BOSTON — Sitting in a conference area at The Westin New York at Times Square on Friday, just minutes after the NHL trade deadline had passed, St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said something extremely damning.
In between sips of water, Armstrong said there was “nothing that transpired with any of our guys” and “quite honestly, we weren’t offered.” In other words, none of the other 31 teams in the league wanted his players.
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Now, that needs to be qualified by the fact that the Blues weren’t dangling All-Star center Robert Thomas at the deadline, and their asking price for Pavel Buchnevich was understandably astronomically high.
But think about that for a second: As Stanley Cup contenders were dolling out draft picks and prospects, attempting to solidify their roster for the stretch run, the Blues couldn’t find any takers.
GO DEEPER
Why the Blues' Pavel Buchnevich wasn't traded and GM Doug Armstrong stuck to the 'charted' course
Blame the GM, right? Armstrong assembled the group, and if he hadn’t given out such lengthy contracts, or as much money, maybe he could move a few of them.
That’s true and has been well-documented, but with the Blues’ payroll being just a shade under the NHL’s $83.5 million salary cap this season, the players need to be treated as lead actors in this soap opera and not just the supporting cast.
There is some skill and a lot experience, but these guys are not performing to their own capabilities, nor is there the urgency needed on a club that had been hovering just a few points back in the Western Conference wild-card race but now sits nine back with 18 games to play.
Yes, this is a transition period for the franchise and there are some fresh faces, but according to a list of the 2023-24 opening-night rosters, the Blues were tied for the 15th oldest team in the league (28.3 years).
In their 4-0 loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday, it was veteran Kevin Hayes whose early penalty led to a power-play goal against. It was fellow vets Justin Faulk and Buchnevich who had penalties that wiped out power plays, and it was Brayden Schenn and Nick Leddy who had failed clearing attempts that resulted in the puck in the back of their net.
“We made three mistakes, myself included, and it cost us three goals,” Schenn said.
These are the same mistakes that were made when former coach Craig Berube was behind the Blues’ bench and continue to happen with interim coach Drew Bannister calling the shots.
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This, despite Bannister holding the players more accountable than ever before. He’s benched Buchnevich, Thomas, Jordan Kyrou, Kasperi Kapanen and made Kapanen a healthy scratch. After several games, including a couple of wins, he’s been critical of the team’s overall sloppiness.
Then on Friday, Bannister took it up another notch.
While Armstrong was addressing the media about the trade deadline in New York, the Blues were back in Newark, N.J., being put through a bag skate with no pucks — up, down, back and forth, again.
“This was a time where I need to get their attention,” Bannister said of the session.
“He’s the head coach,” Faulk said. “He gets that right to hold us accountable if he doesn’t think we’re pulling our weight. It’s probably a butt-kicking that we needed and try and get this thing going and try to put in that work ethic.”
Did it work?
Well, there were pockets of the Rangers game in which they played OK, but as a result of the aforementioned mistakes, the Blues gave up four goals for the third straight game and their offense was shut out.
Incredibly, a day after Armstrong said publicly that he didn’t get any offers on his players and declared that the final quarter of the season would dictate which direction he takes with the roster, they were blanked.
The lack of scoring has been all too common lately, and there’s one very disturbing issue in particular.
In their last eight games, the Blues have netted a total of 11 goals (excluding Torey Krug’s empty netter against Minnesota on March 2), and their 1.5 goals per game ranks last in the NHL in that stretch.
Even more alarming, they have not scored a non-empty net goal in the third period of their last nine games. Krug, as mentioned, had one empty-netter against Minnesota, and Buchnevich had another against the New York Islanders on Feb. 22. But aside from that, the team has zero third-period goals on a combined 75 shots in that span. You have to go back to Buchnevich’s even-strength goal against Toronto on Feb. 19 to find one with a goalie in the net.
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Third-period scoring drought
| Team | Goals | Shots |
|---|---|---|
0 | 7 | |
0 | 10 | |
0 | 11 | |
0 | 10 | |
0 | 10 | |
0 | 5 | |
0 | 8 | |
0 | 8 | |
0 | 6 |
This trend speaks volumes.
With little battle shown in some of those third periods, the Blues may be resigned to their probable fate of not qualifying for the playoffs.
The captain defended against that notion.
“You’re not going to see a group that quits, I know that,” Schenn said. “You don’t see the most confident group right now. If you’re losing, you at least want to go down swinging and right now we’re just not generating enough offensively. But there’s still a lot of hockey left, and we just got to find a way to turn up the confidence meter in this room.”
Are they still responding to Bannister, who Armstrong confirmed to The Athletic will be the coach at least through the end of the 2023-24 season? After seeing an initial boost in their play upon his arrival in mid-December, they have since flatlined.
Armstrong pointed out Friday that there doesn’t seem to be any joy about the locker room lately.
“Well, losing sucks, so …” Schenn said. “We play a competitive game for a living and we want to win and be part of a competitive hockey team. When you’re on the ice and you feel like you’re not getting the job done, it’s tough to have joy. But at the same time, usually when you’re having fun, everything else takes care of itself.”
There may not be enough time for the Blues to turn around their season, but for the sake of the situation, they’d better turn around those frowns.
“As cliche as it is, it’s our job to come in there and work,” Faulk said. “There’s plenty of guys in this room that want to get better, whether it’s a young guy solidifying himself and finding their way in this league, or a guy that maybe needs a contract.
“Whatever it is, there’s always a reason to play, and you have to be responsible and come in and put in a good work ethic every day. You owe it to your teammate. It’s a tough league to be in and you can’t take days for granted. For the most part, we have an older group and it shouldn’t be much of an issue.”
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So talk about the roster being the root of the problems all you want, and you’re right. But it should be better than it’s shown, and that hasn’t been the case.
It should be a telling sign to them that clubs around the league weren’t calling Armstrong on deadline day.
“Listen, that group in there, they care about each other, they care about the team, they care about the organization and the fans,” Bannister said. “They want to have success. We’re fighting it right now, and we’re trying to get ourselves out of it.
“Obviously there’s not a ton of joy coming to the rink when you’re losing hockey games, nor should there be. But we have to find a way to dig ourselves out of this, and it’s going to come from within that room.”
(Photo of Pavel Buchnevich and Brayden Schenn: Rick Ulreich / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)