St. Louis Blues Need Barret Jackman Back In There

The St. Louis Blues early results in 2018-19 have been disappointing due to a lack of defense. What is just as odd is the realization that a player we were all glad was gone is just what the team needs now.

Bring back Barret Jackman. Those are words I never thought I would ever say, being as, at the end of his career here, I was one of the St. Louis Blues fans glad that Jackman was gone.

I was never quite on the hate bandwagon. I felt Jackman was always just a player that came about at the wrong time. He would have been much better suited to the NHL that existed when he was a rookie. The rule changes that immediately followed changed how defenders could play and changed his entire future.

Jackman was a rookie of the year when he came in. While he remained a solid defender, overall, he never quite fulfilled that potential because the league went a different direction.

Funny how things work out. The Blues are finally trying to keep up with the league, in terms of being more dynamic and fast and skillful. However, though they have made good changes in certain places, a player like Jackman is just what they need right now defensively.

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Now, before you scream at your computer screens, just hear me out. I’m not advocating for the man, himself, to return. It is simply the way he played the game and how he made opponents uncomfortable that is needed.

In the very early part of the season for the 2018-19 Blues, the lack of anything resembling stout defense is very troubling. The defensive core does not have excuses like the forwards.

For all the changes from the previous season, the defense is the same other than missing a couple injured guys and some others getting back up to speed. These are all still guys that have played with each other, know the other’s tendencies and should know how to defend. So far, they have shown none of that to be true.

Even more troubling is the lack of any desire to be physical. As mentioned in other articles, nobody expected this team to bang bodies like the New Jersey Devils of the old days. But come on. Nobody even wants to lift a stick right now.

Our own captain, Alex Pietrangelo, who is perceived as a potential Norris Trophy candidate when he is at his best, has looked awful. In the Chicago game alone, he was a minus-2 and was almost directly responsible on both goals. The first goal of the game, he neither managed to find the puck off the wall or box out Jonathan Toews. You have to be able to one or the other and most people would prefer he contain one of the better offensive players in the game.

Another time, Pietrangelo was incapable of clearing the puck. Both he and other teammates in those early games were unable to get the puck out at key times or even guard some of the best players in the game. Both are expected of top NHL defensemen.

That’s where the Jackman comparison comes in. Most of what we disliked about Jackman was offensive. He couldn’t shoot, didn’t pass particularly well (or tried too hard), was not a great skater and rarely aided the rush.

Defensively, he was never great but he was what we need these current players to be. He made life uncomfortable or miserable for whomever he was playing against.

Most notably, Jackman was a constant thorn in the side of Patrick Kane when the Blues played the Blackhawks. That is not to say Kane never scored, but it was never easy. Jackman saw to making thins as difficult as possible for the ‘Hawks star and he was good at it. Things could not have been more different with the ease the Hawks got some of their goals in the teams’ first meeting.

Jackman regularly did that. Also, he was good at clearing the puck – sometimes a little “too good”. Jackman, at least toward the end of his days with the Blues, had an uncanny ability to ice the puck. While that is not much better, at this point I’d rather take icings and a little rest rather than not getting it out and having a goal scored against.

Again, the worrying thing here is the makeup of the defensive group. These are not new players to the team or young guys to the league. Vince Dunn is currently the youngest man back there and he’s made some of the fewest mistakes – at least the fewest glaring mistakes.

Jackman is no longer with the organization in an official capacity, but maybe they need to bring him back in. Unfortunately, the way he played cannot be taught.

It’s something that comes from within to put yourself in uncomfortable spots so that the opponent is even more uncomfortable. Right now, the current group of defenders do not have that mentality at all and they sorely need it.