John Davidson introduction: “I just wanted to say right off the top that we finished under the Mr. Checketts regime two years of being in charge of the St. Louis Blues and I think it’s rather obvious that we’ve got a long way to go, but we also feel that we’ve come a long ways. We’ve reconnected with the city of St. Louis . . . attendance was up 44 percent and the support was remarkable from our fans. You think about Hwy. 40 being closed down and those things . . . there’s some hardships with those people battling their way to come in here and see us. No we didn’t make the playoffs, but there was some positives. There was also some rough moments, things we’re working on already to try and address. We were given a very fair shake here in St. Louis and we appreciate it. We’ll continue. We’ve had meetings today and we’ll be working everyday to try and improve the franchise. We’re excited about our future. I know that it can be a tedious plan at times when you go through frustrations of not scoring goals at times and not winning games, but for myself in particular, when you wake up in the morning, you realize how tough a job it is to get a franchise on track, rebuild it, get it winning, get it winning long-term and have the fans appreciate it. The one thing I’d like to say about our fans, thank you for sticking with us. Don’t deviate from the plan, stay with what you’re trying to do. All those names that we’ve been hearing over the years . . . the Berglund’s and Oshie’s and others . . . they’re on the corner and that corner is not very far away. We’re looking forward to next year, but we’ve got a lot of work to do to get there.”

Q: How much turnover do you expect?

JD: “That’s a good question. There’s a lot of contracts already in place. There’s a number of different things ahead of us, including the draft. This year, we pick 4, 33 and 34. The No. 4 pick in particular could become an impact player, should become an impact player. Whether that person makes our club or not is yet to be determined. The possibility of Oshie turning pro once the Frozen Four is finished. T.J. is a player that we covet, but that’s going to be his decision. We have not discussed that with him yet. Patrik Berglund is another young player that’s highly skilled centermen, that’s big, that needs to have another strong offseason physically if he’s to make our hockey club. So we expect some turnover, there always is . . . to what degree, we don’t know.”

Q: You mentioned that offense was a problem for you guys. Did some players not meet expectations?

JD: “I think when I look at goal-scoring, I can look at it in a different view. We went through a period when we didn’t score goals, there’s no question. We knew that was going to be a question mark for us going in. Our strength was to try to keep the puck out of the net. We were 7th in penalty killing. Our goals-against was really good for a majority of the year and then faded some. Our goal-scoring is the issue. Brad Boyes was a wonderful surprise with 43 goals . . . that’s 5th in the league. Our power play was not good. But there’s reasons. We know what the reasons are and we need to move the puck out of our zone better; we need to move it out of our zone quicker. We know that we need more of an offensive flair from the blue-line position regarding the power play. We know we need more of a play-making presence at the center-ice position, which could help a power play and help goal-scoring and help Paul Kariya score goals because he’s a winger. It’s all intertwined. We know that that’s an issue. My feeling, and I’ll let the coach speak, it’s hard to go out and make trades for Brad Boyes. They’re just not available. Nobody trades 40-goal scorers . . . they’re hard to find. You’ve got to develop a majority of your skill from within, and we have drafted the Erik Johnson’s, T.J. Oshie, Berglund and Eller for a reason. They give us something that we don’t have yet, or not enough of yet. We had a lot of players here that played hard and tried to provide that, but we need more skill with that. Will Berglund make our team? If Oshie turns pro, will he make our team? Erik Johnson will be a year better. Maybe Wagner will make our team. Maybe whoever we draft this year will make our team. David Perron went through growing pains, well-documented, but he’s going to be better for it. There’s some more offense. So that’s how we’re growing the offense.”

Q: So you’re going to depend on the younger guys to help the scoring rather than tap into the free-agent market?

JD: “Have you looked at the free-agent market. There’s not a lot of people out there and most of them are older players. A lot of them it becomes a contract where they want six or seven, eight years at $6, $7, $8 million a year. Does it make sense? Sometimes it doesn’t make sense. We want to grow our skill from within if we can. I’ll use another example. In San Jose this year, this is a team that’s very close . . . they have a great chance to win the Stanley Cup. They have a lot of assets that they’ve acquired over the years, getting to where they’re at right now. They make a trade at the deadline for Campbell, who’s a terrific player. But they gave up a first-rounder and a very, very good young forward. Once you get to that position, you can do a lot more of that stuff. But you’ve got to grow. You’ve got to pay a price. You can’t grow without paying a price. It takes time. It takes energy, patience. That’s why we’re trying to draft the right people, which we feel we have. They have to go through their growth process, get here, and then be part of us. It’s all part of evolution.”

Q: By all accounts, this is a defensive-heavy draft. Is there somebody out there that could come in and be complement to Erik Johnson?

