Follow me on twitter Follow @stlgoalie Well the boos and blues for Blues fans likely continued to mount on Monday with the trading of Paul Stastny for a 1st round prospect and prospect Erik Foley or a 4th round pick (if Foley doesn’t sign with the Blues). This blogger is hoping that Foley can be signed.
The week started abysmally with a 4-0 drubbing by the Nashville Predators in yet another uninspired effort by the team mired in a 6 game losing streak.
The first goal was the result of a lazy stickwork penalty by Carl Gunnarson and started with coverage issues between Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester. It was furthered by Jake Allen going down early and coupling that with poor low, glove positioning.
The second Predators goal was the result of a terrible pinch play by Alex Pietrangelo. Actually, you really can’t even call it a pinch play. He appears to be standing at the blue line, marking the Predators forward in his own end which allows for an easy outlet pass for a 2 on 1 break.
Things don’t get much better for Gunnarsson and Pietrangelo on the 3rd goal with both of them leaving 2 Predators open down low near Allen. How both defensemen end up too high in the zone on the play is baffling. Gunnarsson is all the way out at the top of the circles.
Pietrangelo caps off his worst Blues game in a long time with a poor giveaway at the Nashville blue line that turns into a breakaway goal against. On the breakaway, I would love to have seen Allen skate out to go challenge the free puck.
Pietrangelo has been struggling, pointless in 6 games and -8 in those games. He only has points in 2 of his last 12 games. The Norris caliber play that he displayed early in the season has been alluding him.
With the loss, general manager’s Doug Armstrong shifted gears for the trade deadline, finding a deal to send Paul Stastny to the Jets. He admitted as much in an interview saying “after our results I called Paul and said that there’s an opportunity to go to Winnipeg, would you be interested…. He had already broached the subject with him last week, saying “that I hoped not to get to this point after our game against Nashville….
For Armstrong, he believes it “gives us an opportunity to continue on our path with our younger players and prospects…. The interview gave a sense that the Blues could have landed Mike Hoffman or Max Pacioretty if he would have been willing to part with Klim Kostin, Tage Thompson, Robert Thomas, or Jordan Kyrou.
Coach Mike Yeo shared an insight saying, the trade deadline is “not just a day… and that, “no excuses on our part, but I know this day has been weighing heavily on a lot of players’ minds…. Yeo added he finally thinks they “have nothing to lose… and felt “like we have been playing not to lose in certain situations….
In Stastny’s parting interview, he mentioned “keeping the doors open for what might happen this summer…, appearing to leave open the idea of returning this summer.
While the Blues were able to go 15-4-2 after trading Kevin Shattenkirk, that seems a lot less likely this season. With Shattenkirk gone, Colton Parayko and, to a lesser extent, Joel Edmundson were able to assume greater roles, something both were ready to do. With Stastny gone, I don’t see anyone being able to step into that 2nd line center role without a big drop off in production.
It’s a great day for hockey.
Fellow Hockeybuzz bloggers Nashville Predator's Paul McCann, Winnipeg Jet's Peter Tessier and Minnesota Wild's Dan Wallace have generously agreed to a friendly charity wager. We were hoping to do the whole division but don't have it fully represented yet. The blogger whose team finishes the highest the standings at the end of the year gets to pick a charity to whom the others will donate in their name.