Blues Scorers Aren’t Cold - They’re Frozen
It’s an old hockey adage, but it rings true for the Blues today: ‘Your best players have to be your best players.”
The Blues have been shut out in back-to-back home games because their best players aren’t scoring points.
“Our offensive players have a tough responsibility, but they need to come through for us,” coach Andy Murray said earlier this week. “They know that.”
Let us consider the culprits:
David Backes: A 31-goal scorer last season, he has just one goal in 12 games this season and just two points overall. He is is attacking the net and whacking at rebounds, but he just can’t get a break around the goal.
Paul Kariya: After scoring four points in the Blues’ two victories over Detroit in Sweden, he has scored just three points in 10 games since then. Too often he is missing the net. Too often is staying on the outside.
Brad Boyes: He scored 76 goals the previous two seasons, but he has just two in 12 games this season – one into an empty net. That empty-net goal is his only point in his last six games. He throwing lots of pucks across the net, but he has suffered the most from this team’s power-play outage.
Patrik Berglund: He has just four points and a minus-4 ranking in 11 games. Murray sat him for one entire game and stretches of other games for ineffective play. Is he another victim of the dreaded sophomore slump?
Andy McDonald: He has just one point in his last six games. He took a nasty face-first spill into the boards Saturday night, too, raising questions about his near-term availability. Fans were relieved when he was able to scrape himself out of the corner and leave the ice on his skates.
In the aftermath of Thursday night’s shutout, Murray believed his team was close to making some offensive connections.
“As we told our players, we are that far off our game right now,” Murray said. “In this league, when you’re that far off, it’s too much.”
Indeed, the Blues lost to a two-win team Saturday night, the Panthers. Florida had played the night before, too. But that team had a goaltender, Tomas Vokoun, who had owned the Note.
And that trend continued, to the Blues’ chagrin.
ANDERSON NO OVERNIGHT SUCCESS
Craig Anderson worked for 10 years to get his first crack at being a true No. 1 goaltender. He made the most of it so far, leading the Avalanche to a shocking 10-2-2 start.
Prior to this season, Anderson bounced around as an AHL goaltender (Norfolk and Rochester) and a back-up in the NHL (Blackhawks and Panthers). He ended up with the Blues for a few days back in 2006 when the Blackhawks put him through waivers and the Note got riddled by injuries.
He never actually played for the Blues, who deployed Curtis Sanford, Patrick Lalime, Jason Bacashihua and the immortal Reinhard Divis that season. Anderson was briefly the property of the Bruins, too, during that season.
In the summer of 2006, the Blackhawks dealt him to Florida. Last season he starred when Tomas Vokoun was injured, thus earning his free-agent deal with the ‘Lanche.
“That year, I went through waivers, my last 15 games were right there with anybody’s in the league,” Anderson said, according to the Toronto Globe and Mail. “Right then and there, I knew I could play. Getting sent down the next year, after I got traded to Florida, it was like, ‘alright, let’s get back to work. Let’s show them that I’m too good for this league and get myself back up’.”
WHY EVERYBODY HATES AVERY
Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau has a new book out, “Gabby: Confessions Of A Hockey Lifer.” In it, he recalls a classic barb from Rangers agitator Sean Avery in last year’s playoffs.
“He told me I was the biggest, fattest bleeping pig he had ever seen,” Boudreau said in the book. “He told me I was fatter than Ken Hitchcock (the rather rotund coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets). He told me I was going to die because I was such a fat bleep.”
The Capitals won that series, of course, and Avery was typically useless for Rangers – scoring no goals in six games while posting a minus-3 rating.
