St. Louis Blues Went From Rolling The Dice To Stacking The Deck

The St. Louis Blues knew they did not want much turnover in their roster after winning the Stanley Cup. However, the addition of one player makes things feel entirely different

The St. Louis Blues have never really played by other people’s rules. It might go too far to say they march to the beat of their own drum since they are not re-inventing the wheel, but they almost always do things the Blues way, whether that’s been right or wrong.

In 2018-19, clearly that proved to be right. General Manager Doug Armstrong made some strong offseason moves, offloaded some albatross contracts and eventually found the right combination of players.

The beginning of the season showed it was not magic right from the start. However, once all the pieces fell into place, St. Louis got their very first Stanley Cup championship out of the entire thing.

Armstrong made mistakes along the way, such as giving out those albatross contracts in the first place, but he eventually made up for it. To borrow a phrase from Frank Sinatra, he did it his way.

Going into the 2019-20 season, Armstrong continues to do it his way. We thought he was rolling the dice and doubling-down, to keep the Vegas theme going, by essentially keeping the exact same team that won the Stanley Cup. Instead, he made one big addition and now the entire thing feels like going from a game of chance to stacking the deck.

Some people would ask why going with the same lineup was a bad thing. Most sports fans dream of keeping a championship team together since it is so rare, with free agency usually forcing players off a team.

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However, hockey is somewhat different, especially for the Blues.

If we look to the NBA for an example, keeping a team together is easier if situations work out. The core of the Chicago Bulls was always the same in their first three-peat and again in the second. The same could be said of the San Antonio Spurs long run. There were role players that might come and go, but for the most part they kept things the same.

If it’s not broken, don’t fix it, right? The difference is, in the NBA, you win based on star talent alone in most years.

The Blues are much more equivalent to the Cleveland Cavaliers, if you keep the NBA comparison. They won based on Lebron James being the best, but they also won because all the players did their job exactly as they had to do in the right moments. The Cavaliers needed a lot to go right when they won in 2015-16 and when those same things did not right, they could not win the big one. That is not to say they were not still good, since they made the final three straight years, but even with the best player in the league, they only managed to win once.

Admittedly, the comparison is not completely apples to apples. The Cavaliers did make changes here and there and sometimes it made no difference. They were also running into a juggernaut with the Golden State Warriors.

The Blues have no juggernaut opponent, though Tampa Bay is doing their best to appear as such. However, returning the exact same lineup – minus one Pat Maroon – was still a slightly dangerous proposition.

The Washington Capitals lost two large point contributors and a backup goaltender off their championship squad, but returned the bulk of their team. They did go out and win their division the next season, but crashed out in the first round.

The last team to repeat as champion, the Pittsburgh Penguins of 2015-16 and 2016-17, did bring back the bulk of their team. There was still a lot of room for new role players to step in.

That’s where the addition of Justin Faulk changed things entirely.

There were fans that soured on his play at times over the last year or year and a half, but you would be hard pressed to find instances where anyone legitimately wanted Joel Edmundson out of St. Louis. You would be equally hard pressed to find anyone that doesn’t think the Blues have improved their defensive unit, even if by just a small amount.

Faulk and Edmundson are different players, but Faulk improves the team. He is a better puck mover and skater and sacrifices little on the defensive end. You could argue the team loses size, but really only in height. Faulk will not be pushed around.

The main worry prior to the trade and going into the 2019-20 season was if there is no change to the roster at all there could be a lack of drive. You won’t get that now.

It is easy to say pro players always want to win and always have that drive to get the next one. The problem is human nature.

Human nature is complacency. You can tell yourself you are doing everything you need to, but if the fire is not burning as hot, that little something missing can be the difference between winning in June and ending your season in April.

Think of how many good Blues teams got eliminated over the years because there was just something missing at the critical time. No offense, but there have been better talented teams in Blues history than the one that eventually won the Stanley Cup. However, the 2018-19 team had the fire and the drive and all the necessary components come together at exactly the right time.

The worry with having that exact unit, minus one player, return was they will be missing something. Players coming in from the outside, whether from the minors or from another team, are hungry to join a winner and get that taste for themselves. Just look at the desire Ryan O’Reilly and Brayden Schenn brought in their short time.

The Blues always had some talent, but you could sense a lack of something. They always said the right things but nothing would change on the ice. With the new additions, the Blues might lose and you’d hear the right things but they would actually go out and make those changes on the ice afterward.

Now that Faulk is here, even if you think it is a lateral move for talent (which it isn’t) it still brings some fire into that locker room. Faulk had never even been to the playoffs in his career until the Carolina Hurricanes got ousted by Boston in the 2019 Easter Conference Final. Do you think he’s going to allow complacency to creep in when he was on the cusp and is joining a team he knows is capable of winning it all?

This one trade has completely changed the outlook for the season for myself. It has gone from thinking they better get off to a good start because you cannot expect to repeat 2018-19’s turnaround to thinking this team is going to be a force to be reckoned with.

We won’t know the truth of it all until April, really. This Blues team had a good shot at repeating because of how they are constructed and coached. They were brought together as a unit, not a star being built around as some teams do it – such as in the NBA.

Another reason the Blues could repeat is the amount of turnover around the league. We saw how long it took the Blues to come together. Overhauling your team in an attempt to course correct is not always the easiest thing to do or the best.

However, personally, this trade made a world of difference. Make no mistake, nobody is saying the Blues got Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio, but it’s just that tweak to tell the team yes, you were great but you can be better and we expect you to be.

Locker room chemistry is incredibly important, so it is key that Faulk fits in and does not feel like the outsider. However, the idea of bringing in a guy at his talent level, that knows how to get to a conference final and is hungry for that next step is huge for this team and makes the Blues that much more likely to have their chance to repeat.