contract is for $3.7M per year. Tank could be given a raise from $900K to $4.5M+ just by clearing that salary. So moving him would bring significant cap relief

We only get that relief if we deal Berglund for future assets only (picks, prospects). I don't think we get better simply through 'addition by subtraction' of Berglund. So if we get a player back that helps us short term, that cuts into the cap savings. Berglund could be a piece but not the only piece for that reason.

An idea that would work for us (maybe not the Bruins) would be Berglund for Soderberg. We'd save about $2 mill this year and would arguably be better on ice. Soderberg is an impending UFA so he'd be a 'rental' that we likely couldn't afford to resign given our cap situation. Of course we could afford him if we still had that money we gave to (that TV preacher) Steve Ott.

[glen a richter]

I'd be in favor of bringing up McRae now. Rattie, no.

[APOD]

As much as we (the fanbase) love the kid, I'm all for trading Oshie.

Bergy and Rattie to leafs for Kadri? add Paajarvi in the mix for a pick (we don't drop cap space for next year as Kadri will probaly be $4M contract)

Rattie for whatever reason is still not ready to be up here with the big boys and with guys like Jaskin and Fabbri (who I see them signing for a cup run like the did Schwartz) his spot is easily taken.

I like a Lucic trade but they have to keep some of his cap hit. Oshie for lucic they keep some cap.


Ryan O'Reilly is rumored to be avalible to bad his contract is double his worth, him and Statsny worked great together in Colorado.


I can see why Army has said that we probaly wont be moving anyone, any trade worth it to us isn't any good for the cap it just moves bodies around that may or may not improve our game.

And as much as the defense has been in a funk this year I still don't want to move anyone out. Thats kinda where I like the lucic trade another north south forward who can score.

[glen a richter]

As much as we (the fanbase) love the kid, I'm all for trading Oshie.

Bergy and Rattie to leafs for Kadri? add Paajarvi in the mix for a pick (we don't drop cap space for next year as Kadri will probaly be $4M contract)

Rattie for whatever reason is still not ready to be up here with the big boys and with guys like Jaskin and Fabbri (who I see them signing for a cup run like the did Schwartz) his spot is easily taken.

I like a Lucic trade but they have to keep some of his cap hit. Oshie for lucic they keep some cap.


Ryan O'Reilly is rumored to be avalible to bad his contract is double his worth, him and Statsny worked great together in Colorado.


I can see why Army has said that we probaly wont be moving anyone, any trade worth it to us isn't any good for the cap it just moves bodies around that may or may not improve our game.

And as much as the defense has been in a funk this year I still don't want to move anyone out. Thats kinda where I like the lucic trade another north south forward who can score.

Rattie seems a bit puck hoggish due to his stats down in Chicago, and I can't say that with 100% certainty having not seen him play. Maybe everyone just tends to pass him the puck, but with his size, if he's a puck hog he better have some slick moves or he'll be beaten off the puck more often than not at the NHL level. I don't think he'll pan out.

I also don't think Colorado trades within the division. I would have zero problem with trading one of the big three d-men. We need a different look on defense, one which was sacrificed when they traded Polak. Who would have thought his departure would have that much of a negative impact on the entire team?

[APOD]

We did lose some toughness on the D, but I think it's the personal issues a certain player is having and the amount of injuries the D has had that may be this issue. I'm hoping we move past that in a couple of weeks. I'm just not convinced we need to mess with moving defensemen yet. But I'm all for adding toughness to the forward lines as long as he scores too.

[ecbm]

Rattie for whatever reason is still not ready to be up here with the big boys and with guys like Jaskin and Fabbri (who I see them signing for a cup run like the did Schwartz) his spot is easily taken.

Strikes me as hasty judgment based on the Blues for whatever reason not feeling like they should call him up this season. Not saying they should do that now, I don't know, but I don't see any reason to assume that he could be "easily replaced" in the pipeline by guys who weren't in the organization a year ago.

We did lose some toughness on the D, but I think it's the personal issues a certain player is having and the amount of injuries the D has had that may be this issue. I'm hoping we move past that in a couple of weeks. I'm just not convinced we need to mess with moving defensemen yet. But I'm all for adding toughness to the forward lines as long as he scores too.

Agreed. The Polak trade is not why the D is so poor-he didn't play premium minutes anyway. It's the injuries to Bouw and Gunnarson and Pietrangelo's horrible form (distraction?). That's all. This D corps can be very very effective even without an intimidating physical presence. The lack of effectiveness is leading people to fixate on the lack of physicality. This wasn't a really physical D over the last couple years either when the Blues were among the very best defensive teams in the league.

[glen a richter]

I can't even imagine any situation where they bring Fabbri in at any point this season. Barbashev maybe, but Fabbri no.

