Sports columnists Ben Frederickson and Jeff Gordon break down the Blues’ tailspin and sort out where the blame should fall. It’s not just on the players, but it’s not on the head coach.
The Blues aren’t the only team suffering right now. The long-mighty Pittsburgh Penguins are languishing in a seven-game winless streak.
The Ottawa Senators hoped to break out this season, but they are winless in their last five games. The Calgary Flames and the injury-depleted Washington Capitals are in the midst of four-game winless streaks.
But there are two teams which are definitely not struggling: The Boston Bruins, who host the Blues Monday night, and the Vegas Golden Knights, who host the Blues Saturday.
The Bruins raced to a 10-1 start before falling to the Toronto Maple Leafs in their last game. Meanwhile the Golden Knights have won seven straight games to improve to 11-2.
Between the challenging Boston and Vegas games, the Blues play at Philadelphia Tuesday night against the 6-3-2 Flyers and they host the struggling San Jose Sharks Thursday.
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The injury-depleted Flyers are one of several surprisingly good teams in the early going. New coach John Tortorella has them grinding away in the face of adversity.
So in the near term, the path back on track for the staggering Blues looks perilous.
The Bruins started fast despite dealing with myriad injuries. Forward Brad Marchand and defensemen Charlie McAvoy and Matt Grzelcyk opened the season on injured reserve.
Marchard and Grzelcyk have since returned, but now goaltender Jeremy Swayman is on the shelf.
Still, Boston is in great shape. Their loss to the Maple Leafs figures to prompt a reset, which figures to make things even tougher for the Note.
“We’re going to get everyone’s best. We want that, right?” Bruins winger Taylor Hall said. “We want that challenge. So, we’re going to have to play better than we did tonight. It was a really good run.”
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery pointed to his team’s inability to get into a smooth transition game against the Maple Leafs.
“It was breakouts,” he said. “We weren’t very clean, and then just our puck decisions through the neutral zone making sure we were able to establish a forecheck, which we weren’t able to.”
Expected corrective action against the disjointed Blues.
The Flyers have overcome injuries in large part because goaltender Carter Hart relocated his game.
“It’s not so much that he’s making the saves, it’s how he looks,” Tortorella said of Hart. “I think a goaltender can sometimes set the tempo for your team. He looks relaxed, he looks calm. I think it settles the team down, too. He’s handled himself really well.”
As for the Golden Knights, they have become a steamroller with cornerstone Jack Eichel back to full strength after recovering from his groundbreaking neck surgery.
“We’re having a lot of fun right now, winning definitely adds to that,” Golden Knights winger Reilly Smith said. “We’re trying to keep the ball rolling and keep the positivity going, but it’s nice to be able to play when you’re winning, and you just try to keep those streaks going.”
The Bruins made unhappy news by signing troubled prospect Mitchell Miller, who had some racially-charged bullying ugliness in his teenage years. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was unamused, as were some Boston veterans, so the Bruins quickly moved on from Miller.
Flames coach Darryl Sutter is having to crack the whip in Calgary. He had Mikael Backlund, Milan Lucic, Kevin Rooney and Connor Mackey riding the pine during a 4-3 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils.
“Had to shorten the bench a lot,” Sutter said. “When you don’t have the energy or the emotion in the game, then they don’t get to play. It doesn’t matter who they are. The guys who played in the third got us a point. . . You should have the energy because you’ve only played nine games in a month. If you don’t have the energy, maybe you have a preparation problem.”
After losing goaltender Matt Murray to injury, the Toronto Maple Leafs suffered a second blow when Ilya Samsonov suffered a knee injury Saturday. Erik Kallgren took over as the lead goaltender, but Murray could return from IL this week.
With multiple other teams developing injury-related needs in goal, the Golden Knights could deal Laurent Broissoit. He is currently on a rehab stint in the AHL and he could get stuck there with Vegas battling its usual salary cap concerns and Adin Hill doing a nice job as Logan Thompson’s backup.
With the Vancouver Canucks fading to the back in the Western Conference playoff race, president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford might feel more inclined to start overhauling his roster. That could mean trading captain Bo Horvat, who carries a $5.5 million salary cap hit in the final year of his contract.
Horvat is arguably the last player the team should trade, given his strong all-around play. He is still in his prime at 27. But his next contract could land somewhere around $9 million a year and the Canucks will have issues even if the salary cap climbs as expected. Negotiations for a contract extension have gone nowhere to this point.
Stuart Skinner has taken charge in goal for Edmonton, where free-agent addition Jack Campbell has been a disappointment. His ratios (2.10 goals-against average, .944 save percentage outshine Campbell’s (4.20, .874 looks) by a lot.
With multiple forwards on the injured list, the Capitals continue monitoring the trade market and the waiver wire. There has been ample speculation about a trade with Montreal, since the rebuilding Canadiens might want to start clearing out the underproductive veteran.
And, yes, former Blues winger Mike Hoffman makes that list.
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