JD: “Oh yeah. I think what’s fair to say about the draft this year is that the No. 1 player is Stamkos and then it’s a deep draft. There’s a lot of very, very good players in the draft. Once you get past Stamkos, it’s primarily defensemen. There’s a Russian forward by the name of Filatov. There’s a power forward in Everett, Wash., by the name of Beach. . . . It’s deep. But when we get to the draft, if we’re drafting No. 4, we’re not going to take the 10th player on the list because he fills a need that we have. We’re going to have a lot of meetings regarding the draft. We’ve very happy that it’s a deep draft and it’s a good draft. Plus, we have No. 4, two in the second, two in the third and two in the fourth. We’ve worked hard the last couple of seasons to build up a pool of draft picks. We haven’t had just one player per round. This will be six first-rounders in three years for this organization, plus the seconds, and the third and the fourths. Somewhere along the line here, some of these guys are going to hit and we’re going to be in pretty good shape.”

Q: What did you think of Paul Kariya’s season?

JD: “I thought that Paul played very well in the first half. I thought parts in the second half, it wasn’t as good. I think Andy (Murray) has talked to Paul quite a bit . . . Paul is going to go on a real strong training program during the offseason. He’s always dedicated himself to being fit, but he wants to really work with Nelson (Ayotte), our strength coach. In fact, Nelson is going to spend time flying out to see Paul, where he lives in the offseason, to work on the program. I also think we could help Paul. We could move the puck out of our zone better, to give it to Paul for his fast-break-type play. I think we could help Paul by moving the puck better on the power play. He could be better on the power play, too. It’s all hand in hand.”

Andy Murray: “I think if you assess Paul’s season, there’s no question the numbers in the first half and our record in the first half were directly related. Obviously his numbers dropped off. I think one of the elements is that the game changed after Christmas, the game got a lot tighter checking. Even though they changed the rules, I think it’s almost tougher for certain players to score because teams are collapsing. They’re playing real tight defense in front of their net. There isn’t the open space that Paul has seen in other years. He realizes that his offseason program needs to emphasize more strength and he’s planning to do that. I look at the way he played the last 10 games of the season, I felt that he was back to playing the way he played at the start. We’re expecting good things from him. I do feel a big part of our lack of production offensively - both 5 on 5 and the power play - was the inability of our team to move the puck defensively out of our zone quick enough . . . to make plays that put our forwards in position where they could create more offense. I don’t think the scoring responsibility lies just with our forwards. I think a big part of that was the play our our defensemen. We talk so much about offense, but our defensive focus in the second half was not as good. I think better play in terms of puck movement from the part of our defensemen will really help us.”

Q: Most coaches are more secure having veteran players. How comfortable are you going in the direction of the youth movement next season?

AM: “That seems to be the types of teams that I’ve always coached in this league. We had young teams in Los Angeles. We’re going to have a young team here. They’re exciting to work with. You look at the development of one of our young players this year. Who would have thought before the season that David Perron would have played over 60 games in the NHL, that Erik Johnson would have had the responsibility at the end of the year that he was given. We are for the greater part dependent on our young players being good. To do that, we need to make sure that our core of veterans play better. To me, our failure in the second half of the season lays a lot with the play of our core veteran players. We need them to be better to set the example for us. Because these young people are our future and they’re only gonna be as good as the core leadership around them.”

Q: If what you’re able to do this summer is bring Oshie and Berglund in, and possibly not sign a free-agent forward, can you expect the power-play to get better?

JD: “Regarding the free-agent thing, don’t read anything into what I said. I’m not saying no to anything. I think we surprised a lot of people lat year with Paul signing. So regarding July 1, that’s still something we’re going to look at. Regarding young players on the power play, I know one thing . . . it will get better. You never know, it’s such a confidence thing. Will it be questionable early? Will it get going late? Will it start quick and keep going? Who knows? I absolutely don’t know. But I know this much . . . when we down the road get to a finished product, it’s going to work. Because we’re going to have people in there that can do those types of things.”

AM: “I think our power play was better at the end of the season. I think our puck movement was better. All season, we created chances on our power play. It was the failure to put the puck in the net with the last shot that was lacking. I have to believe that some of our players that were on the power play who’s numbers were down this year . . . you talk about the Stempniak’s, you talk about Paul and some other guys . . . you have to believe that their individuals numbers are going to be better. Erik Johnson having another year, David Perron having another year, David Backes playing on the first-line power play the first time in his NHL career. You expect these young players will be better because we stuck with them all year. That’s the one thing that’s interesting. We did play our young guys here. I know there were issues in the Perron situation, but you compare his minutes to a lot of first-year players in this league, and other than the Toews’ and the Kane’s, it was right up there. He played in a lot of key situations. I think the fact that they’ve had that experience, I can’t predict as a coach who we’re going to have and what we’re going to get. I know what we’ve got here right now and I expect they’re going to be better because a lot of those were young guys that have the room to improve. Other guys who had off years, you expect them to get back to their normal production.”