[Oaklandblue]

I think Hitch should change tactics. The way the team is sized up now, they won't be very effective with the style of play he's been stressing. They need a modified playbook until the big guns get their bodies - and heads - back together. We have a ton of firepower at our disposal now with a highly questionable D. Get Steen off special teams and line him up to snipe. Shatt and JayBo should be our top D pairing, I'd demote Pie and Jack down to 3rd pairing and run Butler/Lind or some combo (Butler/Shatt or if Gunner is back, Shatt/Gunner) on second pairing and give them all orders to hit anything that moves. I'd put Bergy on wing and get him setup to shoot. If he can't do that early-on, I'd make him ride pine. Ott needs to piss some people off tonight, he's contributing at a very cruising-along level, he can do better and should be pushed to. Punish the Ducks physically and make them get sloppy. Marty is hungry. We can win this.

[not_a_wings_fan]

It's a tough call to say the least.

While we are still decent standings wise, it feels like we are on a par with Edmonton results wise. The expectations for this side are sky high, and the results compared to them can only be considered epic failure.

Only a few options here for the team:

First option is pick who you want to keep and blow it up. I mean total rebuild that bitch. This core of forwards has had years to get something done and they haven't won shit. Not. shit. Steen is over-valued. Backes is getting longer in the tooth with no significant accomplishment playoff wise. Oshie isn't all that and a bag of chips. For those guys (and bergie...and others...) there's really no more upside or potential - What you see is what you get and it's time to critically evaluate the actual value of those players and make some big-boy choices. You have some quality on the back line and some also rans that might have some value. You have some veterans that won't make it to the success of any rebuild, and they have value right now - so drop them too. Get younger, faster, and more skilled - and then get a new coach who is better suited to let guys like Ott out to pasture rather than out on the top line. Hitch isn't the coach for a rebuild, so dump him too.

The next option is to tweak the team and figure out what is missing, but I just don't know what that means with this group. It's not like anyone is going to give you Crosby or Malkin for Bergie - no matter how much people think that would be teh awesomez. Paarvagina has zero value, so stop talking about including him in any deal. Steve Ott is over paid and no team is going to add "veteran leadership and grit" for a cup run in exchange for anything of value for the current season. Bergland has no value either, tbh - his contract and his play make him more albatross than commodity. So what do you do to free up space and buy some help in this scenario? Start dealing from the "core" of talent? You don't really upgrade your team all that much and you screw with your locker room chemistry, and I am not sure that's a smart play either. It's also putting you back towards option one above - a rebuild.

The third choice, and the one the Blues will take I am absolutely certain, is to stand pat, let the chips fall, make excuses later, and talk about what could/might/should have been. The off season may be different this year, but they won't do anything major between now and playoffs. We got our guys. Support them or don't, but this is the team we are taking into the playoffs...and out early.

Btw, my personal preference is fire hitch, bring in someone with more offensive mind and tendency towards youth and skill, and rebuild around Tank and Schwartz and Shatty is the best plan here. Fire sale, boys. Everyone but those guys is out the door and let's tank it!

[abc789987]

So, what happening?

[flyingnote38]

Blues showed up Jan 3rd, so nothing is happening today(unless less you count Lapierre's healthy scratch as a preemptive strike).
Randall Richey at Hockey Buzz did make a pretty good case that Brad Shaw should be fired as the first change.

[glen a richter]

Tarasenko/Lehtera/Schwartz and Jaskin/Fabbri/Barbashev sounds like two damn good scoring lines to work around in the near future. If the eventual goal is to shed salaries by getting rid of plateaued veterans like Oshie, Steen, Backes, et al. That's what's coming down the pike anyway, it won't be a rebuild so much as a replace.

[STLADOGG]

Tarasenko/Lehtera/Schwartz and Jaskin/Fabbri/Barbashev sounds like two damn good scoring lines to work around in the near future. If the eventual goal is to shed salaries by getting rid of plateaued veterans like Oshie, Steen, Backes, et al. That's what's coming down the pike anyway, it won't be a rebuild so much as a replace.

Shows how important drafting is.

[APOD]

Blues showed up Jan 3rd, so nothing is happening today(unless less you count Lapierre's healthy scratch as a preemptive strike).
Randall Richey at Hockey Buzz did make a pretty good case that Brad Shaw should be fired as the first change.

This is a good point! We keep bitching about the pie and others on the D not doing their job.......maybe it's the coaching. Though we have had solid D with Shaw in the past seasons (with Hitch) maybe we should let Shaw go now and freshen up the D. I don't think our D could get any worse right now anyway.

Sounds like Lindstrom might be put on waivers here soon, it was a good idea just didn't work out.

Just to add fire Jagr is available as a rental......