St. Louis Blues Must Tread Lightly With Roster Tweaks

The St. Louis Blues are trying to rotate guys, keep players fresh and make others hungry. That is all well and good, but it is also a bit of roulette.

Long ago, St. Louis Blues fans learned a phrase that basically amounts to “In Craig Berube we trust.” Just about everything the coach has touched has turned to gold.

He figured out the right way to use Oskar Sundqvist and the big Swede has turned into one of the best role players on the team. Berube has found ways to motivate Zach Sanford and Sammy Blais.

He even found a way to smooth over the idea of Alex Steen on the fourth line in 2018-19. That could not have been an easy sell, but the longtime Blues forward took it in stride and was a key to the team winning.

Then you cannot mention great things done by the Blues coach without mentioning the big one. He won the Stanley Cup. For all the great bench bosses and Hall of Fame coaches the Blues had, only Berube has lifted the Cup over his head in St. Louis.

However, that does not mean he is above reproach. Berube makes decisions that can be questioned because he is human. He might be smarter than the rest of us, but he is still human.

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The choice to have 11 forwards and seven defensemen against the New York Islanders. While the team won, it took an overtime effort to get the victory.

Additionally, you could tell everyone looked disoriented in terms of who was on what line, where players would be on the ice and, most importantly, defensive assignments. Everybody loves Chief, and rightly so, but seeing Robert Bortuzzo on the wing when you have capable forwards sitting in the press box is just insane.

We have seen more rotation too. Jacob de La Rose played against the Dallas Stars to end the month of February.

The issue was he had not played since playing against Dallas on February 8. Berube even said he probably waited too long to get de La Rose back in the lineup.

Berube’s reasoning for the sudden roster mixup was to make sure guys were not sitting too long. A noble gesture and a reasonable one, given you don’t want guys having not played for months if they are called upon late in the season or in the playoffs.

However, the other side to that coin is you want to be generating as much chemistry and cohesion within your roster around this time of year. To start March, the Blues only have 16 regular season games left.

That’s what made the 11 forwards thing so weird. You had just figured out a lineup that was scoring a good amount and defending reasonably well – the Chicago game not withstanding – and you up and tinker with it.

Now, there were conflicting rumors/reports as to whether Blais missed the game due to injury, illness or being in Berube’s doghouse. Regardless, unless there are glaring mistakes being made, tinkering with what is working can be dangerous.

But, in Berube we trust, right? Sometimes it can be good to nip small things in the bud before they actually become issues. We do not get to see the team day in and out, so Berube has a better feel for these things.

As long as the wins keep coming, it isn’t a big deal. The Blues rotated players late in 2018-19 and it worked.

Zach Sanford was a longtime scratch in the playoffs, but he was able to come up big in the final against Boston. That is likely Berube’s idea for keeping the scratches fresh right now.

Next. Blues remaining schedule a double-edged sword. dark

Still, it is a dangerous idea to mess with things too much. When it’s clicking, you don’t want to fuss too much.

We just have to keep saying “In Berube we trust.”

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