Q: Did the Doug Weight trade have a negative effect on the team?

JD: “Absolutely not. No reason for it to even . . . I have no reason why that should even be brought up. I mean, we moved forward from the day that Doug was moved. I have a lot of respect for Doug. He’s in a position now where he can play for Anaheim and maybe win a Stanley Cup. It was his last year here, we decided to make a change, he agreed to it and Andy McDonald is here. Andy played very well for us in a lot of ways. I think that Andy is going to have a long summer, which is good for him. Anaheim winning the Cup last year, it was a very short summer for him. He came in here and was extremely professional and I believe the longer summer for him will really give him a chance to focus. I had a meeting with him myself and he feels strongly that he can play better, much better. So we have a centerman under contract next year that’s really good for us. I don’t think (trading Weight) had anything to do with it. It’s always different when you move a player that’s been around for a long time. It’s human nature there, but that had nothing to do with our record whatever.”

Q: Do you expect Manny Legace to play as much next year as he did this season?

AM: “I think Manny probably played a few more games than we expected him to play this year. Certainly the play of Hannu was not at the level we needed it to be at the second half of the season. He got off to a tremendous start . . . it was great to see him close real strong the last two games he played. He played strong in Nashville and obviously had a tremendous game in Columbus. But being in the hunt we were for a playoff spot the majority of the season, when Hannu faltered, we were in a situation where we needed to play Manny. He probably played a few more games than we would have liked. But I think we have Manny in that 58-60 range, that’s probably the range we’d like to have him in.”

Q: Would you like to get a veteran backup goalie signed for next season?

JD: “Yeah, we’re going to look at that. Once we finish our exit meetings here with the players, we’ll sit down with our coaches and our management staff and then bring in our pro scouts . . . and we’ll go over everything from A-Z. We’ll filter through all the information . . . what went right, what didn’t go right? We certainly have to look at that position, without question, and decide what avenue we want to go.”

Q: Will there be any offseason surgies?

JD: “Roman Polak is going to have surgery on his ankle to remove a screw that was inserted there with the previous fracture. Erik Johnson has a what they call a loose body, a small piece of floating material in his shoulder . . . he’s going to have scoped to have taken out. And Erik Brewer is going to have a shoulder operation. He’s been playing with a shoulder that’s bothered him all year. He’s shown a lot of courage. He’s showing no excuses, but he played with a shoulder that was banged up very early in the season. I believe it was in Phoenix in the first game of the year. He was involved in a scrap. He will go to Cleveland and have surgery there. He’ll certainly be ready without question for the training camp.”

Q: Will that stop Erik Johnson from participating in the World Championships?

JD: “Probably, but we don’t know that for sure. It’s about Erik Johnson and his shoulder and the Blues before anything else.”

Q: Why not shut down Brewer two or three weeks ago?

JD: “We talk about everything. We didn’t need to shut him down. The training staff felt he couldn’t hurt his shoulder any worse and he wanted to play.”

Q: What is the status of Legace’s right knee?

JD: “Manny is going to see a couple of doctors over the next few days and then gather information on it. He’s very happy the way the season ended. He wore the brace on the knee all season and it was great. It was terrific. Way better than even he thought, especially with the amount that he played. If his knee was bothering him, we wouldn’t have played him, but it didn’t. He feels, though, and we concur, go get it looked at by a number of different physicians who are specialists with the knee and then we’ll gather the information. He’ll either have it looked at or else just keep on training and get ready for next year.”

Q: Do you expect all of those players to be ready by training camp?

JD: “Oh yeah, absolutely. The Brewer one could take a few months if they find damage. That’s the only one of any term. Nothing is serious. It’ll be some kind of reconstruction, but I’m not 100 percent sure. There’s some damage in there that they want to take care of.”

Q: Do you address with the league the schedule this year. Not so much the long road trip, but just the idea of having more balance . . .

JD: “There’s two ways of looking at that. One is with other sports going on, and you’re trying to rebuild a franchise and get people in your building, it’s hard to up against other competition. The second half of the season, there’s more of an opportunity to get the hockey fan into your building. That’s being fair. I don’t want to throw it all on the league. We had 33 games the last 68 nights. We had 45 games the last 99 nights. I think those were the numbers. That’s a lot of hockey, especially when you’re going coast-to-coast, country to country. I don’t care who you are. But it was very light the first portion. We’d like to balance that off a little bit.”