AROUND THE RINKS: Down at Peoria, Jonas Junland scored his sixth goal for the Rivermen Friday night and fellow defenseman Brendan Bell had a three-assist night. The Blues would love to get such production out their blue line corps . . . Right now the top Peoria line features veteran Derek Arsmstrong with top offensive prospect Lars Eller and Nicholas Drazenovic, who has matured into an effective AHL scorer . . . In Saturday’s 4-1 loss in Cleveland, grinder Chris Porter scored his fifth goal for the Rivermen . . . Is it us, or does the NHLPA have some issues? . . . The Boston Globe suggests that Randy Carlyle is the most endangered coach these days, due to Anaheim’s poor start. The Ducks have left themselves much catching up to do . . . In his tremendous NHL.com notebook, Larry Wigge hits numerous topics, including Dustin Penner’s surge this season in Edmonton. It is amazing how a coaching change can wake up certain players . . . Tough times in Motown, where the Red Wings offense lost forward Valtteri Filppula to a broken wrist. Against all odds, the goaltending tandem of Chris Osgood and Jimmy Howard has scuffled, too. They have combined for a 3.22 goals-average and an .885 save percentage. How much do they miss Ty Conklin? Why in the world did they allow Conklin to sign with the Blues? Now HockeyBuzz.com wonders if Detroit will shop for veteran help, like Islanders goaltender Martin Biron. That site continues to promote Carey Price trade rumors, since Price is no longer GM Bob Gainey’s favored son. Jaroslav Halak has taken over in goal in Montreal . . . If Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford shakes up his team — a possibility, as their 6-1 loss at Philly underscored — then veteran winger Ray Whitney could move into play . . . The Senators, unsure of when Filip Kuba will return from his hip/groin injury, could sure use another offensive defenseman . . . A lot of teenagers are doing quite well in the NHL this season, including Avalanche centers Matt Duchene and Ryan O’Reilly. But can they keep it up through the tough bump and grind of 82 games? . . . With the Ducks struggling, young Luca Sbisa was dispatched to the Western Hockey League. He played 39 NHL games for Philly last year as an 18-year-old . . . The Wild brought high on Martin Havlat, who excelled as a counter-attacker with the explosive Blackhawks offense. He is NOT the sort of player who can elevate an offense, as Marian Gaborik does when he is healthy. Havlat has one goal and a minus-9 rating in 12 games.
Can someone explain to me the process of constantly changing lines? I understand that some players gel with others, and sometimes you want your best players to play with each other - but every game, Murray has new combinations. Here’s my theory - I don’t care if Perron plays better with so and so, and if Boyes needs to be with so and so - the kid line makes something happen almost every shift. I don’t care who comes through St. Louis, I would keep that line together for as long as possible. My lines would be this, and I wouldn’t change a thing.
Kariya-McDonald-Boyes (speed and talent line)
Tkachuk-Backes-Winchester (tough line, staying in front of the net)
Oshie-Perron-Berglund (kid line, just let them do their thing)
Crombeen-McClement-Steen, or whoever (checking line, let them do whatever)
One last thing, what does Strachan have to do to stay in the lineup? I know Jackman, Brewer, Carlos, are all veterans - but Strachan I believe was our only defenseman last year with a plus rating - and he’s got another plus rating this year. Especially with Jugland, Wagner, Bell, and soon Cole, all coming, we need to package some defenseman and clear the way for all these more talented up and comers.
Here’s why to rotate the lines as Murray is doing: if you’re not playing with a guy you’ve practiced with, you have to keep your head in the game a bit more, focus more on where the puck is, where your linemate’s guy is, etc. It forces you to be more aware of your surroundings, not drift out of the mindset. It also keeps any one player from becoming too dependent on a specific linemate to either feed him the puck or play the puck a certain way, so that player has to play the puck more aggressively. It’s Murray’s way of trying to get the guys to keep their heads in the game.
Is it working? Not very well. But Murray knows that players have to play the games; he can’t strap on skates and make it happen for them. With as many skill players as we have who are just cold (as indicated), it helps to shake up the lines. But the cost is that guys aren’t developing any rhythm, and that’s a big problem right now.
I wish Murray would settle on his forward lines, but I also understand why he isn’t, and the problem is the blueline. Other than EJ, guys aren’t finishing their checks, clearing the defensive zone, or otherwise doing their jobs in their own end, and the biggest problem just comes down to size. Our d-men are getting manhandled. Murray and JD know it, but it’s not like big, bruising d-men who can check and handle the puck decently grow on trees.