CBC-Sports

Blues knocked down, beat up, but back in contention

March 31, 2009 10:53 AM | Posted by   Jim Hughson  

When the St. Louis Blues woke up Monday morning in a playoff spot they might have felt as though they’d scaled Mount Everest.

The Blues hadn’t been top eight in the Western Conference since Oct. 30 and after back-to-back wins over Columbus on the weekend, they’d run their winning streak to five games, gone 18-7-5 since the all-star break and climbed over six teams on their way to snatching the eighth spot.

Then they got up and saw there was still the Hillary Step to climb in order to get to the top.

Mason back on track

The improbable march of the Blue Notes has been fun to watch. They’re a fast attacking group that plays hard and has overcome a lot. With only one home game in their last six, the team is anything but a shoe-in. Still, the organization looks back on track after years of losing its way.

Beset by injuries and unable to get a save, the Blues were seven wins under five hundred at the start of the New Year. Goaltender Chris Mason carried a seven-game losing streak into mid-January and every time St. Louis stepped on the ice it seemed somebody else on the roster got hurt. In fact, just stepping on the ice did Manny Legace in.

Mason turned the corner with a win over Boston on Jan. 19 and is 20-7-2 in 32 games since then. He’d made 27 consecutive starts after his win in Columbus Sunday.

In fact, about the time Mason got going, a couple of other things happened in a two or three week period that seemed to stabilize the Blues. Legace was shipped off to the minors, leaving Mason as the unchallenged number one and centre Andy McDonald returned from a leg injury. The Blues put their injuries aside and game by game got back into the Western Conference race.

Without Eric Brewer and Erik Johnson, the defence has been a patch work of regulars like Barret Jackman and Roman Polak and fill-ins like Mike Weaver, who each year seems destined to make more money fixing computers than playing hockey but resurfaces helping somebody else, Steve Wagner and Tyson Strachan.

Paul Kariya, who figured to be the team’s leading scorer, played just 11 games. In his absence, Brad Boyes has had another solid season and, along with McDonald and David Backes, make for an excellent first line. Backes, whose offer sheet from Vancouver had to be matched by the Blues last summer, looks worthy of the money. In fact, on a lot of nights he looks like the team’s best player.

Young blood

But the real strength of the Blues is in their youth. Touted as having the best minor league system in hockey, they have some of the top young players in the NHL now and three of them are currently on one line.

First-round picks T.J. Oshie (2005), Patrick Berglund (2006) and David Perron (2007) had a brilliant weekend against Columbus. Berglund scored while Perron had the shootout winner Saturday. All three scored and combined for seven points in the Sunday win, which started a five-game road trip.

Berglund and Perron have big time skill and so does Oshie, who might be the most interesting of the three.

The Blues raised some eyebrows when they drafted him out of Minnesota’s Warroad High School ahead of Andrew Cogliano and Guillaume Latendresse. He’s from the hockey haven of Mount Vernon, Wash., and had it not been for a high ankle sprain, he might be in the running for rookie of the year. The 22-year- old had quite a week, scoring a sensational goal against Vancouver then going head to head physically with Rick Nash on the weekend. He didn’t give a quarter.

Positive buzz around St. Louis

The Blues have cast themselves as underdogs and that’s the perfect role for coach Andy Murray. He plays the “world against us” card better than any coach in the league and has plenty of practice at it dating back to his Hockey Canada days trying to win with lesser players overseas.

Ever the contrarian - “It’s not a fourth line, it’s an energy line” and “I don’t believe in momentum; every game and every sports event stands on its own“ are a few of his quotes that come to mind - Murray seems at his best with players who are not well known and have lots to prove. That fully describes the group he has now.

Apparently momentum won’t carry the Blues to the playoffs, so they might not make it in. However, they are playing the best of all the teams in the West’s seven-to-12 pack, so they could squeeze in. If they do, it will be quite a celebration in a city where the interest is back, the crowds are big and there’s a buzz again for the first time in years.

The Blues have had one of the league’s best second half runs despite being knocked down, beat up and pretty much given up for dead. And I guess that’s why they call them the Blues.

" Previous Post | Main
  •