The Blues’ competitive window did not slam shut on Louie’s fingers. Don’t expect to hear much howling from Clark Avenue this summer.
This team should enjoy more playoff runs before a painful overhaul is needed.
But the management team, coaching staff and players must work together to assemble a more cohesive and tenacious team.
General manager Doug Armstrong must construct a roster with better fits. This year’s puzzle featured missing pieces and duplicates.
Coach Craig Berube must create more lineup stability. Injuries and COVID-19 disruption left him scrambling to find viable groupings from game to game.
Incumbent players get healthy, regain their form and reestablish their collective drive. There was wholesale regression this season and fissures developed at critical points in the team stricture.
So there’s work to do.
Let’s start with the roster. As Brayden Schenn noted Tuesday, “personnel drives identity.”
As always, the offseason will bring change. The expansion draft will take a player. Free agency will cause coming and going.
Expect trades as well, since Armstrong doesn’t sit on his hands and just hope for the best.
The Blues must add at least one sturdy defenseman to kill penalties, match up against top lines at even-strength and protect late leads.
Marco Scandella was a nice get, but he could not offset the loss of Jay Bouwmeester. The Torey Krug signing was a pleasant surprise, but he could not replace Alex Pietrangelo’s defensive zone presence.
Colton Parayko was scheduled to graduate into prominence, but a back injury ruined his season. His belated emergence would help, but the Blues still need outside help.
This team must also add heft and persistence up front. If Oskar Sundqvist survives the expansion draft and overcomes his injuries, he could add those elements.
If Vladimir Tarasenko can get back into tank mode, that would help too. He rolled more like a golf cart in too many games this season, puttering around the perimeter paths.
Armstrong must either re-sign impending free agent Jaden Schwartz at a cap-friendly number, allowing him to make other additions, or he must invest in a better two-way winger.
Schwartz is a dogged checker with full buy-in to Berube’s system, but he again followed a strong offensive season with a struggle.
Physical winger Klim Kostin advanced his career in Russia this season, so he’s ready for his NHL look. Rookie Dakota Joshua impressed during his fill-in stints, so he could bring energy to the fourth line.
Nonetheless, Armstrong should look outside to add at least one aggressive puck hunter for the front line mix.
The Blues have become a faster team top to bottom. Given the competitive direction of the NHL, that is a good thing.
That evolution shouldn’t preclude the Blues from regaining their identity. They can still be a relentless forechecking team if everybody commits to it.
“We have different styles of players and it’s a different team than it was a couple of years go,” Blues captain Ryan O’Reilly said. “There’s still that discipline within the structure and a certain edge mentally that you have to have to be successful.”
More speed should help the Blues get on top of their opponents more quickly. But the faster players must be prepared to battle.
Youngsters Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas combined for just 12 hits this season, so they must become more engaged.
Also, the Blues can’t take bad gambles looking to trigger the rush. They must earn their rush opportunities with smart plays, not gambles that lead to odd-man rushes coming back.
Every Blue can become stronger attacking the net at one end and defending the goal at the other. This is unpleasant work, drawing cross-checks into the spine and such, but it must be done.
With a full summer to rest, recover and train, the Blues can get their bodies right. If COVID-19 remains in decline, perhaps they can gather for summer skates ahead of the next training camp and rebuild solidarity.
“We’re not the team we want to be,” O’Reilly said. “We had these little spurts and then that was it. We didn’t grow our game and build our team game like we need to, like it’s been in the past with what guys have done.
“That’s the main issue we’re searching for ... that’s where we shorted out. Take this time to rest, get the hunger back and go from there.”
Perhaps a full training camp could allow the coaching staff to restore order. Perhaps a full minor league season could get their player development back on track.
A complete 82-game, 2021-22 season would give Berube and Co. and staff a full opportunity to reinforce their system and principles.
If all of this happens — retooling roster, redoubling effort, rebuilding team structure — then the Blues could morph back into a Cup contender.
“It’s learning to find that competitive edge and building our whole team around that,” O’Reilly said. “It’s building around that one feeling, that respect for each other and competing for each other. The game grows from there and it comes organically.”
It happened before and it can happen again.
