Tuesdays With Hildy: Where Does the Fickle Finger of Blame Point?

by hildymac on Nov 10, 2009 5:11 PM CST

Yes, I know that the correct phrase is "fickle finger of fate," but what the heck. Regardless of what it's called, fingers are pointing, trying to figure out exactly what the issue has been so far with the Blues and our slump. Is it the players? Is it the management? Maybe we need to look at the offensive system. Maybe, as Jeff Gordon mentions today in the Post-Dispatch, there's something to be said for that ol' saying: "Fish and visitors stink in 2 days." Can that apply to coaches? Do NHL coaches have a shelf-life?

These past few games have been frustrating. Improvement has been there, but has been coming slowly. Three straight OT/shootout losses have gotten us some points in the standings, but we're still three points short of what we could have - what we should have had. We've allowed four goals in regulation time over the past three games. Defensively, we're tight. Goaltending wise - set.

How do you lose a game 2-1? No one scores. So far this season we have seen playing rough and tumble around the boards, crashing the net, dump and chase, and the new one - whapping the puck across the ice, hoping to find the tape of another player. Sunday night they found the tape of the other players - unfortunately it was the other teams' players.

You can't keep throwing playing "styles" at a team. You can't keep fudging and mixing up the lines. What kind of "identity" does that give your team? Do they even know what to expect from night to night? And, most importantly, is it a sign of coaching desperation, which is just a bigger sign of future troubles?

You really have a few ways to point the finger, and you have a few different kind of fingers to point (and we all know which one your favorite is), but is it fair to single out a coach who has been successful with the team to this point?

Si or no? Discussificate.

Poll

Where is the issue here?

Offensive players not being able to hit the net, being a weenie, having a big noggin, and other things.

59 votes

Defensemen who get confused and think they're Robo-Pele

6 votes

The coaching staff. What system is this, anyway?

15 votes

80 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

Let me start by saying

that while I’m NOT on the “Fire Andy Murray” bandwagon, I’ve always felt that when the Blues do take that next step that everyone expected them to take coming into this season, it wouldn’t be with Murray behind the bench. Who then, you ask? I don’t know, but sometimes a change for chage’s sake can be good (not so much for SBN, though). It can shake up a team and make them look at theirselves harder, hopefully pulling themselves out of their respective funks. Again, I’m not calling for Murray’s head. Yet.

Now that I’ve proven an opposing viewpoint, I’ll say why I voted for the first choice. In most of the games so far, we’ve been flat, listless, or straight up not concentrating on the little things enough (I’m looking at you, TechnoViking!). In the Fuck Detroit games we started out that way, but after the forewards started hustling, fought along the boards, got to loose pucks, etc. we were able to pull those games out. Since we’ve gotten back, most of our games have seen us play the way we did to start the Sweeden games for as much as 40-55 minutes. The goaltending’s been great most of the time, as had the defense (again, mostly), but that energy comes from the forewards doing the little things defensively, on the forecheck, et al. A perfect example of how that could change a game is Oshie’s play towards the end of last year. There were at least 2-3 nights off-hand where the team was flat and getting beat, if not on the scoreboard. Then Oshie would do his thing, for a shift or two and everyone else would try and match that, and low and behold, we’d come away with two points! He wouldn’t even have to get on the scoresheet to be the most influencial player on the ice!

Hopefully either A) Eller could start providing that, or B) Yoshie could take a break from counting how many 74s are in the crowd and not worry so much about keeping his tips frosted to do half of what it was that made us give a fuck about him to begin with. It’s started to turn around, but it needs to start happening for 60 minutes, as opposed to 53 and give up, like on Sunday.

Also, I don’t want to go on a Brewer-hating rant, but it looks like we’re starting to play like our captain – slow and disinterested in the affairs of ~~human~~ hockey. They need to go back to playing like our de-facto captain from last year: hungry. [Walt fat pun partially intended.]

I know it's time for hockey because I've started singing "Don't Stop Believing" with the words "...born and raised in FUCK DETRIOT!!!"

by J-Mill on Nov 10, 2009 6:35 PM CST reply actions