Leadership, heart, toughness wanted
Posted 12:27 PM ET | Comments 0
At the beginning of the season, the Blues went on a fairly aggressive ad campaign with the slogan "Whatever it takes". These commercials featured players and/or executives talking about the Blue Note Code. One of the things said in these ads was "we will not be outworked". However, anyone who watches the Blues lately can tell that this as been far from the case.
Teams are outhustling the Blues, skating around them, playing cleaner, crisper, and smarter hockey. After sitting through Saturday's game against the Preds and listening on the radio (yes an away game was not televised, another topic for another day) to the Blues get destroyed again by those same Preds, I am starting to believe something has gone wrong.
The Blues seem to lack the heart and desire required to fight for those two points every night. Once they get behind by one or two goals, they seem to get sloppier and sloppier and the effort just does not seem to be there. I am reminded of the 05-06 campaign where the Blues finished dead last in the league. However, there are two differences between this team and that team. This team has much more talent, and that team played with a lot more passion. They got blown out every once in awhile, but they would be competitive, they would be aggressive, and they would play hard the whole game. This team seems to just go through the motions.
That is why I think this team needs someone in the locker room to stand up and take over the leadership. Someone needs to tell the young players that their effort is not acceptable, and to remind the veterans of what they were brought in to do. Someone to get on players when they make a dumb pass, or do not go hard enough into the corners to get the puck after it was dumped in. Someone who will hold them accountable so they do not lose the fanbase they picked up this year. The Blues are in a very unique position right now to bring in many fancs as the Cards and Rams are terrible right now, but more games like the last 3 and those fans will go right back to ignoring the Blues like they did 2 years ago.
Teams are outhustling the Blues, skating around them, playing cleaner, crisper, and smarter hockey. After sitting through Saturday's game against the Preds and listening on the radio (yes an away game was not televised, another topic for another day) to the Blues get destroyed again by those same Preds, I am starting to believe something has gone wrong.
The Blues seem to lack the heart and desire required to fight for those two points every night. Once they get behind by one or two goals, they seem to get sloppier and sloppier and the effort just does not seem to be there. I am reminded of the 05-06 campaign where the Blues finished dead last in the league. However, there are two differences between this team and that team. This team has much more talent, and that team played with a lot more passion. They got blown out every once in awhile, but they would be competitive, they would be aggressive, and they would play hard the whole game. This team seems to just go through the motions.
That is why I think this team needs someone in the locker room to stand up and take over the leadership. Someone needs to tell the young players that their effort is not acceptable, and to remind the veterans of what they were brought in to do. Someone to get on players when they make a dumb pass, or do not go hard enough into the corners to get the puck after it was dumped in. Someone who will hold them accountable so they do not lose the fanbase they picked up this year. The Blues are in a very unique position right now to bring in many fancs as the Cards and Rams are terrible right now, but more games like the last 3 and those fans will go right back to ignoring the Blues like they did 2 years ago.