GDT #51: Blues @ Jets | 7:00 pm CT | NHLN/BSMW, 101 ESPN

[theohall]

The Winnipeg Jets will try to snap out of their midseason funk Monday when they host the slumping St. Louis Blues in their final game before the All-Star break.

"We haven't loved our last few games and we've got one left going into the break," Jets forward Adam Lowry said after his team's 4-0 loss at home to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday. "It feels like the sky is falling a bit, but we're still in a good spot.

"Obviously we're disappointed with the effort, disappointed with the outcome, three games in a row that we've kind of let slip away. You're going to want to stop this slide as soon as we can."

The Jets have lost three straight games and five of their last seven heading into Monday's contest.

"There is a price to pay in this league," Jets coach Rick Bowness said. "You have to work, you have to compete, and you have to do it every night. As the season progresses, it gets harder.

"Right now, you're seeing what we're seeing, as soon as there is a little adversity -- we handled it well early in the year -- we're not handling it well right now. We had some guys that clearly didn't want to play tonight. The difference makers, you can't even find them out there. Until we make that commitment again to play as a team and we want to win, this is what you get."

Bowness pulled goaltender Connor Hellebuyck from the game hoping to spark a turnaround, but it didn't work. Restless Jets fans booed their team's effort.

"I'm surprised there weren't more boos. I am," Bowness said. "We're still fighting for first place. Now we've gotta turn this around, clearly. We get that game on Monday night, we'll be okay. But regardless of the outcome of that game on Monday night, we need a 60-minute effort. That's all the fans want to see, is a 60-minute effort."

The Blues have lost four consecutive games and six of their past eight while fading from the Western Conference playoff race. They fell 4-2 to the host Colorado Avalanche on Saturday.

"Big picture, it's frustrating," Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington said. "Those are games at a critical time in our season that we want to win. We know we need the points. We just gotta keep finding a way. Fighting every night. Because we're not gonna go quietly."

The Blues got defenseman Robert Bortuzzo off the injured list Saturday after a nine-game absence. But center Robert Thomas missed the game at Colorado after absorbing a slap shot in the groin area on Thursday against the Arizona Coyotes.

He is questionable against the Jets. The Blues also have scoring line forwards Ryan O'Reilly and Pavel Buchnevich out with lower-body injuries.

Noel Acciari centered a scoring line in Thomas' absence and Nikita Alexandrov arrived from the AHL to fill in on the fourth line.

After falling behind 3-0 at Colorado, the Blues rallied within one goal before allowing an empty-netter with three seconds left.

"We were in the game and that's important," Binnington said. "If that's how we're gonna lose -- by playing hard and doing the right things -- and it doesn't go our way, so be it. But we have to do everything in our power to find a way to win. Hopefully, we can bring this with us going into the last game before the bye week. Just put it all out there and regroup."

[theohall]

After embarrassing themselves tonight in the only NHL game being played, the Blues mysteriously have ELEVEN days off for the All-Star break (the only team with this long of a break) which makes no sense given how few games the Blues played at the start of the season. Anyway, that's plenty of time to get them onboard with tanking the rest of the season. The issue, they'd have to tank at a less than 16% winning rate to even have a shot at a "meaningful" lottery pick, assuming the current tankers continue their trends. Just don't see that happening.

[glen a richter]

The notion that the Blues would be in on the 1st or 2nd overall pick is absurd. Like you said they'd need to do some serious tanking and the separation between them and the real dregs of the league is too wide. Right now the only way they'd win the draft lottery is through some heavy duty shenanigans.

[gaijin]

There it is.

[glen a richter]

With a little effort by the Blues and a little lottery luck maybe a top 5 pick is possible.

[WaukeeBlues]

I'm f****ing tired of Doug Armstrong. Sorry, but I am.

He's reason #1 Blues are in this predicament. Since the Cup win:

Positives: Buchnevich, extending Thomas and Kyrou look like savvy moves. Acciari, Leivo and Pitlick have turned into good depth signings.

Negatives: Everything else? We should've moved heaven and earth to keep Petro. Faulk was problem step #1 and it's only gotten worse with this defense. Krug, Scandella, Leddy, none of these decisions look like they're panning out. Treating Perron like a piece of crap instead of the franchise culture fixture he was (oh and he was a pretty good hockey player). I'm sick of him, I have been for a few years now, and it ticks me off ownership seem to think he's the messiah and have extended him.

At this point, I'm at "f it, trade them all." ROR, Tarasenko, Acciari, Barbashev, Mikkola, trade everyone you can on an expiring deal. Hopefully you can get a 1st round pick in there somewhere. This defense will be awful for years though. Thanks Army.

[glen a richter]

As far as the defense goes, and I know Theo can probably speak to this a lot better than I can, how about a buyout or two? Between Faulk, Krug, Leddy and Parayko all on NTC's I know they can't dump all four but good lord if you could buy out two of them that goes a long way. Eat the money, whatever.

Knowing what I know about Parayko and what I think about his personality, I think he's the kind of guy who would willingly waive his NTC if he was asked to. He's not the player he was but he genuinely seems like a nice guy who would do what's best for the team even if it was doing it for a team he'd not be on anymore as a result. Given the other three, I'd be most inclined to keep Leddy because he's the cheapest and on the shortest contract, Faulk 2nd and Krug last. Again, this depends on whether they could buy out any of these contracts. The defense needs to be overhauled dramatically which is ironic because before Army meddled it was once the area which was of least concern.

