Three St. Louis Blues 2022 New Years Resolutions
Here we are at the dawn of another year. We’ve flipped the calendar to 2022 and St. Louis Blues fans wonder what new glories or horrors are in store.
A new year is always an interesting prospect. You have 364 days, obviously not counting the first day, where all things are possible.
Recent history has taught us that thinking it can’t get any worse than the previous year is erroneous thinking, at least when it comes to the “real world”. However, when it comes to hockey, we have had it pretty good.
The Blues hosted a Winter Classic in 2017. They won the Stanley Cup in 2019 and then hosted the All-Star Game the following year, just before everything shut down.
Oddly, everything that has happened since fits perfectly with the Blues history. St. Louis has long been plagued by what ifs and the present day is no different.
In the past, it was What if we were in a division that didn’t include Detroit or Chicago or played in a different conference than Colorado. Any time the Blues were good or great, they always had some team on the verge of being a dynasty in their way.
Now, we have wonderful diseases and protocols standing in the way (tongue firmly in cheek). The Blues were one, if not the best team in the NHL prior to the stoppage in 2020.
They never recovered mentally after that extended break and got embarrassed in the bubble tournament. In 2020-2021, the talent was there again and the will returned too, but the team was decimated by injuries. There was a stretch of about nine games or so where someone literally got hurt each and every game. Perhaps they returned the following game, but just the mental strain of continually playing short, even for a period or two, was not something they could overcome in the end.
In the latter half of 2021, the injury bug kept up. St. Louis has lost 14 players to the covid protocol list and a handful more to actual injuries.
The reason to be hopeful for 2022 is the fact the Blues have weathered the storm. Other teams have been plagued by this pandemic and faltered, such as the New York Islanders.
As we turn the page to 2022, the Blues are in first place based on points – they have played two more games, but that’s just how things work now.
So, to make 2022 even better than how they ended 2021, there are just a few things they need to resolve to be better at. Here are the three things the Blues should make their New Year’s resolutions.
Figure out the defense
So, this resolution is more on Doug Armstrong and Craig Berube, but it may actually be the most important one to the team. Much like the decisions made by Army at the past few trade deadlines, the team needs to figure out if they must make a trade or stand as they are and none of that has anything to do with Vladimir Tarasenko.
Going into the season, most people said the Blues weakness was going to be their defense. To start the year, that was definitely true.
The Blues play with heart, but they are undersized in the grand scheme of it. The vast majority of their blue liners would be considered offensive defensemen too.
When the season began, of the six defenders the team started with, only Robert Bortuzzo would be considered a defensive defenseman. Justin Faulk has really upped his game, Colton Parayko still shows flashes and Marco Scandella is a tweener, but those names are still puck movers more than actual nasty defenders that the league’s top forwards don’t want to go against.
The interesting thing is, despite all the injuries and growing list of names in protocol, the Blues have actually settled in defensively quite well. They’re still not a team that can bully you around and get guys clear of the net, but they are sound positionally and tenacious on the puck.
Armstrong and Berube have to decide if that’s enough. Can you win with a defensive style that requires all five guys to be responsible or does the team need to go out and acquire a shutdown defender?
Niko Mikkola has stepped up and formed a nice pairing with Parayko. You don’t really want to stifle his growth bringing in a new player and sending him back to the press box.
Scott Perunovich has not looked lost in the NHL at all. He makes rookie mistakes, but he has helped the power play stay near the top of the league with his eagle-eye passing. Does he stay in the league or get demoted back to the AHL when everyone is healthy and/or a trade was made?
There’s definitely interesting names out there. Jason Martin discussed picking up Jakob Chychrun.
Ben Chiarot is a name that Jamie Rivers is interested in. Both fit the mold of what the Blues need, which is a defensive-minded, nasty player that is hard to play against.
Even in rebuilding mode, Chychrun is going to cost a lot more to pry out of Arizona. Chiarot might be easier to acquire given the transition in management in Montreal, but he’s also 30, which is not old but factors into the decision.
The Blues have a log jam on the blue line. If they want to seriously be contenders in 2022, they need to decide if they want to let their own guys grow and handle the pressure or if they need to add something.
A month ago, I would have said add. Now, I’m not as sure since the chemistry seems right at the moment.
Part of the team’s resolutions has to be to figure that out.
Find some nastiness
Springboarding off the previous idea, the Blues need to find, or re-find, a little nastiness. As with everything in sports, that’s easier said than done.
