John Gove: A Busy Offseason Lies Ahead for the Blues

I'll resist all urges for poop-posting and offer an outsider's perspective on two things that Blues writers don't seem to want to confront - and I've already read a couple of these "what are the next steps" articles, the other was Rutherford in the Athletic.

a) Jordan Binnington is unlikely to ever again play like he did from mid-January through early-June 2019. Obviously those ~6 months can never be taken away from him but he's sure looking a hell of a lot like Cam Ward 2.0. Win a Cup out of nowhere in a blaze of glory and then everyone spends the next 10 years pretending you're an elite goalie when you really aren't. .910 regular season, .899 / 3.59 in these playoffs, .851 / 4.72 in last year's playoffs. 9 straight playoff losses since Game 7 of the Final. $6M is a pretty stiff bill for all of that. Plus he's a psycho nutcase but that wouldn't matter if his numbers were better. I don't really know what they do there other than hope or get a team like Buffalo to take that contract.

b) Berube was the right guy for the right group of players at the right time but he runs a system that is very physically and emotionally taxing and very difficult to keep up year in and year out. I know the immediate response is "he just won a friggin' Cup 2 years ago" but there are a bunch of good coaches available and that's one thing you can easily do something about.

One more thing. If the Blues can let their Captain and best defender walk in free agency, what did that say to every other player on the team? I know Armstrong is known as a no-nonsense kind of guy but winning consistently playing a physical game and always dancing on the edge of being known as cheap-shot a-holes requires a level of commitment that you'd like to see returned from management. I'm betting that move, logical as it may have seemed in a vacuum, left a bigger mark on the psyche of that team than anyone realizes.

They have a big job ahead of them. Binghamton and Krug were massive overpays. Petro....well it was hard to let him go but in hindsight, it would have been better to pay him. Faulk was an overpay also. Gotta live with it or can you expose one of these overpaid vets and lose him for nothing to Seattle? Will Seattle give St Louis a pick to leave one of these players exposed?

I think moving on from Petro was the right move.

I also think any action besides a complete rebuild merely delays the inevitable and wastes years for a bubble playoff team. I'm always about selling high and I think the team has already waited too long on several players.

I never would have signed Schenn or Binnington to that contract. Faulk had a good year but him and Krug did not fit their identity which further exasperated things.

However, in defense of Binnington, he did not play out of his mind during the 2019 playoffs. He was outplayed by Rask and Bishop, he was about on par with Hellebyuck, and outplayed Jones. His save percentage during the cup run was only .914 I believe.

There are a few things you need to know, all goalies are psyco's or they would not be goalies. If Binny had any kind of defense in front of him this year, he would of been a whole lot better! When you have two horrible over paid d-men $14M of their salary cap the next 6 years) who are not Western Conference Defensemen, they need to be in the Eastern Conference. Those two signings will end up being the end of Doug Armstrong along with the resigning of Jaden Schwartz. I think he will hit Buffalo once again, I think his target is Jack Eichel. The coaching staff will change next Mike Van Ryn will be the next head coach of the Coyotes according to people here in Arizona.

There are a few things you need to know, all goalies are psyco's or they would not be goalies.
- IBleedBlu1

Yeah, I know what you mean but there are psycho goalies and then there's Binnington.

Still can’t believe they spent all the money on Faulk and scandella???

Let pietrangelo walk????

Hey I like Krug but pietrangelo does other thing so well.

At least they have good young players like Thomas kyrou.

Have to cut bait with bozak Schwartz Hoffman and inject those guys on a top 6 role.

They were missing key players. PLAYERS, not one or two but three.
Wallman was coming on and that correlated in their play the last ten games. Well he missed the last one and what first three?
Perron never played. Sundqvist never played.
Those are big pieces.
Tarasenko played with a wonky groin.
Faulk missed two games. Bortuzzo two. Bortz is not a make or break but he's depth.
It's not the reason but with all of that you add in one of the very worst officiated series I've seen.

The team lacks more speed on the front end. At the end of the season Clifford was a healthy scratch. He should have still been so with options like Joshua and Konstin.

The teams not that bad. Faulk's over all game is much improved.

Petro's a really good player bit not at that price and age. That same logic should have applied to Schenn. Maybe it did 9whatever million vs 6.5. But the age and contract length. Still Schenn's predicted decline was the last three years.

Schwartz's game has changed in scoring but he's still a valuable player. Good news his cost should be under $4million.

Bozak played great since he came back. He would be a good fourth line center who can jump up the line up to fill in and take face offs.

You need a fast skater on the ROR line to back check bc his speed and Perron's is limited to average.

This series as pretty much all Blues games are won and lost on the Blue lines. When the D holds the lines and they get support they dominate, even today. Petro was never really a guy who held his dline nor did he regularly clear the crease. Him and JayBo ALWAYS had yrouble down low and with the back door bc of this. JayBo was washed up but played his best in the play offs bc he's good at containing players and the Blues were back checking hard.

This team wasn't playing successful hockey enough. It doesn't matter the coach. You see it with all the good teams and that's playing as a unit with good puck support in all three zones. There was bad decision making with the puck and they got caught being spaced out and the Avs speed exacerbated the problem.

In the offensive zone the D too often bailed on the lines. Or when they got the puck they shot high or got it blocked high spacing out the players. Colorado was great at fronting the pucks. Good at forcing the Blues to go where they wanted and apparently great at not getting calked for interference. If the Blues were playing well not every player would be spacing out from the guy with the puck. Two should have been getting closer to give two short options. One should have always been in front of the net.

Finally, MY BIGGEST ISSUE WITH BERUBE----

He had this team use a selective shot philosophy. Well that's great at lower levels and the Blues have a number of guys capable of beating goalies clean but it makes it easier to cover and I think leads to missing the net more which also affected player spacing and puck possession.

The Avs and Knights fire pucks from all over and crash the net. The Avs use their speed and the Knights have some quick players but their big guys are slow but they get to the net. It is much easier to defend guys looking for the perfect shot bc you front the shot the other team then over passes and that usually leads to turn overs or you can front the shot easier bc it's not more random. Shoot more and the defending team has to turn around. That also opens the points back up bc teams generally collapse on the goal.