Mikkola, Barbashev and O'Reilly of course don't have NTC's and should all be moved. Tucker can easily replace Mikkola, Alexandrov can replace Barbashev and O'Reilly? Well guess what man... if you really want to make something work out with the Blues on a team friendly deal then accept that you'll be traded to a contender and just sign back in the offseason. And if you go somewhere else (NYR) and decide you like it there, then no skin off the Blues' nose.

A good question moving forward is this: Let's say the Blues do end up picking top 5 which isn't out of the realm of possibility. Will a top 5 pick be making the team next year? Will Bolduc? Will Snuggerud? How much influx of youth at forward positions is possible next season? That will dictate whether they should even bother bringing back O'Reilly or make any sort of effort to bring back Tarasenko. Does he even still have his trade request outstanding?

[theohall]

Defensively, while every once in awhile Faulk makes mistakes, he is currently the Blues best all-around defenseman.

Krug has turned into a one trick pony - the only thing he contributes his offense, but it's not enough offense to counteract how poor he's become actually defending. His age, size and current play make moving him difficult.

I said this almost a month ago. No idea what's wrong with Parayko, but he's a shell of what he used to be in terms of skating and he's trying to make up for that with positioning and reach, but never having had to rely on being that savvy due to being a really good skater shows. IMO, there is still something up with his back, because that stuff generally doesn't just go away and will linger. I mean they shut him down for most of a season and he's never been the same since that happened. Moving Parayko would be a challenge unless the other GM isn't paying attention.

Leddy is probably the Blues best defensive defenseman and would probably be a better option on the PP than Krug or Faulk on the 2nd unit.

Rosen is okay. At times he is great. Other times his lack of speed gets him caught.

Mikkola and Tucker are what they are. Big, physical defensive defenseman, but that style of play needs forwards to play the right frigging away and that's not happening.

Will write more later.

[glen a richter]

A back injury is what put an end to a surefire hall of fame career for Don Mattingly and baseball, especially 1st base, isn't the tiniest fraction of as physically demanding as being a top pairing defenseman in the NHL.

Parayko's back is 100% the reason for his shitty play and it's a shame because he could have been one of the great ones but now he's a contractual albatross. He won't get any (physically) better with age either, that's the bigger problem.

[theohall]

Continuing...

And we all know what Bortuzzo brings. Honestly, he's a "7th" defenseman considering he's injured at some point for a month or more every season.

While the defense has had it's issues, I believe the bigger flaw is the Blues forwards current style of play over-relying on skill to maintain possession in the offensive zone vice properly forechecking. I'm not saying the forwards need to go out and bang like the big old burly Blues used to do. They just need to force the direction of play by at least bumping whomever gets to the puck if they beat the Blues forward in the forecheck race. Blues forwards aren't even doing that simple thing. Why is this important? It can be used to direct the flow of play, which leads to turnovers, increased offensive zone time and the opportunity for the defense to move up to support offensive zone play. Without it, defensemen are forced to face an opponent easily exiting the zone however the opposition wishes since the forwards aren't even bothering to make the effort to obstruct their first pass or skating lanes. The result - it makes good defensive players look awful, because they are constantly skating backwards and not given the opportunity to truly support forwards in the offensive zone. Blues defenseman keep trying to provide this support, but keep getting screwed when the forwards simply won't make the effort to attempt to direct the flow of play by swooping away instead of delivering even a minor bump to an opponent.

Guess which forward was exceptional at forechecking without having to hit hard, yet still directed the flow of play. Yes, Perron is still doing it in Detroit. His leading by example in terms of how to play in the offensive zone, in any situation, is a huge part of what this current team is missing. And when he struggled last season in the middle of it, the entire Blues team suffered with him. It's like no one understands the ramifications of not directing the flow of play. O'Reilly gets it, but he hasn't had 2 wingers get it other than a short stretch with Saad and Kyrou before ROR got hurt. Kyrou is still a swooper, though. And that swooping got Thomas benched for the better part of 2 seasons. It's gotten Kyrou benched this season. But when the whole team is doing it, you can't bench everyone. This is why Berube might be on the hot seat, and it's not really his fault, IMO. We know he teaches how important straight lines, first man in, and supporting are, but the Blues first men in simply aren't doing their job most shifts.

[glen a richter]

No matter what Army does, I just read the most ridiculous article that essentially suggested trading O’Reilly for a second round pick and having a third team come in to eat some salary in exchange for a 6th round pick from the team getting O’Reilly. I’d like some of the drugs the author took to come up with that drivel.

[WaukeeBlues]

If his back is truly the reason Parayko has been playing so bad then Army should be fired for that alone. That back stuff was going on prior to the extension. I think Army even commented on it about the extension that he had essentially no concern about it. How can you be THAT wrong? I wonder if Parayko is just having "big new shiny contract" syndrome and need to discover more motivation. If it's his back that was a colossal miscalculation by Army. Yet again.

Krug played like a little Tazmanian devil when he was in Boston. It should've been reasonably foreseeable that that style of play would impact his performance and break him down sooner rather than later. That, combined with Faulk being somewhat undersized is yet another example of another miscalculation by Army. I think he tried to ameliorate that by bringing in Scandella and then extending him, which, oh shocker, was also a mistake.

If the Blues can't get at LEAST a 2nd round pick for ROR at the deadline I'd sooner just hold on to him. That's insulting if teams are only offering 3rd round picks or a crappy prospect. A 2nd round pick with a mid-grade prospect should probably be Army's floor on that. I almost don't care what the returns would be for Acciari or Mikkola, just start compiling assets at this point.

Tarasenko, as far as I know, has not rescinded his trade request, no. But he's also not doing himself any favors to get dealt either. He was basically invisible vs Winnipeg. That being said, demand is now up with Pacioretty, Stone, et al being out for the rest of the year and teams needing winger help.