At least one beat writer for the St. Louis Blues is aware of the questionable goaltending in St. Louis.
St. Louis Post Dispatch writer Joe Strauss penned a piece yesterday entitled The Blues are dominant, but goalie questions remain.
Strauss goes through all the stats on the team and adds in that the Blues will have 10 Olympians headed to Sochi, Russia next month. Their defense is as stout as it was last season and the questions about scoring have been answered thus far. Five Blues have 15+ goals and seven have at least 30 points.
But, he still thinks the goaltending situation is an Achilles heel.
Even though Sabres goalie Ryan Miller could be traded, and even recognizing that Blues fans have a "fixation" with Miller, Strauss does not believe Miller will be St. Louis-bound for a couple of reasons--the Blues may not be able to create enough cap space and the asking price might be too high.
Strauss' colleague, Jeff Gordon, pretty much wrote the same thing last week saying a Miller trade to the St. Louis Blues isn't such a good idea.
Although Gordon calls Miller a "commanding presence" in net (look no further than his domination of Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals in their two meetings,) he sites a number of factors working against such a trade.
Among them, the possibility of other goalies hitting the market at the deadline, a typical asking price of three prospects and a first round pick for a superstar player and Miller's status as a trade deadline rental player. Plus, Gordon believes "the Blues don't have a goaltending emergency" at this point.
Many would agree that the positional Miller behind that Blues defense, one which is at or near the top in shots against, would be stout.
Stanley Cup calibre? With head coach Ken Hitchcock and his system?
Absolutely.
The question is, would the Blues take a chance and go all-in?
Perhaps they should.
Especially for a fan base that is admittedly "fixated" with Miller.
The following is a reprint from a buffalosabresnow blog dated December 15, 2013:
The St. Louis Blues once again have themselves a pretty good hockey team, a Stanley Cup contender most think.
They have a Cup-winning coach stressing a strong defensive game. They have a young leader in David Backes up-front and a young top-pairing, shut-down d-man in Alex Pietrangelo. Interspersed are a mix of vets and youngsters, skill and grit, and a whole lot of speed.
Despite their promise and their 22-6-3 record, Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post Dispatch writes that Blues fans are staying home this season.
The team has an average attendance of 16, 514 thus far this season, about 1000 less than last year.
The spin on the situation has them off to a slow start because of the St. Louis Cardinals who were in the playoffs until October 30th, or the first seven home games of the Blues season.
St. Louis is a baseball town and there's credence to what ownership is saying. But they're also well aware that it's only partly true.
Strauss acknowledges that, as well as other issues, but also feels that maybe "part of the attendance hurdle stems from a show-me stance that fosters skepticism based on the last two postseason wipeouts against the Los Angeles Kings."
The Kings swept the Blues in the second round on their way to their first Stanley Cup in 2012.
Last season, the Blues lost to the Kings once again, this time in the first round.
According to Strauss, the Blues $3m deficit last season "might have been erased" by playing in the second round of the playoffs.
With the past two seasons in mind, and ownership raising ticket prices, there's a bit of a "chicken/egg" scenario going on. According to team president Bruce Affleck, "[the team] needs better support to make this sustainable," but fans remain skeptical and are staying away.
With the Blues close to the $64m salary-cap right now and attendance down, it's not surprising that Affleck has the team "a large dollar amount off for now. [But] If it goes this way the whole year it becomes a red flag.”
Blues coach Ken Hitchcock has his team playing a Cup-winning formula of low shots against and opportunistic scoring, but their Achilles heel, once again, may be their goaltending.
It's not that Jaroslav Halak and Brian Elliot aren't good goalies. They are. And except for average save percentages, all of their numbers are real good.
The question remains, are either of them big-game goalies?
This may be the season for the Blues to go all-in. They have the pieces in place up-front for a Cup-run and if they can get themselves to make a deal for Sabres' goalie Ryan Miller they just might have that Eddie "the Eagle" Belfour piece that Dallas had for their first Stanley Cup under Hitchcock.
Miller proved what he could do with a solid team in front of him at the 2010 Olympics as he almost single-handedly brought home the gold medal for Team USA. That team had nothing close to the skill-level of the Canadian team yet took them to overtime. Miller was the MVP in the tournament.
Putting Miller--a positional goalie--in Hitchcock's low shots-against system makes for a winning combination.
Yes, they will need to score, but Miller represents more of an opportunity for the forward group to take a few more chances.
For years he's held the fort as the 2006-07 "Ferrari" Sabres and subsequent "core" Sabres have skated up-ice leaving odd-man rushes headed back his way.
For years he's covered for defensemen who screened him and/or couldn't cover a two on one properly.
Imagine what he could do with a defense that knows how to play defense in front of him?
Better yet, imagine how the fan-base would perceive a trade for Miller? He is still one of the faces, if not the face, of USA hockey. He's very recognizable even to the casual fan--the casual fan in St. Louis who might just take in a extra game or two because he's in net for the Blues.
Addendum:
Since the 2007-08 season when the Sabres went from back-to-back ECF's to the team know as "the core" and as the NHL was about to dump it's "unbalanced" scheduling format for a more traditional one, this is Ryan Miller's record vs. the teams the Blues have been having problems with:
LAK: 4-0-1
SJS: 7-1-0
ANA: 2-3-0
VAN: 3-2-0
CHI: 1-2-0
That 17-8-1 record also includes a 2-3-0 record for this season.
Of note: to be fair, the Detroit Red Wings were a western conference powerhouse during that time frame. Miller's record against the Wings: 1-7-1, his only win coming in his 2009-10 Vezina season.
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