2009-2010 St. Louis Blues Preview

At one point in time, the St. Louis Blues were the most consistent team in professional sports. The Blues hold the NHL record for the longest consecutive stretch of playoff appearances, having made the postseason in 24 consecutive seasons from 1980 to 2004. Unfortunately, the music stopped early in every single postseason campaign and their fans were left disappointed far too often. The Blues’ streak ended after the NHL lockout and they spent three years watching in April before last year’s shocking run. Can they start a new streak this season?

Looking Back at 2008-2009

St. Louis began the year with a thud and dragged along the bottom of the standings all the way until the middle of February. Most observers expected a 4 th consecutive season on the outside of the chase for the Cup but the Blues made a miraculous turn in their play and rode a late season hot streak all the way to a 41-31-10 record and a berth in the playoffs! While the Blues were swept by the Canucks in the first round, the team played with a ton of fire and passion in defeat and raised expectations in a major way going into this season.

The Offseason

The Blues have been built from within and the ownership decided to stick with that framework this summer. The only major loss was defenseman Jay McKee, whose high salary was bought out. Meanwhile, the Blues’ only attempt to upgrade their team was the acquisition of uberbackup Ty Conklin, who backed up the last two Stanley Cup runner ups. In part this was because the Blues had a number of players miss serious time last season due to injury, most notable former 1 st overall pick Erik Johnson. The philosophy of St. Louis’ braintrust is to let their young talent develop and they’ve stayed that course this summer

> Check out a great selection of St. Louis Blues Apparel & Merchandise through prohockey-fans.com!

2009-2010 Outlook

St. Louis found scoring in a lot of surprising places last season, most notably rookies T.J. Oshie and Patrik Berglund. Considering that established vets Paul Kariya and Andy McDonald missed a ton of time, their goal output was impressive. Both Brad Boyes and youngster David Backes topped the 30 goal mark and ageless wonder Keith Tkachuk contributed 25 more. With the return to health of Kariya and McDonald, there should be increased production up front.

The defense also appears to be improved this season. Johnson has been impressive in camp and should finally show his enormous potential. Captain Eric Brewer is currently recovering from injury but is one of the most consistent players on any blue line in the league. Along with defensive stalwarts Barrett Jackman and Carlo Colaiacovo, there are pieces in place for a solid group once Brewer is back.

In net, Chris Mason rebounded from 3-14 start to play like an All-Star down the stretch. After entering the year as the expected backup, he’ll be counted on as the man this season. However, consistency problems have dogged Mason in his career and it will be interesting to see how much time the newly acquired Conklin gets in net.

PREDICTION: St. Louis definitely is building a solid team through prudent drafting. However, there is concern that they missed the opportunity to augment a young team with some veteran talent to help this group take the next step. Oftentimes, such a young group can get satisfied to easily with their performance and I worry that the Blues are going to fall into that category. I think that President John Davidson missed the boat when he left the free agent market untouched this summer.

Furthermore, this group of players hasn’t dealt with any expectations before and you have to wonder how they’ll respond when they inevitably go through a losing stretch. Furthermore, the Blues play in one of the NHL’s toughest divisions and every single team in their division has done more to upgrade their rosters this summer. With so much youth on hand and no substantial improvements beyond a return to health from a number of players, I think that the Blues are likely to finish 5 th in the Central Division. Frankly, this team stunk until Mason turned into an impenetrable barrier down the stretch last year and you have to wonder if last year wasn’t a bit of a fluke. I think the Blues take a step back this year and miss the playoffs.

By Matt Baxendall
DFN Sports & ProHockey-fans.com Staff Writer

Feel your team is underrated? Tell Matt Baxendell why at matt.baxendell@gmail.com

> Check out all of the 2009-2010 NHL previews online with Pro Hockey Fans!

> Find all of the NHL news & articles online from Pro Hockey Fans.