What do you get when you mix young talent, veteran leadership and strong goaltending?  The 2008-09 St. Louis Blues.

With all of the rookies being brought in this season, sportswriters are pre-ranking the Blues to finish very low in the Western Conference standings.  Matthew Barnaby of ESPN stated that the Blues “will struggle again.”  John Buccigross of ESPN added to Barnaby’s beliefs, projecting that, “This season looks like a speed bump.”  He also went on to say that the Blues will only rank thirteenth in the Western Conference by season’s end.  TSN.ca’s featured articles “30 Teams in 30 Days” made the statement, “…Blues fans- just wait until next season.”  With all of this negativity, how can Blues fans get pumped about the season?

Continue reading "A Glimpse into the Future: The 2008-09 St. Louis Blues"

If you have ever seen the movie “Slap Shot,” you probably know that player/coach Reg Dunlop got pretty annoyed by people telling him how to run his team.  In a bar, a man approached Dunlop and simply stated, “Get the power-play going, eh?” Reg’s response:  “Yea, we’re working on it,” while looking away and paying attention to something else going on in the distance.  To me, I feel like head coach Andy Murray has the same response to media and the St. Louis Blues fans.  It doesn’t seem to me that Murray is putting an honest effort to improve the Blues’ power-play. 

Every game has shown the same strategies; send in five forwards and have them shoot the puck in and set-up the same way.  If Murray attempted a few new designs and tried a few different players on the power-play, there could be better results.

Continue reading "New Power-Play Strategy Needed"