Jason Millen: Blues Jekyll/Hyde season continues versus Pens, Flyers and Trade Deadline Blues Jekyll/Hyde season continues with loss to Pens, Flyers and Trade Deadline Preview

Honest question... Do Blues fans have any interest in Marc-Andre Fleury? Somehow reports are coming out of Pittsburgh saying STL... how would you guys feel about Fleury?

Because I keep hearing how Armstrong screwed up this team in the off season and then you can point to this because Brouwer had a good play offs everyone forgets how bad he usually was in the regular season.
"Todd Cordell

Maybe it's because I watch a lot of Calgary Flames games, but my choice is Troy Brouwer.

He plays 17 minutes a night, his four most frequent linemates are Sean Monahan, Sam Bennett, Kris Versteeg, and Johnny Gaudreau, and he plays on the 'top' power play unit. Despite all that, he is producing at a 32-point pace over 82 games. He also has horrific underlying numbers so it's not like he is driving play and helping out in other ways. How's that for $4.5 million per?"

Honest question... Do Blues fans have any interest in Marc-Andre Fleury? Somehow reports are coming out of Pittsburgh saying STL... how would you guys feel about Fleury?
- j.boyd919

If the Pens take back Allen I would feel good about it. But what is the other cost?

Well Jammer there have been coverage issues all year for sure. But also at crucial times of the game a lot of posts are hit. Like on the 5-3 Tarasenko hits the post yet again. Other than that their five on three was full of mostly terrible puck decisions.

Lehtera still getting the ice time he is getting is a big factor in this team sucking period. There is no good reason for this any longer. How about scratching him a few games? His play is like a reflection of Allen's play this season. If anyone doubts how good or bad Lehtera is I guess you also did not watch the World Cup when the best were playing each other and how bad henlooked in that tournament. SLOW. Way too slow. No shot.

Also missed in the last game was how well Fluery played. So let's cut the team some slack when you play a quality team with a goaltender playing great. I just have issues with the blown coverages and all the lazy stick penalties, two of which were by Lehterrible.

At this point what do the Blues have to lose by not trying Barbashev in his place? A kid who is bigger, faster and has as good if not better vision and appears to manage thenpuck better....what am I missing here? Experience is the only factor and that is silly. Because by that logic shouldn't you just dress Hullie, because he is probably just as fast as Lehterrible is right now.

I have also grown quite tired of Tarasenko's laziness in his own end. He makes so many poor decisions with the puck in the wrong areas in the offensive zone, a la Oshie. He's a big dude who should go back to forechecking instead of floating. It's a waste of Schwartz to have him out there as a glorified puck fetcher for Tarasenko.

Also the Blues puck support is just terrible on the forecheck. A guy standing just outside the play in the corners? What the hell is that?

This is classy and shows the great character of Hitchcock.

http://www.stltoday.com/s...63-8550-ae5cad1095e0.html

If the Pens take back Allen I would feel good about it. But what is the other cost?
- BluemanGuruu

Yeah I have no idea, I can't imagine the Pens want Allen. Dunno why STL is even being mentioned.

I would not be opposed to him.

Yeah I have no idea, I can't imagine the Pens want Allen. Dunno why STL is even being mentioned.
- j.boyd919

As I told a number of Pens fans at the game on Saturday, MAF to the Blues makes zero sense. The Blues are not going to tie up 10+mm in goalies next year while also giving up a decent asset to get him. No way the Pens take Allen coming back the other way.

Bishop doesn't make a ton of sense necessarily but it's at least more plausible than MAF imho.

Also the Blues puck support is just terrible on the forecheck. A guy standing just outside the play in the corners? What the hell is that?
- BluemanGuruu

They had very little, if ANY, forecheck support on Saturday. At least 5 times i made the comment that you might as well not send the 1st guy in on the forecheck if you aren't going to support it.

As I told a number of Pens fans at the game on Saturday, MAF to the Blues makes zero sense. The Blues are not going to tie up 10+mm in goalies next year while also giving up a decent asset to get him. No way the Pens take Allen coming back the other way.

