St. Louis Blues Being Rewarded For Their Patience

Despite a slow start to the season, the St. Louis Blues did not make drastic changes to their roster, and their patience is being rewarded with recent play.

The St. Louis Blues have somehow rebounded from an abysmal start to the season to find themselves occupying the second wild-card spot after shutting out the top team in the league.

The credit for this turnaround needs to be focused primarily on the players on the ice. Jordan Binnington has grabbed the number one goalie position after posting an 8-1-1 record in his first ten NHL starts.

However, the credit does not fall entirely on the Blues players. Doug Armstrong deserves some credit as well. Despite the Blues financial restrictions, Armstrong could have easily traded away some underperforming players. Instead, he waited patiently for a turnaround.

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There was a lot of criticism placed on Armstrong for the way the roster was assembled earlier this season.

This criticism was puzzling. The same fans that were ready to plan the parade down Clark Ave. after winning the offseason were at the steps of the Enterprise Center wanting to blow up the team.

Admittedly, there were times early in the season that I thought that it might be time to move on from some of the core players on the roster.

Players like Alex Steen, Alex Pietrangelo, and Jake Allen all came up in talks about who needs to get traded for the team to turn the season around. Lucky for them, Armstrong stuck with the veterans.

Allen has not shown much improvement since the season began in October. His record currently stands at 15-15-4 and has not had a start since January 17.

The goalie has been the subject of trade talks by fans over the past two seasons, and with Binnington’s play in net, the Blues could be more aggressive in trying to move on from Allen before the trade deadline.

St. Louis was also rumored to be looking to trade names like Vladimir Tarasenko, Brayden Schenn, and Jaden Schwartz. Now it is hard to imagine the Blue would be where they are without any of the three players mentioned, despite Schwartz’ recent scoring drought.

Thinking of the Blues as sellers is outrageous, the team has scratched and clawed their way back into contention and still have games in hand over teams chasing them in the standings.

Both myself, and my co-editor Todd Panula have repeatedly stated throughout the season that the Blues do not need to blow up the roster. Now, on February 8, we are imagining what the Blues can do to add to the roster.

Whether or not the Blues can maneuver their way around the cap space to make an addition to the roster remains to be seen. However, the Blues still have a dominant roster that can match up with any team in the league, and credit needs to go to the Blues front office for staying patient