The sky is falling, Blues fans, but it’s okay

One way or another, it was going to happen sometime, so let’s talk about it, Blues fans.

After many years of winning and the playoffs being a certainty, the Blues were meant to come crashing down at some point. While their 2017-18 playoff hopes aren’t burned out completely, hope is dimming around the franchise as the trade deadline expires in less than a day and March approaches.

Fans are booing. Players are tired of the booing, but have no answers for what is going on. Head coach Mike Yeo looks like he’s aged sixteen years after 13 months of coaching this team. He looks spent, but it won’t get easy from here on out.

That’s because it’s time to burn it all to the ground. If General Manager Doug Armstrong had any ambitions about buying players before Monday, those should be gone, because it doesn’t make any sense. Armstrong and owner Tom Stillman should sell like the dickens, serving up spare parts to teams in need.

Find a home for Patrik Berglund and Vladimir Sobotka. The two expendables have provided zip the past ten games. They skate around with money stuffed in their pockets, making it too hard to put a puck in the net or even assist on one. They aren’t useful to the Blues anymore, but another team should take a bite. The key is not expecting much in return.

How will we remember the Chris Thorburn era? Three assists, forty lost fights, and lots of ghost ice time.

Find a way to trade Carl Gunnarsson. If you defend him in any possible way, you’ve already made my point. You can’t trade Jay Bouwmeester, so get rid of Carl. Bring up a kid to take his spot.

Fire Chris Butler. It’s only four years too late.

Trade Paul Stastny. He sure was something great a few (or five) years ago. He could help another team. If you want him back in the offseason at a cheaper rate, think about it then. Sell him now.

Unless the Ottawa Senators want to give you Mike Hoffman for him straight up, keep Robby Fabbri. The kid makes less than a million dollars and can score. He’s also just 22 years old.

For all the people hating on Alex Pietrangelo for a few rough games and comments, bang your head on the wall. Petro is merely defending his players, something a captain should do. He’s clueless like everyone else on this team.

There’s no gauze pad that can stop the bleeding on this team. Fans just aren’t used to this sustained period of losing. Six straight losses with the last two bringing zero goals from the Blues is a whole new world of bad. According to Jeremy Rutherford, this is the first six game losing streak since the end of the 2013-14 season.

Fans aren’t used to this, so they are reacting emotionally. I get it.

Believe me, Blues faithful, it is time to blow it up, at least partially. Sell as many parts on the roster as you can. Here are a list of players that I could wake up tomorrow to hear they are no longer a Blue and feel fine about it:

Berglund, Sobotka, Stastny, Bouwmeester, Gunnarsson, Alex Steen, Dmitrj Jaskin, Ivan Barbashev, Oskar Sundqvist.

Cut the fat. Steen has made a fine comeback this season, but his contract is going to be an ANCHOR soon, so try and sell his fine two month stretch if you can. Do it. Stop crying about it.

Obviously, the Blues can’t lose all of those players, but you can definitely live without 3-4 of them. When in doubt, play the kids for the rest of the season. See what they got, so you know what to do this summer.

I don’t mind if the Blues miss the playoffs for the first time since the 2010-11 season. That capped the fifth year out of six that the Blues had missed the postseason. I don’t foresee a rebuild that steep, but the Blues need to take a step back, rethink, and reload.

I don’t want a token playoff entry only to see an ugly first round demolition.

Start the process and stick to it, Doug. You have five years (vomit).

You may not be able to say, “there’s always next year”, but you should be able to watch a better team next year, or at least one with purpose.

Remember, this team was destined to be just okay this season. Look at the bones. Pop the hood and check the vitals. This team never had a shot.

We’ll always have the Brouwer goal. We’ll always have Allen’s run. We’ll always have October.

As Red once said, “you either get busy livin or get busy dying.”

The Blues have to die first before they can start to live again.

Yes, the whiskey is starting to talk.