Reality Check (Part 1)

Facts are facts. As well as the Blues are playing, pulling themselves up from dead last in the conference into 12th place only 9 points out of a playoff spot, chances are they ain't gonna make it.

The Blues, with 42 points, are currently nine points out of a playoff spot in the West. Over the last four seasons, it has taken an average of 93 points in the conference to qualify for the eighth seed. Theoretically that means even though the Blues are 10-4-4 for 24 points under Murray, they would need to earn 51 of the remaining 70 points available to reach 93 points.

So lets say the Blues went 20-10-5 over their last 35 games (a pretty damn good record,) they would finish with 87 points. It just doesn't look like enough. If Calgary and Minnesota, currently in 7th and 8th in the conferences, play .500 hockey from here on out they would finish with 88 and 85 points respectively. Throw in the occasional point from an OT loss, and the Blues are done for.

But you know what? I'd take it. Let's make the run, give it our best shot and if we come up short we will say "We just ran out of season. Give us another full run next year and we will make it."

Comments

Early Thoughts on City 2025

There are few things harder to keep track of than an MLS side in their off-season, at least for me. Despite the fact it takes place roughly during the time the MLB Hot Stove season is in full swing, it is nowhere near as easy to follow along with as baseball. Part of it is how disconnected MLS is with the international soccer calendar. St. Louis City SC is still digesting the moves it made last summer even though those players have already played important games for the club. It is all weird and disjointed, and I always feel like I am playing catch-up. Happily, the moves made in the off-season this year were not numerous. German Timo Baumgartl comes over from Europe as an option at center back, which is good because that was a position that was a little rocky for City last season. Given his own troubles over the last few seasons (cancer and uneven play in the aftermath of that), a spell with City can give Baumgartl a chance to have a re-set. Given his pedigree and the fact City si...

Blues Fall Off a Cliff

Hockey seasons will have their ups and downs. For whatever reason, be it injuries, a challenging schedule, an inexplicable loss of form, it is difficult for teams to maintain a good level of compete for an entire season. The good teams just limit their funks. The St. Louis Blues, however, are not a good team. They are a poor team, and poor teams sink under the weight of "here we go again" night after night. I will admit I only watched the first two periods of last night's 5-0 loss to a Colorado team that had been scuffling of late. Two periods were more than enough to get the gist of it. It was also enough to lead me to a diagnosis as to what ails the team. It isn't that they are young and are going through growing pains. No, the reason the Blues are so bad is that the veterans who are being paid to be the backbone of this team are not doing their jobs. I'm talking about Schenn, Buchnevich, Faulk, and even Binnington and Parayko. Over $30M of the salary cap is b...

A Note of Optimism About the Note

If you have been trying to watch the St. Louis Blues attempt to play hockey of late it would be hard to believe the word optimism could ever be in play. The losses continue relentlessly, often in the "never in the game" style, but increasingly in a "lose from winning position" flair which is enough to make someone turn on the news for an upbeat change of pace. (Wow, plane crashes and LUNACY!) This team still can't score with the regularity needed to win consistently in this league. The coaching staff knows they have precious few natural goal scorers (one is precious few), so they attempt to make up for it by getting what I call "process" goals, i.e. goals scored by virtue of constant pressure, crazy bounces, accidental deflections, etc. Basically, any goal you can get from a player who doesn't have the knack for scoring them on their own. The Blues are something like zero for their last 12-15 breakaway chances, and zero for their last 25-30 2 on 1...

(Get) A Sporting Life

Search This Blog