Shattenkirk Injured; What Is Blues Next Move?
By Kate Cimini
St. Louis announced Monday night that NHL All-Star defenseman and pride of the St. Louis Blues Kevin Shattenkirk will be week-to-week with “abdominal surgery.”
Cue the horrified widening of the eyes.
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St. Louis is on a hot streak right now, and Shattenkirk is part of that. The Blues have won 10 of their previous 11 games and he posted two points (one goal, one assist) in their last five.
I have said it before and I will say it again: a good offense starts with a good defense.
But when you already have a good defense — and they are slightly less good right now due to an injury — but the trade deadline is approaching, what do you do? Trading for a defender makes little sense if you’re just going to demote them once Shattenkirk comes back.
That would be a waste of valuable cap and roster space.
However not making a move seems foolish. You can’t be sure Shattenkirk will come back in top shape, even if he is back in time for playoffs.
If you’re Blues GM Doug Armstrong, the next best thing is to beef up your front lines, which, frankly, need to be deepened anyways.
The Blues Need A 1C…
As valuable as David Backes is to the team, he, similar to Montreal’s David Desharnais, is a 2C playing on the first line.
Comparing his numbers to his linemates, he clearly falls short on goals, according to the below chart and his points suffer for it. While he brings a physicality to the top line that can’t be underestimated, his Corsi for and Corsi against tell us that it may not be as useful as Hitchcock would think.
Screencap of graph of Backes’ numbers from ownthepuck.blogspot.ca.
Even ignoring the numbers, sometimes his physicality results in bad hits, such as the one against Alzner in Sunday’s game against the Capitals. The Department of Player Safety ruled the hit clean, but Backes drew blood and was ejected from the game, creating a tough situation for the rest of his team.
It doesn’t seem likely that Backes will move lines this season, though it would be the perfect time for it. When you have a number of players injured or out, it’s a great time to shake up the lines and see where you can fill in the holes. There’s going to be change anyways, so you might as well make it as beneficial to yourself as possible.
…But There Are Other Options
If Backes doesn’t move lines this season then the next best thing is to find a winger or two who is a scoring marvel.
St. Louis is approximately $1 million under the $69 million-dollar cap limit, which doesn’t give them a lot of budget to work with. It makes the most sense to call someone up from the AHL who is known for their offensive firepower, shooting, and hopefully stickhandling.
The Blues called forward (and sniper) Ty Rattie up from their farm team, the Chicago Wolves, just in time for Sunday’s game against the Capitals, but he has yet to score a goal.
Rattie’s numbers so far with the Blues also lead me to think he is not the dynamic right wing they were hoping for. He is playing between eight and nine minutes a game, registering zero shots on goal, and picked up two penalty minutes during last night’s game against Tampa Bay. His play is trending downwards, right when it should be doing the opposite as he gets the hang of his new team and the higher level of play around him.
If Rattie doesn’t improve, he will find himself trading places with Ryan Reaves, who has been on a hot streak of late.
And the Blues will continue to shop around for an effective sniper.