Q: Andy, you said that next year you want to be more demanding. How do you balance being more demanding while trying to raise confidence?

AM: “I’m seen as being a positive coach for the most part. That’s the type of style I like to implement. But I think I can hold our veteran players more accountable than I did this year. I think there’s a respect factor between the coach and the veteran players. That has to be something that I make sure I hold the veteran players more accountable. I plan to do that, and I’ve indicated that to them as well, so it’s not going to be a surprise to them. I feel I do hold the veteran players accountable, but I think I can do an even better job of that.”

Q: Did the fact that you didn’t hold the veterans as accountable as you would have liked become a detriment for the team?

AM: “No, I think you look at ways you can improve and I’m not saying that was a factor with the way things went at the end of the season . . . I just think it’s an area for improvement. Our veterans have to lead us all the time, and I’ve got to make sure that happens all the time.”

Q: Does that become easier by having a captain right off the bat next year with Eric Brewer?

AM: “Let’s say it is. I’m always on the positive, so it’ll be easier because we have a captain (laughing). I think that we had such a great record at the end of last season, and such a great record at the beginning of this year, there didn’t appear in my opinion a need to change things. That didn’t become evident until the second half of the season. When you’re rolling with things and things seem to be going quite well, sometimes you don’t notice certain things. That’s something now that I’ve had a chance to reflect on . . . that I noticed. I just think I need to hold our veterans more accountable.”

Q: What’s one thing you can point to for the slide in the second half?

AM: “To be very honest with you, I think it’s problems that we had in the first half. I think in the first half of the season, we had problems scoring 5 on 5. We had an inability to generate offense on the part of our blue-line, in terms of solid puck movement. We had an inability to score on the power play. Those were problems for us in the first half of the season, but we had tremendous goaltending. We had some goaltending struggles for a period of time there after Christmas, so that combined with the fact that we didn’t have any improved play on the 5 on 5 offensively, or our defense were not involved enough on the offense . . . that combination proved deadly. As you know, a majority of the games that we won in the first half were one-goal victories. The majority of the games we lost after Christmas were one-goal losses. That’s just a fine line there that tends to make a difference. It would be the outstanding goaltending at the start that I think allowed some of things that weren’t happening to be overshadowed.”

Q: Any update on the contract talks with Ryan Johnson and what are the plans with Matt Walker?

JD: “We’re going to sit down and talk about all that stuff. Matt Walker had a good year for us. We as an organization that Matt came out of camp, he was in great shape, played hard . . . this is going to sound silly and in some ways we were fortunate that we didn’t get injuries back there much, but normally you do . . . he didn’t play for a period of time and it ate him up. And it ate us up too because he deserved to play but so did others. There just wasn’t room. I respected Matt the way he was a team player. We will talk, we will make determinations. There’s also an evolution process here where changes are made. I don’t know what they’re going to be, but it’s something we’ll address over the next few weeks. We’ll be very upfront with everybody that we’re talking about, whether it be RJ or Matt or others. We’ve got some we need to qualify, we’ve got a backup goalie position. We’ve got a lot of things to address and we will. When we do make changes, sometimes there hard to do. It’s something we have to go through as an organization.”

Q: Is Ryan Johnson a priority?

JD: “Everybody is a priority. We have evaluate every single one of them and see if it’s the right mix for us. If it’s not, let them know, so they can go on and do what they need to do to move on with their careers.”

Q: What’s the biggest thing you learned in Year 2 as Blues President?

JD: “That’s a loaded question there. The biggest thing I learned . . . probably the patience was tested more than ever before. Sometimes I dealt with it properly, sometimes I got impatient with my emotions. That’s something that I have to get stronger and better with on a personal note. I think that it’s still interesting in this position, and a coach would say the same thing, you get curveballs all the time. Some are interesting. There’s a different one or two everyday. You’ve got to deal with them and mature. I think I’m getting better with that. I don’t think I’m great at it yet, but I’m getting better at it. I’m hoping that our organization . . . we saw some adversity hit us this year and whatever it was . . . a small deal, a big deal . . . that we as an organization will deal with it strongly and even better in the future. It’ll make us an organization that can get to the promise land quicker and in the proper fashion.”

AM: “It’s day to day. You’re learning everyday on the job. Everyday has its challenges. I think you have to continue to have a strong belief system in your own ability and the ability of the people you work with. You need a strong trust factor within the organization and I think we’ve got that here. So, learning every day. I wouldn’t say there’s one particular thing. I would say it’s just a matter of adjusting and being flexible and most importantly caring about the people you work with.”

****That’s it for tonight. I will have interviews with Paul Kariya, Keith Tkachuk, Barret Jackman and Eric Brewer on-line by Wednesday afternoon.

JR