SB Nation St. Louis: All Posts by Joe Barker

Barret Jackman Stays in St. Louis, Signs 3-Year Deal

2012-06-18T17:11:23Z

Unlike another long-tenured No. 5, Barret Jackman wanted to stay in St. Louis.

The Blues defenseman was set to hit unrestricted free agency on July 1, but that won't happen. Early Monday the Blues announced that the longest-tenured member of the Blues would be around for another three years. The Blues signed Jackman, 31, to a three-year deal. Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweeted that deal is worth $9.5 million total ($3, $3.25, $3.25).

Jackman's return will, once again, reignite the long-standing debate about his worth. Some will say that Jackman is slow, useless, bad at hockey and the reason the Blues get scored on. Others will say those people are wrong.

Jackman had the unfortunate luck of beginning his career playing with Al MacInnis and Chris Pronger and then winning the Calder Trophy his freshman season. Since then, some fans have had this delusional thinking that Jackman was next in line—the next Norris winner. He never was going to be that, but some fans, still, hate him for not scoring 5-10 goals a season, quarterbacking the power play and being a No. 1 d-man.

Jackman is what he is, and that's pretty damn good. He's a stay-at-home defender who is excellent on the penalty kill. He's not afraid to block shots and is known as a good leader and mentor—something needed on a very young blueline. Does he have faults? Of course. He won't win many footraces, his offensive game is pretty limited and he's known to make a bad pass or two. The thing is, everyone does that. The same people who constantly made excuses for Erik Johnson's bad play are the same ones who jumped all over Jackman for a failed clearing attempt.

The Blues are getting a leader, a veteran and a loyal player. On the ice, the Blues are getting a solid second- or third-pairing d-man that can play 20-minutes a night and kill penalties. The market for guys like that is about $3 million a year, so I'd say it's a fair deal. All those fans who wanted Jackman gone never realized that his loss would create a Jackman-sized hole. Yes, he's not Chris Pronger or Alex Pietrangelo. But he's better than Johnny Oduya who just signed for nearly identical deal. If you want to know why Jackaman is valuable just ask a fan of the Wings or Blackhawks. Both fans HATE him. That's good enough for me.

This summer is starting off well for the Blues. They convinced Vladimir Tarasenko to come over, they signed Chris Stewart to a fair "prove it" deal and have now locked up the biggest UFA. Now it's just a matter of signing some RFAs (who really won't be going anywhere so don't worry about David Perron leaving).

Tarasenko Coming Over: Russian Winger to Sign with the Blues

2012-06-02T14:43:22Z

St. Louis Blues fans got a bit of good news early Saturday morning. Vladimir Tarasenko, the former 2010 first-round pick of the Note who has been playing in the KHL, has decided to come to the States and join the Blues.

As reported by all the hockey media, notably Jeremy Rutherford of the P-D, Tarasenko has decided to leave the KHL and join the Blues. He will be signing a contract on July 1.

This is, of course, huge news for the Blues. Without getting too hyperbolic, Tarasenko is the most exciting Blues' prospect in decades. While Erik Johnson and Alex Pietrangelo were arguably projected to be better players, Tarasenko is projected to be more exciting. Can you remember a time when the Blues had an offensive prospect who has gaggles of goal-scoring highlights?

Tarasenko will be joining the Blues—General Manager Doug Armstrong already said if the kid came over he wouldn't be hanging out in Peoria—and should be a big help. Now those of you expecting 30 or 40 goals should slow your roll a bit, but it's not out of the realm of possibility to expect 20 from the kid. He's not a tiny little player—he's big, strong and more of an Alex Ovechkin-type than a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins-type On a team where finding a goal scorer has been tough, Vladdy will be a huge help.

To say I saw this coming would be a lie. With the threat of a lockout this season looming and the Russians participation in the 2014 Olympics in doubt, I figured he'd hang out in Russia for a bit. However, my view started to change when he was left of the World Championship roster—the team that won the gold medal—and the management questioned his fitness. It seemed like something that would leave a 20-year-old kid sour. Apparently it did.

Tarasenko is coming. Rejoice!

St. Louis Game Time Bids a Fond Farewell to the Detroit Red Wings

2012-04-22T15:43:11Z

St. Louis Game Time Bids a Fond Farewell to the Detroit Red Wings

Fearless leaders Brad Lee and Gallagher eulogized the dearly departed Detroit Red Wings over on Puck Daddy. Please check it out. Also feel free to comment in this fanshot since the mouthbreathers on Yahoo make STLtoday look civil.

On to the Next One: Blues Eliminate Sharks with 3-1 Win

2012-04-22T02:26:04Z

Ten years is a long-ass time to wait to get to the second round, but here we are.

What. A. Win.

The Blues had a chance to close out the San Jose Sharks on home ice in front of a packed crowd at Scottrade Center. San Jose, of course, had a chance to make the Blues travel halfway across the country again for Game 6. For 50 minutes, the Sharks were winning that battle.

Following Thursday's win all the talk was that the Sharks were going to come hard and play the best game of the series—the proverbial dead cat bounce if you will. It happened. The Sharks had a sluggish first period but came out like they were shot out of a cannon in the second period. The Sharks dominated play and managed to sneak a goal past the seemingly impenetrable Brian Elliott.

Still it was just one goal.

In the third, in a span of 45 seconds, the Blues woke up and turned back into a team that was the best team in hockey for most of the season. Jamie Langenbrunner and Scott Nichol scored a goal to wake up the crowd. David Perron responded with a phenomenal tip. Just like that, it was 2-1. When Andy McDonald iced it with an empty netter, well I let out a roar that scared my dog. It was incredible.

The Blues are going to the second round. Awesome.

Let's get some bullets up in here:

I'm an eternal pessimist, but I felt like the Blues were going to win this game after the second period. The Sharks had that push and tried like hell to take the lead. They got one goal. When you spend that much effort on that, you're gonna burn out.
Jamie Langenbrunner played his best game as a Blue. A lot of the youngsters looked timid in their first close out game. Not Langenbrunner. He looked faster than he has ever been, smarter than ever and better than ever. Great job by the old dude.
Scott Nichol. Holy cow is this dude a player. What a spark plug.
I don't care if Jaroslav Halak's ankle is healed by Game 1, Elliott is the man until he's not. What a showing by him tonight.
Andy McDonald can hit the net on a spinning backhand from center ice. Brad Boyes is super jealous.
The Sharks played a great series, but the Blues were the better team. I predict a lot of changes in San Jose this summer.
Ken Hitchcock for president.
The crowd was unreal. After being quiet most of the game, the crowd was just waiting to erupt. And oh boy did they. The last 8 minutes of the game wee as loud as I've ever heard it. Such a great atmosphere.
What a victory for boring hockey, eh? If this is boring, than I'm a fan of boring hockey. Anyone who calls it boring is bitter over being eliminated.
Should be a pretty happy birthday for Mr. Gallagher.

I'm outta bullets. Chime in in the comments with yours.

I'll leave you with a song. The Blues aren't done yet.

Game 2: Sharks at Blues GDT

2012-04-14T22:35:04Z

There's no doubt about it: this is the biggest game of the year for the Blues.

Going to San Jose down 2-0 is just about the last thing the Blues want to happen. An average road team, the Blues can't afford to have to win two games in San Jose. A loss tonight and the series is titled so heavily in favor of the Sharks that I'm sure the Blues will start calculating how much playoff ticket money they have to give back.

But a win? Well a win makes this a series.

There's no reason the Blues can't win tonight. None. The Blues out-played the Sharks in Game 1 for most of the time. Overtime was a complete domination for the Blues. All they need to do is put the puck in the net—someone besides Patrik Berglund has to be able to beat the frighteningly average Antti Niemi.

The big lineup changes are already around the internets, and this site. In: Carlo Colaiacovo, Matt D'Agostini and B.J. Crombeen. Out: Chris Stewart, Ryan Reaves and Kent Huskins. Honestly? These moves mean dick. Carlo is marginally better than Huskins, the ghost of Stewart and the ghost of D'Ags will both be ghostly. I have to figure B.J. is in only because Reaves can't go but they don't want to say that. If Hitch really wanted to get the lines going, he'd taking Vladimir Sobotka and his five goals off the third line. But whatever.

This is the playoffs. This is your GDT. Comment like you don't want to go to San Jose down 2-0.

There's no doubt about it: this is the biggest game of the year for the Blues.

But a win? Well a win makes this a series.

This is the playoffs. This is your GDT. Comment like you don't want to go to San Jose down 2-0.

Five Ways to Fix the Slumping Blues

2012-04-07T16:00:32Z

The Blues, right now, are a mess.

With just one game left in the regular season, today at Dallas, the Blues are in the midst of the worst slump of the season. In it's last 10, St. Louis is a dismal 3-4-3. Last night against Phoenix the Blues played arguably the worst game of the Ken Hitchcock Era.

Did I mention the playoffs start next week?

Every single team goes through slumps at one point, but the Blues simply could not have picked a worse time to start sucking. Now locked into the two seed in the West, after pissing away first place with this abysmal play, the Blues have put together the best season in St. Louis in more than a decade. And still, it looks like they can piss it all away.

No one, let alone us here at Game Time, want to see another playoff failure. So, because of that, here's my five ways the Blues can turn things around.

1. Get a real fourth line.

You want to know why the Blues won the Central Division? Because of three solid lines and fourth energy line. Despite massive injuries and key players missing significant time, the Blues pieced together three scoring lines and used the fourth line to be a spark plug line. It worked.

When everyone got healthy, Hitchcock decided to dick around. Chris Porter hasn't played since March 22. Scott Nichol has been a healthy scratch the last two games. Last night the Blues iced a fourth line of Matt D'Agostini, Vladimir Sobotka and Ryan Reaves. A few games back, the fourth line was D'Agostini, Chris Stewart and Nichol. I'm sorry, but that doesn't work.

Scott Nichol is a heart and soul guy who analytical baseball fans hate. He's scrappy. He hustles. He's gritty. But you know what? He deserves to be in the lineup. The dude brings energy to the fourth line and his linemates. He's also the best Blue on the draw, winning at a 57.5 percent rate. You think that may come in valuable in the playoffs?

The fourth line should be Sobotka (And listen, I know we all love Sobe but for the love of Plager let's not forget who this guy is. He's a fourth liner who plays hard and hits. He has zero offensive upside. The fact that he keeps getting top-3, top-6 and even top-9 minutes is utterly baffling.) with Nichol and either Porter or Reaves. Personally I'd go with Porter because he can play that physical game without taking penalties. He has ELEVEN penalty minutes on the year and 124 hits in just 47 games. I'll take some of that, thank you very much.

2. Play the best players in the top-9 spots.

The top three lines keep changing with the one constant being the centers. The first line is David Backes line, the second belongs to Patrik Berglund and the third is Jason Arnott. Great, fine. The problem is, Hitchcock keeps sending out different wingers.

Backes has played with T.J. Oshie regularly, but on the other wing has seen Alexander Steen, Andy McDonald, David Perron, Sobotka and occasionally Chris Stewart. Enough. Hitchcock says he's trying to find chemistry, well that's pretty tough to do when the lines don't last more than one shift.

I know Hitch is smarter than I am, and he shows it. He keeps trying to do something like D'Ags on the second line and then he realizes that's dumb. He keeps trying to put the square peg in the round hole and then realizing that's not going to work during the game. Trust your guy, Hitch. Stop trying to force things.

The top-9 forwards are, in my order: Backes, Perron, Oshie, McDonald, Steen (he hasn't been the same since the injury), Berglund, Arnott, Jamie Langenbrunner and Stewart/D'Ags. Play those guys. Put Backes with Oshie and Perron. Steen/Berglund/McDonald looks good, too. Stewart and D'Ags can fight for the last spot. Both are playing awful right now, but Stewart has more potential. I don't really care, but play the best players in the biggest spots.

Speaking of ...

3. Figure out the Carlo Colaiacovo problem.

The Blues defense was once a strength. Now? Not so much. Colaiacovo is problem A. Hithchcock made it known that he didn't want the oft-injured d-man riding Alex Pietrangelo's coattails in the playoffs. Petro is going to get plenty of responsibility, and he can handle it. Cola? Not so much.

Barret Jackman and Petro were paired for about a minute, but that didn't work (even though it did last year for a bit). The biggest problem is that the Blues are locked into the lefty/right pairs and, well, three of the top four d-men are right-handed shots.

Petro, Kevin Shattenkirk and Roman Polak all shoot from the right side. Really you have to start your pairs there. The choices for parter? Kent Huskins, Kris Russell, Jackman, Ian Cole or Cola. Of those five, which one do you want riding shotgun with Petro? Yeah. That's what I thought.

Carlo has one thing going for him and that's his chemistry with Petro. Instead of benching him, maybe the Blues should try talking him up. Since the Jackman Experiment, Cola has just gotten worse. Either you force Petro/Jackman together, put Petro and Polak together and ignore handiness or you just go with Cola. Either way, the Blues need to decide on that right now.

4. Remove heads from asses.

This team seems scared of 2009 and determined to do the opposite. That team made the playoffs, but ran out of gas in the process. This club, with it's lazy play, looks like it's playing out the season, trying to stay healthy, and then turn it on in the playoffs. It doesn't work like that.

The Detroit game was a nice flash of what the team can do, but again, once the Blues were up 2-0 it was almost as if everyone was like hey, gotta rest of the playoffs SHUT IT DOWN. You can't do that. Play hard tonight and go into the playoffs not wondering if you're the biggest fluke in the league.

5. Stop waiting for the other guy to do the dirty work.

The Blues got healthy and then got shitty. It seems, from the outside looking in, that the Blues' players were like hey, now I can rest FILL IN THE BLANK is back. Now I don't need to score as often. It seems like everyone passed the buck and put the onus on producing on someone else—be it Steen, McDonald, what have you.

It's not the case. Everyone needs to play with that hunger they had all season long. Period.

The situation is not quite dire. Yet. The Blues are slumping, and that happens. They just picked the wrong time to do it. A first-round loss would be a major setback.

Get your shit together, boys. You have one game to make it count.

Blues Take on Wings In Meaningless Game GDT

2012-04-04T22:30:13Z

By then? The Wings will be coasting and the Blues will be fighting the Hawks for home ice. April 4th is going to be decided by whether or not Detroit feels like letting the Blues have a home playoff series. -- J.J. From Kansas

I'm no scientist, but it seems damn near impossible for one statement—just 40 words long—to be oh so very wrong.

The only way this statement is even remotely close to being true is if you flop the Blues references for Detroit. Then it's close.

You see, tonight's game (which starts at 6:30 p.m. local time) means next to nothing to the Blues and everything to Detroit. The Blues, three points back of Vancouver, are almost locked into the No. 2 seed. Sure they could catch the Canucks, but at worst, the Blues finish second. The Wings? Oh they need a win.

Detroit is one point (with a game in hand) behind Nashville for the fourth-spot in the West. The Wings desperately need the points. At Joe Louis, the Wings are pretty good in front of the empty seats with a 31-6-2 record. On the road, and in front of actual screaming fans, Detroit is a meager 16-21-3. Must be a team of agoraphobics.

Want to know how little this game means to the Blues? Ask Ken HItchcock. While the Blues coach would love to clinch the one seed, he'd rather get the team ready for the playoffs. Tonight he's throwing shit against the wall and trying another line combination. It might be a playoff lineup, but then again it might not. Hitch is concerned with seeing how things fit right now, losses be dammed.

The simple fact is this isn't a game worth getting worked up over. This game means a lot more to the Wings than it does to the Blues.

This is your Game Day Threat. Comment like the Blues are Central Division champs. Because they are. Suck it, