St. Louis Blues: Patrik Berglund/Jay Bouwmeester Not To Blame; But They Are

The St. Louis Blues have some big issues to sort through after getting healthy. It is not just the return of certain players that is to blame though.

Anyone who spends even a minute amount of time on social media has to know the main talking point is whether Jay Bouwmeester and Patrik Berglund are to blame for the St. Louis Blues swoon. The interesting thing is they are and yet they are not.

I can already hear people yelling “get off the fence you tool!” First off, no. Second off, hear me out.

The reason they are not to blame is because nothing they have done as individuals has made that big a difference negatively. They are playing pretty well considering they missed camp and have not played in two to four months.

Berglund has two goals in three games. Both goals came on the power play, which is an area the Blues have struggled with in general.

His Corsi scores (53.1%) are respectable and on par with his career numbers. He’s actually also improved his faceoff numbers marginally.

Bouwmeester is a plus-2 in six games. He’s got five blocked shots, which is almost an average of one per game. His defensive point shares (0.3) are down, but that’s the harder part of the game to pick up immediately.

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Both of these guys have plenty of room for improvement as individuals. Berglund was extremely shaky in his first game back. Bouwmeester could have done more on a goal against here or there since his return as well.

The issue there is you could say that of anyone. There are plenty of players that are not doing their part on certain plays and they have been with the team since the beginning.

That is where the blame does fall on Bouwmeester and Berglund. It is not their fault as individuals, but rather their return throwing off some team rhythm.

From the start of the season, the Blues knew they were going to be without a certain chunk of their lineup. Guys knew they had to step up their game to fill in those gaps.

Add to that the normal tendency to play a little better to help pick up the slack for rookies and you have a recipe for success. The team’s top guys were firing on all cylinders because they knew they had to.

Now, despite what any player would admit – even to themselves – they’ve fallen into the trap of relaxing. It happens to everyone, but turning it back around is more difficult.

You can tell yourself you still need to perform at a certain level, but when you know the quality of the players returning, there is a tendency to lose that edge.

Subconsciously, you figure they can handle more of the load now and you can lessen your burden. It just has not worked out that way.

Think of your situation at your own job. If someone is out sick or you are tasked with a job by yourself, you have a certain amount of motivation to get everything done regardless (in most cases).

Now, even if that person is still under the weather, you feel less of that pressure to get things done when they return. Whether you mean to or not, your mind feels they should be just as responsible as you.

While that is an oversimplification, that’s basically what has happened with the Blues. Defenders feel they have different responsibilities now they are on different lines. Forwards don’t feel the pressure to score because the thought is the lineup is deeper now.

Regardless of their cardiovascular shape, neither Berglund or Bouwmeester are up to speed to provide that constant support though. They are not detriments to the team, but they cannot yet be counted on for top minutes.

There is something to be said for team chemistry as well. On paper, the returning players are better than other options, but that does not mean they can click right away, regardless of being with the team last season.

I lived through the Ron Caron years. While the trades were exciting, he ruined many good teams by altering the team chemistry late in the season. It’s the same principle, to a smaller degree right now.

So, the Blues are now caught in no-man’s land. The big guns have to switch their mindset back to attack mode and that is way easier said than done.

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Overall, the Blues will be fine. They might not ever go on a tear like they did in October, but this is clearly a solid playoff team.

There were too many games where we were not seeing their best and they were still mopping the floor with opponents. You don’t do that by fluke.

It will just take a little while for these returning guys to get back up to speed. Mike Yeo said about 10 games for each and neither has reached that point.

If we get into late December or January and the team is still struggling, perhaps you can point to those two guys. For now, while their addition has thrown the team off a step, the guys themselves are not to blame.

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