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 chances. It's maddening.

However, a couple points should be kept in mind. The Blues schedule of late has been a difficult one. Yes, they are throwing away home games by the fistful, but almost all of their opponents have been simply better than they are. Winning these games should have been tough. Losing all of them, which they have, was always a good possibility. Also, the Blues have been playing better in their own end. This has been masked somewhat by a slip in the quality of the goaltending, but even when the Blues are hemmed in and giving up shots most of the time, they are keeping them to the outside. It hasn't been perfect, but it is light years better than we saw in first three months of the season.

Don't get me wrong, this team is not about to go on a long winning streak. In fact, it is likely they never win three games in a row this season, but the puck luck will come back their way and they will be able to handle the teams they have the talent edge on (and there are 10 or so of those teams.) Even more hopeful is the talent on the way, which does include at least one player who can find the back of the net on their own.

So, while you can stick a fork in the 24-25 Blues, we can dream a bit on the 25-26 and, especially, the 26-27 editions.

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