St. Louis Blues Need To Wake Up Or Risk Significant Organizational Change

The St. Louis Blues had better stop hitting the snooze button on certain games or they are going to find themselves in a lot of trouble come the end of the regular season. They are not in any danger of missing the playoffs right now and are unlikely to miss overall. However, the kind of performances that mirror what people saw in a 4-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes are becoming too frequent and more than just a minor annoyance.

St. Louis has a lot of issues at this point and time. When they play the way Ken Hitchcock wants, they dominate teams. However, when they do not, they lose more often than not and of late get embarrassed.

Only two days after one of the best team performances Blues fans have seen in recent weeks — a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils — St. Louis had one of their worst performances since a loss by the same score to the Toronto Maple Leafs at the start of January (potentially worse than that). St. Louis looked tired. Their power play struggled to even gain the zone, let alone get shots on goal. They could find absolutely no way around the Hurricanes’ pressure. Take nothing away from Carolina, who are currently sitting with 47 points as of this writing, but the Blues made them look like Stanley Cup favorites when there is a good chance Carolina might not even make the postseason.

This has been a disturbing trend for St. Louis. Unfortunately, there are not stats kept on several of their issues — it is more of a general observation. St. Louis has been terrible against the Eastern Conference. 7-9-5 doesn’t look terrible on paper, but it’s the second worst record against the other conference by any team in the West.

Beyond just the record against the East, which could be forgiven if they keep winning against the West, St. Louis just fails to show up. They seem to shrink when the moments are biggest. With the exception of an incredible comeback against the Chicago Blackhawks earlier this season, the Blues seem to play their worst games on national television. They have repeatedly performed poorly in the playoffs, regardless of momentum going in. They had a chance to pick up a victory and pick up the morale of a city in front of an almost packed house just days after the NFL left town. Still, they shrink from the moment.

Yes, there are the excuses of injuries and games played. Very few teams have lost as many man games to injury as the Blues, and they have played the most games in the league while dealing with those injuries. Even so, there still has to be a more consistent effort in big moments.

Good goaltending has gone to waste. Having a top goal scorer in the league hasn’t solved as much as fans had hoped. This team has to find some sort of tough mentality instead of hissing at the spotlight like a creature from the shadows. The Blues need to have a wake-up call. A rest during the All-Star break will do them good, but something has to fundamentally change. It doesn’t have to be a coaching change or a big trade, but those things are definitely on the horizon if the players fail to figure it out for themselves.