The Blues have two things going against them in this department.
First, they’ve become a more skilled team. While we should never take anything away from the Stanley Cup squad of 2019, they won on will more than skill. The Blues now have four lines that can all score goals, if they would ever get healthy.
In today’s game, there’s not as much mix with skill and a mean streak. There are still a few players that play with and edge, but the skill and toughness era kind of ended when Keith Tkachuk and his counterparts started retiring.
Second, the Blues are always up against fan perception. For good reason, we latched onto that 2019 playoff performance like a dog who has not eaten in a week on a piece of meat.
St. Louis was mesmerized by the way the Blues just ground their opponents into dust. The hits were not Scott Stevens bone crushers, but every body check drained some energy out of the opponent just like a Mortal Kombat health meter.
The problem was, no matter how much we are told this, you simply cannot play a regular season in that style. Fans still expect to see the Blues with 30-40 hits per night and it’s just not realistic.
That said, the majority of the players on this team were on that 2019 team. We know it’s in them.
Added skill or not, this team is capable of wearing out anyone in the league.
Faulk might not be as tall as Pietrangelo, but I’d argue he’s just as willing, if not more willing, to rough people up along the boards. Pavel Buchnevich is new to this team, but he has grasped what Berube expects of his players very quickly.
The parts are all there. The team just has to find the will again.
If that does not come until the 2022 playoffs, that’s fine. However, we have seen this team is not capable of just flipping a switch, so they need to start ramping thigs up as the season goes along.
Nobody is asking for this to be 1970’s hockey with fights and two-handed slashes to the spine. We just want a little mean streak.
The Blues need to get in on the forecheck the way they used to. Make defenders think twice about holding the puck behind the net too long. It’s all in there. They just have to bring it out.
Help out your goalies
St. Louis Blues fans seem to love a goaltender controversy, even when one does not exist. Maybe it has to do with being brought into the league the same year as the Philadelphia Flyers.
However, the Flyers literally always have a goalie controversy unless they had Ron Hextall in net. The Blues are not quite on that level, but fans still find a way to make the netminder the problem.
Going back to the idea of 2019 causing problems, fans still think that Jordan Binnington should always be on that level. Sorry to break it to you, but that’s not going to happen.
Hall of Fame goaltenders had ups and downs in their career. Stats don’t always tell the story either.
When Montreal won the Stanley Cup in 1993, Patrick Roy actually had the worst statistical year of his career in a regular season. He turned it on in the playoffs because he was a big-game goalie.
Speaking of Roy, we forget that even with all-time goalies, fans want someone else. Roy lost favor in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. If fans got what they wanted, Montreal would not have won in 1993. Roy won three more Stanley Cups after he was deemed washed up by the masses.
The Blues don’t need another goaltender, or to bench Binnington in favor of Ville Husso or *smacks forehead* Charlie Lindgren. Yes, I have seen people on social media say Lindgren is this year’s Binnington, as though it’s a fashion statement that changes year to year.
The Blues simply need to play better in front of their goaltender, whether that’s Binnington, Husso, Lindgren, Joel Hofer or anyone else.
Some of this ties into the previous resolutions. The Blues need to be nastier in front of their own net and not let guys just camp out.
Part of the reason Binnington’s stats aren’t as wonderous as some want is because he can’t see the puck. Things have been better the last few weeks, but to start the year, the majority of goals beating Binnington were screens (either the opponent or his own teammate), tips or deflections and rebounds.
I’ve seen a lot of social media posts about the team plays differently in front of one goalie or the other. That may be so, but that’s on the team, not the goalie.
If the Blues play better defense for Husso or Lindgren, they need to play better defense for Binnington. Don’t rely on his big-save ability just because you have more confidence he can bail you out.
In the 2021 portion of the 2021-22 season, the Blues have allowed 1018 shots on goal. The league average is 967. That means the Blues are in the bottom half of the league in terms of giving up shots.
Shots allowed clearly doesn’t mean you’re not going to win games, but offense dries up. The Blues are not built to be the Edmtonton Oilers where they can outscore their opponent 8-7. Eventually, you have to help out your goalies and start limiting chances.
Extended holiday break helped the Blues. dark. Next
We have seen more of that in December. Hopefully it will continue to be a downward trend of shots against in 2022.
Goalies like the work. The Blues still need to help their netminder and stop relying on them to save the day because they made mistakes that were unnecessary or unforced.