Thanks for letting us getting a rare win. 😲

We're so weird. Only the Blues could dominate the 1st and 3rd and suffer a humiliating shutout loss at home. No offense to Blackwood, he was great, but this Blues team simply will not take a gift. It's insane. Every time we are rolling along and we face a team that is nosediving, we resurrect their season and stab ours in the back. Somehow.

Of course now they'll win out and miss the playoffs by a point...

Wouldn’t mind Tucker playing over Scandella. Blues need to find a mean physical defender this summer too.

Everyone says the Blues have the 3rd easiest schedule but when we play crap teams we play down to their level. Maybe NJ and PIT will pass us up.

Just look at the leadup to the last San Jose loss (which ended a Blues series win streak of eight games, no less)...

2023-11-03 New Jersey 4-1 W
2023-11-04 Montreal 6-3 W
2023-11-07 Winnipeg 2-5 L
2023-11-09 Arizona 2-1 W
2023-11-11 at Colorado 8-2 W
2023-11-14 Tampa Bay 5-0 W
2023-11-16 at San Jose 1-5 L

It's maddening. And we could put together 3-4 presentations exactly like this, if not more. Nashville was dead in the water, we were sailing along in a playoff spot for a month straight, they'd lost 9-2 to Dallas and like eight or nine in a row or something, and we go lay a fat egg. The Columbus loss right before the ASG. It just goes on and on. It's like they're pranking us.

There’s just no heart in this team anymore. If this franchise values that they should listen to Binner and move on from guys who just wanna skate around and not care about the Note on the front.

It's sad Binny is the absolute hero of the season along with Parayko, and almost no one outside STL has noticed.

But I would say this team has a split heart. I think there's a divide in the room. And there's definitely no coach to lead them out of it. The results are better under Bannister, but that's in spite of him. The first one out has to be Krug. And then Schenn if anyone is desperate enough to take him. Thomas should be the C and needs to be the C.

I like Schenn but his contract doesn’t look good and will continue to drag the team down. As a captain I think he’s a good short term guy until they name Thomas. Wouldn’t mind if management took the A off Faulk and gave it to Neighbours too.

Schenn has been largely god awful this season. And in no way a leader. They should have waited to name Thomas, this is a problem.

I wish they would play Buch on the Right Wing more as it is the side he favors.

*Two

I am definitely in the minority on this, but I kind of think Schenn is a bigger issue than Krug. He turns the puck over so often. I would be fine if someone else played 2C though and Schenn just became an overpaid winger.

I mean, these issues are so close it's not even with arguing who's the bigger issue. It's 1A and 1B, except for issues instead of goalies. If we could replace them with even solid replacements, it would make so much difference.

Fair Enough. I think my ideal offseason would be to:
1. Move up in the draft and grab one of the better defenseman in the draft. I have a soft spot for Yakemchuk, but there are plenty of good options.
2. Trade Buch for something that is young, but not a 3-5 year out prospect.
3. Move Krug at any cost possible
4. Find a new coach, maybe offer Bannister an Assistant coach position.
5. Strip Schenn of the C, Make Neighbours and A and then wait to promote a new captain. You could just give it to Thomas, but I would like to think that going to no Captain could be a wake up call for Schenn if he can't be moved. I feel like taking it from Schenn and giving to Thomas might cause tension in the Locker room.

1 - Agreed, though I'm still dreaming of Dickinson because I can. He would be the dream get.
2 - Something young is a bit vague, so it's hard to comment.
3 - I think at any cost is too far, but yeah. With as little pain as possible. Maybe he can have another 10 points in 8 run and fluff his season stats a little. But it must be done.
4 - Don't overly see a need to offer Bannister anything like that and I'm guessing he'd be all offended anyway. But yes, get a real head coach.
5 - Not sure how Neighbours is suddenly on Thomas and Colt's level, or how making Thomas wait further when he should have the C now helps anything. And unless Schenn hands it back on his own, I don't see how he could stay like that. He's already mailing it in half the time.

But most of all, I would bet dollars to donuts there is already a Schenn camp-Thomas camp friction of some sort. Something is rotten inside that team from a mental/attitude/cohesion standpoint. They check out at the strangest times, make the weirdest mistakes. That team is not a team right now. They try, and sometimes it almost looks like one, and when push comes to shove they temporarily form one, but there's already issues in that room. Something.

Fair enough.
1. Dickinson would be great, but I feel like we would need to lose pretty much all of the last 8 games to put ourselves in a position to trade up for him.
2. Young D preferably. Could be a package with Broberg or someone from the Rangers maybe.
3. I would be willing to retain money, but I guess at any cost is exaggeration. I really mean that Armstrong should trying all summer to get him moved at a reasonable amount of pain.
4. My thought is that Bannister knows most of these players well from AHL and half a season as interim. I would think he understands that business is business. I think he is at the level of an Ass. but I doubt any team would offer him a head in the NHL and its better than going back to the AHL for him.
5. Neighbours for me is just consistent in the way he plays. He isn't necessairly a ppg player and he most likely wont ever be, but his game is sustainable and I believe that he has the character to make a great captain someday. I wan't my Captains to be the consistent players, not really the best.

As far as locker room, there probably is already issues. My thought was that if Schenn loses the C and it is given to Thomas then I could see Schenn concievably checking out for the rest of his contract. I would hope that giving him a path to earn it back would hopefully bring his game back. In a perfect world they would have given it to Thomas or even Parayko this summer. Shoot, I would have been fine if they gave it to Binnington instead of Schenn.

1 - There's a bunch of teams ahead of us who have D prospects falling out of their ears already. The situation is ripe.
2 - Broberg ain't enough and they have little cap space/no 24 1st. Not sure how EDM manages this. Rags fans seem to think it's a bad enough look to trade something integral for a Buch return. So I dunno.
4 - He does? Because he seems to think Kessel is a 2nd pairing stalwart and treats actual talents Bolduc/Dean like afterthoughts.
5 - Thomas is pretty consistent, man. And even when the points aren't raining down, his 200 ft game remains intact. It's his team already.

Oops I didn't see the bottom paragraph. Agree with all that, but the bottom line is we're in a couple of jams. The good news is we've certainly been in a couple of jams before. I'll wait to see what Army does this summer to judge.

I was hoping St. Louis would push LA / Vegas out of a playoff spot, but that doesn't look likely anymore.

Oh well. Looking forward to the game tonight!

Oops I didn't see the bottom paragraph. Agree with all that, but the bottom line is we're in a couple of jams. The good news is we've certainly been in a couple of jams before. I'll wait to see what Army does this summer to judge.

I'm sure we'll still figure out a way to have one more big faceplant before it's done. Miss by one point or something.

We definitely will have one more face plant.... we play the Sharks again. 1-9 Goal differential against the sharks this year is sad.