Bishop doesn't make a ton of sense necessarily but it's at least more plausible than MAF imho.
- Jason Millen

Exacccctly. Agree 100%

This team has been awful this season no other words can explain how we have played. We are missing some big body bangers like what we had last season.

Lehtera would look nice in Las Vegas! Not soon enough!

I think at bare minimum he needs to be replaced by Berglund i think he has earned his contract this year and im not a huge fan of him.

I think the team has looked lazy a good portion of the time this season and definitely let Hitch down.

Army is a horrible GM and needs to be gone! He hands out horrible contracts (Lehtera, Berglund with NTC, Jbo, Allen's new deal)

Army needs to be smart and go out and get another true scorer besides Tarasenko we could really use it. Especially with Fabbri being out which not saying he is our true scorer but he hustles a lot and makes opportunities for the other guys.

Just a couple of my opinions

OK...As a fan, I would love to see Fleury. However, the Blues have a bigger concern then Allen, and that is the Shattenkirk situation. They, and Armstrong, cannot afford to lose him for nothing. A conditional #1 will not do it. Armstrong has GOT to get creative so here is a proposal, pending Shattenkirk's approving an extension with the Blues at 7mil/per:

Pietrangelo to Edmonton for Draisaitl as the majors of a deal.

This will make some Blues fans upset, but would you rather just give up Shatty? This way Shatty gets the money he reportedly wants, and the #1 job on D, and the Blues get the #1 center they desperately need and are paying only about 1.5 mil more next season. Frankly, Parayko is ready to handle additional load.

Edmonton gets the #1 RD they desperately need, leadership, and a guy that is signed through 2020.

OK...As a fan, I would love to see Fleury. However, the Blues have a bigger concern then Allen, and that is the Shattenkirk situation. They, and Armstrong, cannot afford to lose him for nothing. A conditional #1 will not do it. Armstrong has GOT to get creative so here is a proposal, pending Shattenkirk's approving an extension with the Blues at 7mil/per:

Pietrangelo to Edmonton for Draisaitl as the majors of a deal.

This will make some Blues fans upset, but would you rather just give up Shatty? This way Shatty gets the money he reportedly wants, and the #1 job on D, and the Blues get the #1 center they desperately need and are paying only about 1.5 mil more next season. Frankly, Parayko is ready to handle additional load.

Edmonton gets the #1 RD they desperately need, leadership, and a guy that is signed through 2020.
- kcblues

No, that wouldn't be a smart move, shats cant play as a number 1 on D, hes a great pp specialist and 2nd pairing guy but he'd be exposed going against the opponents top players every night.

OK...As a fan, I would love to see Fleury. However, the Blues have a bigger concern then Allen, and that is the Shattenkirk situation. They, and Armstrong, cannot afford to lose him for nothing. A conditional #1 will not do it. Armstrong has GOT to get creative so here is a proposal, pending Shattenkirk's approving an extension with the Blues at 7mil/per:

Pietrangelo to Edmonton for Draisaitl as the majors of a deal.

This will make some Blues fans upset, but would you rather just give up Shatty? This way Shatty gets the money he reportedly wants, and the #1 job on D, and the Blues get the #1 center they desperately need and are paying only about 1.5 mil more next season. Frankly, Parayko is ready to handle additional load.

Edmonton gets the #1 RD they desperately need, leadership, and a guy that is signed through 2020.
- kcblues

Yeah, Shats as our #1 D would be a nightmare. He is not near Petro's level.

And Fleury's playoff numbers most seasons are about the same as Allen's are right now. Why would we give up assets for a side-grade?

OK...As a fan, I would love to see Fleury. However, the Blues have a bigger concern then Allen, and that is the Shattenkirk situation. They, and Armstrong, cannot afford to lose him for nothing. A conditional #1 will not do it. Armstrong has GOT to get creative so here is a proposal, pending Shattenkirk's approving an extension with the Blues at 7mil/per:

Pietrangelo to Edmonton for Draisaitl as the majors of a deal.

This will make some Blues fans upset, but would you rather just give up Shatty? This way Shatty gets the money he reportedly wants, and the #1 job on D, and the Blues get the #1 center they desperately need and are paying only about 1.5 mil more next season. Frankly, Parayko is ready to handle additional load.

Edmonton gets the #1 RD they desperately need, leadership, and a guy that is signed through 2020.
- kcblues

Um, no.

With Julien gone, does Hitch end up in Boston for a Backes reunion?

How do you guys feel about the Blues hitching themselves to Yeo with coaches like Julien and Gallant available? I expect there will be more coach shuffling before the trade deadline. Will Cooper also be let go for Hitch, Julien or someone else?

How do you guys feel about the Blues hitching themselves to Yeo with coaches like Julien and Gallant available? I expect there will be more coach shuffling before the trade deadline. Will Cooper also be let go for Hitch, Julien or someone else?
- Jason Millen

Blues are stuck with Yeo now unless they absolutely bomb the rest of the way

Cant think of who is out there when you have a coach

Only got to see the first period last night but it appears the 2nd and 3rd were much better

How do you guys feel about the Blues hitching themselves to Yeo with coaches like Julien and Gallant available? I expect there will be more coach shuffling before the trade deadline. Will Cooper also be let go for Hitch, Julien or someone else?
- Jason Millen

There's really nothing that can be done about it now except to give Yeo a fair chance to coach this team for a while.

DA's really handled the entire coaching situation poorly for a couple of years now in flirting with Mike Babcock while Hitchcock was still employed, which is a classless move followed by basically just sitting back and allowing Hitchcock to dictate the terms of his year to year decision on whether or not he wanted to return.

He was all weepy at the press conference the other day because he said he had to fire his best friend.

Never hire friends. You run the risk of losing perspective when you do.

I lost a lot of respect for him for the way he's dealt with the coaching of this team.

No, that wouldn't be a smart move, shats cant play as a number 1 on D, hes a great pp specialist and 2nd pairing guy but he'd be exposed going against the opponents top players every night.
- .....

I don't even think Shatty is really effective in the top four to be honest. He is a power play specialist that plays better all around than the traditional power play specialists.

How do you guys feel about the Blues hitching themselves to Yeo with coaches like Julien and Gallant available? I expect there will be more coach shuffling before the trade deadline. Will Cooper also be let go for Hitch, Julien or someone else?
- Jason Millen

I do not care for Gallant and his dinosaur ways. Julien is always tempting. But I would like to see what Yeo can do. He was screwed in Minnesota despite what some pundits say and the Post Disgrace likes to mention how good the Wild are now.

But the Wild this year have dmen with more experience, not many injuries, Parise playing on the third line and Eric Staal instead of Vanek, and Staal playing more like his best. Plus Dub playing even better. The addition of Staal eaffected the entire line up.

Brudreau is also a regular season genius.

I think Yeo has some great experience and I think he is the kind of coach that can really push this Blues team. A few years ago his Wild team wa great and smoked a heVily favored Blues team and gave Chicago some fits.

Gallant though is not all that different from Hitch. I want a younger guy who is willing e flexible enough to look at things like advanced stats. I am not saying rely upon them but find a way to use them to improve your decision making.

There's really nothing that can be done about it now except to give Yeo a fair chance to coach this team for a while.

DA's really handled the entire coaching situation poorly for a couple of years now in flirting with Mike Babcock while Hitchcock was still employed, which is a classless move followed by basically just sitting back and allowing Hitchcock to dictate the terms of his year to year decision on whether or not he wanted to return.

He was all weepy at the press conference the other day because he said he had to fire his best friend.

Never hire friends. You run the risk of losing perspective when you do.

I lost a lot of respect for him for the way he's dealt with the coaching of this team.
- bcallaway

That is very true. If you hire friends you can never hire them to important jobs or you have to have some guy you can trust that is an a hole enough to fire your friend.


Armstrong should no longer mess with Team Canada. If his chumming around bs is how he makes decisions then he does not possess the necessary self-discipline to running a McDonalds let alone a pro hockey club.

Looks like the Blues played another solid road game. I forgot to record or watch it last night. I saw the high lights, not too shabby.