Mid-Season Report Card for the Blues

Also known as the article where I go back, look at my season preview, and laugh my butt off.  Oh, geeze, where to begin?

First off, a disclaimer: I was not one of those individuals who picked the Blues to challenge the Blackhawks or Detroit for the Central Division lead.  As a lifelong fan, I’m a bitter realist – and I’m not an idiot.  I knew there would be growing pains with the Baby Blues this season.  I also, though, believed in the addition by, um… addition of the older, injured players like McDonald for a full season, Kariya, and Brewer.  This further proves that I am mathematically challenged.  I will be vindicated though – my constant harping on the removal of Andy Murray and the addition of someone else (who wound up being Davis Payne) might have at least gotten me partial credit on a math test.

Anywho, let’s look at what I said, and what really happened:

Goaltending: Prediction: B+/Mid-Season Mark, C+

The goaltending hasn’t been bad, and certainly hasn’t been helped by the team in general.  But my cautious optimism has been turned into a cautious concern.  Mason is sitting firmly at the .500 mark (13W-13L-6 OTL), but his stats aren’t what they were last season by far – .909 SV% and a 2.59GAA.  Not horrible, but not the same as the guy who finished last season on a 25 game tear.  The low save percentage and the midling GAA points to the Blues’ ability to lose by not having the opposition exert much effort as far as the shot and goals totals go, and it also demonstrates Mason’s soft goal a game that he’s been giving up.

Conklin’s SV% is slightly better than Mason’s, but his GAA, at 2.75, isn’t anything to write home about.  He benefited from Detroit’s stingy defense last season, and he (along with Mason) could have benefited from our defense had they kept up the strength we saw at the beginning of the season.  Unfortunately, they didn’t, and it’s becoming more and more glaringly obvious that we don’t have a goalie that can really steal a game.  The Blues haven’t had a legit starting goalie since the 90s, and relying on a former starter turned backup turned 1B turned starter might not cut it.

Defense: Prediction: B/Mid-Season Mark, B-

Ok, fine, I was off about Petro being up here with the big club.  I was also off about the line pairings, since Murray changed them every 2.5 seconds and had more faith in Darryl Sydor than I could ever dream of having.  I was also off on the return of Brewer by about 3 months.

But other than that, I think that I was pretty spot on – and the defense has been strong for the most part.  Very few blow-out losses for the Blues and a glut of 1 goal defeats, to me, demonstrates defensive responsibility… for the most part.  I have seen quite a few goals roll through Brewer’s legs, or past him.  He’s been a plus player in only two games this season, and has an overall +/- of -14.  That’s worse than Brad Boyes. There – let that sink in.

Forwards: Prediction: A or B/Mid Season Mark, C+

Ok, yes.  I was off here.  I, like pretty much everyone else in the free world, expected the kids to come out tearing it up.  Didn’t happen – with the exception of Perron, the youth on the team started the year with a big sophomore slump.  Oshie only has 8G, 13A.  Backes has 9G, 16A.  Berglund?  Um… 6G and 7A, and most of that output came after Murray finally let him play after a six game benching.  Two of our top 3 scoring forwards are vets in Andy McDonald (1st) and Keith Tkachuk (3rd).

Our leading points getter, Brad Boyes (9-22-31) has as many points as the top goal scorer in the league has goals (Marleau, as of this writing).  The offense isn’t exactly a juggernaut.  I didn’t expect for it to be, but I was really expecting a little more than this so far.  There have been games where we couldn’t buy a goal when we needed it, despite being given every chance to score.

I’m not for certain if these issues come from the players themselves, or the constant line changes that prevented any chemistry from developing whatsoever.  Honestly, the lines are seeming more constant under coach Payne, so the end of the year report card grade should be higher than a C+

Special Teams: Prediction: Thank God I Didn’t Predict This/C-

Everyone knows this: PK good, PP so bad it allows goals.

Overall: Predicted: B+/Midseason Mark: C

There is room for improvement, there’s no doubt there.  There is some hope for the future with the team’s improved play since the firing of Andy Murray and the hiring of Davis Payne… thanks to the coaching change, it’s hard to tell what the future will hold.  Here’s hoping that we can turn this ship around fairly quickly, or else my prediction of us being firmly in any sort of hunt is null and void.

Images courtesy of the kind contributors to St. Louis Game Time.

Some Other Articles That You May Enjoy:
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The Real Home Opener is Here.
Blues are pushing for a turn-around.
Blues’ Walking Wounded Looking to Return

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