Blues GM in midst of season where third straight season out of the playoffs in play
Blues GM in midst of season where third straight season out of the playoffs in play
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Doug Armstrong wanted to make clear that stepping to the podium on Tuesday wasn't a state of the union address for the St. Louis Blues, a day after the team went winless during a three-game homestand and dropped a game under .500 (23-24-4).
And when the Blues' general manager typically does one of those state of the union updates, it's usually in the 20-minute range, but Armstrong was not going to completely shy away -- nor steer clear -- of looming questions regarding the under-performing Blues, who came into Thursday sitting six points out of the wild card in the Western Conference behind the Vancouver Canucks, who happened to just beat the Blues 5-2 on Monday.
But as the Blues hit the ice one final time prior to heading to Denver to face the Colorado Avalanche on Friday, the Blues had three days to reflect on what's been ailing them, not just the past three days, but virtually as a whole, the entire season.
A team that can't win three games in the row (the only NHL team to not accomplish that) filled with inconsistency after inconsistency.
The only thing the Blues have been consistent at is being inconsistent. And the other thing that's been consistent is a core group that is now on its third coach (from Craig Berube to Drew Bannister to now, Jim Montgomery) and the same ails continue to come up time after time.
"There’s been a belief in a core group of guys here and as we’re trying to retool, we were leaning heavily on a group of guys," Armstrong said. "And as I said, we’ve brought indifferent coaches. And again, the 'Monty' coaching thing wasn’t a reflection on Drew, it was more the ability to get someone of 'Monty’s caliber. But you’re right, three coaches. I hear what they say after games, I hear what they say to you guys about their own play. Obviously I can’t really disagree with them. Like last year, I thought [Pavel] Buchnevich and [Robert] Thomas had good years, {Brayden] Schenn didn’t have a good year. This year, it’s reversed. I think Schenn’s played very well since 'Monty’s been here.
"We haven’t had collectively our top six guys pull the rope in the same direction to allow that support group to really have an impact on our team. I think that’s what you see, at least that’s what I see right now. It’s our inability for our top end players to put long stretches of play together where you have five of your six top forwards and four of your five top 'D' playing good for, not days at a time or weeks at a time, but a month at a time or six weeks at a time. That’s how you go on runs. It’s well-documented that we haven’t gone on a run yet this year. A little bit concerning for our group is that last year with Drew, we went on a nice run and then we got right into the playoffs, instead of getting excited, I think we lost five of six or six out of seven with Nashville (a 5-2 loss Feb. 17, 2024) and that took us right out of it. This year coming out of the Christmas break, we looked at our schedule, we saw teams that we felt we needed to get wins against, not just compete but get wins against and now we’re in January and we’re back in the same spot. We had opportunity to gain ground and we lost ground. That’s doing soul-searching for all of us."
As it should.
But the Blues pulled themselves right back into the conversation with back to back home wins against the Calgary Flames, 2-1 on Jan. 12 and 4-1 on Jan. 14, pulling within one point of the wild card.
Vibes should have been good. The energy should have been exuberant. There was finally another chance at a three-game winning streak, an eighth time at accomplishing that feat, only to fall flat and lose 4-2 against the Utah Hockey Club to start a 1-4-0 slide.
How is that possible? How is it that energy is low and body language is poor when you're in the thick of the race?
"I would say from a manager’s perspective or management, and I talk to Alex [Steen] about it all the time, that’s something that I rely on the coach and the players to figure out," Armstrong said. "We’re up here and we’re just observing what’s going on. I’m not in the room, I don’t know why they say those things, I don’t know why they can’t correct those things, I don’t know why our home record is under .500 (11-13-1), I don’t know why we didn’t embrace the opportunity of a three-game homestand to make hay. But my job is to observe it and then say, ‘OK, what do we need to do moving forward?’ Part of the retool is we’re finding out positive and negatives about a lot of different situations in our group."
One of the immediate responses was to put veteran Brandon Saad on waivers, and the forward went unclaimed, but then it was determined that Saad and the Blues agreed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of terminating his remaining five-year, $22.5 million contract ($4.5 million average annual value) that ran through next season. Saad, who has made just north of $57 million in earnings for his career, has agreed to walk away from roughly north of $4 million in actual salary between this year and next.
At this point, Armstrong can, "Observe. Obviously you talk to other teams about what they’re going through. We are building for something in the future. We are excited about our participation in the World Junior, we’re excited about how guys are playing in the American (Hockey) League right now. We’re not going to use those type of assets to improve or hope to improve on this team. We’re all making statements on where we’re at in the league and our positions. So what I can do is try and observe, try and work with Alex, try and work with 'Monty', try and push these guys to be the best they can be and see where it goes."
It does beg the question since this core group is on its third head coach and on the brink of missing the Stanley Cup playoffs for the third straight year, the first time that's happened to the Blues since coming out of the 2004-05 lockout from 2005-08: does the core need to be altered or shaken up. What can Armstrong do at this point?
"It’s not like I don’t talk to other managers," he said. "It has to fit for everybody. There’s a lot of situations where I hang the phone up and I say, ‘That sounds really good for him, I’m not sure what’s in it for me.’ Part of it maybe I overvalue some of our guys. That’s part of what Alex and I are going through now with 'Monty' is where are we at, who’s going to be here the longest and are we correct in our assessment of where they’re at."
In the meantime, Montgomery is tasked with trying to get a top six playing at peak form in unison.
"It’s why you love coaching and it’s to try and figure out how to get more out of any individual, but your top six, the Schenn line for five or six weeks, really has been carrying our team (with) tempo, pace, production, and every time they were going over the boards, they were a threat," Montgomery said. "That’s kind of dissipated a little bit in the last three games and no one has taken the mantle, and that’s where Thomas and Buchnevich have done it historically in their career. The best predictor of the future is your past. It’s just a matter of time before they get cooking."
