Issues Are Killing the Blues So Far This Season. What’s Going On?
By Andy Knapp
On Halloween night, the St. Louis Blues were booed off their home ice after a 5-1 beatdown by the Los Angeles Kings. And they weren’t scary ghost boos either.
They were the boos of upset fans voicing their displeasure for a team that, right now, is looking more like the Vancouver Canucks than the Colorado Avalanche to start the 2022-23 NHL season. There are some serious issues with this team at the moment.
St. Louis may have started 3-0-0 to begin, but have since plummeted to 3-5-0 with their 5th straight loss in that Kings game. You could argue that trick-or-treating around the city of St. Louis that night would’ve been a better idea than watching what transpired and you’d be right.
The Blues are now facing several huge issues as a team. To name just a few, there’s poor puck control, connection issues, loads of turnovers, completely missing scoring opportunities including the good ones, and what the Blues’ own players admitted postgame, a lack of effort.
And about those boos? Those started at the end of the 2nd period, not just after the game. And things would get much worse from there, as St. Louis coughed up 3 tap-in goals from the Kings alone.
Justin Faulk said that the Blues are making a “piss-poor effort” in their games during their 5-game skid and he’s absolutely right. Only now is the whole team realizing how badly they’re dragging their skates.
Another big issue plaguing the Blues might be team construction. They’ve conjured up big contracts, some of those extensions for players like Jordan Kyrou, Robert Thomas, Faulk himself, Torey Krug, Colton Parayko, and Pavel Buchnevich.
Other than Faulk, most of these big-name players for the Blues haven’t opened their scoring books all that much. On top of that, Buchnevich missed several games due to injury, so you can’t expect him to hit the ground running again.
Next. Top 5 worst Blues teams in history. dark
Something has to give for St. Louis, and quickly. Otherwise, Blues fans could be serenading as Toronto Maple Leafs fans during the playoffs, if they even make it that far.