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The St.Louis Blues have, in the last four years, finished first in their division twice and second twice. They made the second round four years ago, lost to the Kings, then went on to be eliminated three straight years in the first round.

If you don't look into it at all, then that is alarming and it makes sense that people are instantly talking about a roster overhaul or a change in coaches.

But if you look into it, those are some pretty stupid, panicky, automatic reactions.

People forget that the Playoffs are massively luck-driven to the point of near-randomness and they just want to fire every coach whose team loses in the first round. But I reiterate: that is dumb.

Not only are the Blues a great team, but they have reason to think they'll be even better next season. Jake Allen is ascending to greatness and is still young. Tarasenko is only going to get better. Alex Pietrangelo is just 25.

So, the team is likely to be even better as they grow together and learn from their mistakes. Just because we're an instant access, get-it-for-me-now, Tweet based, hot-take society doesn't mean that's a smart way to build a hockey team.

Ken Hitchcock is one of, if not the very best coach in the NHL. Firing him would be dumb and he'd be instantly hired by another team ten seconds after being dismissed.

The roster is great and will only get better.

It is completely illogical to base team building decisions on one six game series and ignore a very successful 82 game season.

Furthermore, their supposed run of first-round failure is a joke.

They lost in the first round, the last three years, to the Kings, Blackhawks and Wild. That is one hell of a bad run of tough first-round opponents.

They are being screwed over by the NHL's wacky seeding system. Despite being one of the best regular season teams, they haven't gotten a single decent first round match-up the whole time.

Yes, you need to play the hand you're dealt, but it doesn't mean that it doesn't matter who you play. The Blues have had to play legit Cup Contenders in each first round over the last three years and who knows, if they got a good match-up, maybe they'd already have won a Cup.

You can't base team decisions on could-haves and should-haves, but you also can't blow things up just because of a run of bad luck. You must remember that luck is a factor and that if you keep being competitive, then eventually you'll see some good luck come your way.

So the Blues shouldn't do anything different. Certainly they shouldn't panic and make moves based on going 2-4 over a week and a half against a team that was - since December when they acquired Dubnyk - practically the best team in hockey.

Their roster doesn't need an overhaul.

They don't need to fire their coach.

They need to continue down the path they are on and trust that with all three of their best players being under 25 and an absolute ton of depth, that they'll eventually get to their goal.

It's easy to fire the coach. It's easy to revamp your team. But it's hard to be patient and ignore the commentary from the cheap-seats.

The Blues should obviously work on improving their team, but they should do so smartly and act the same way this summer that they would have if they'd made it farther in the playoffs.

Thanks for reading.

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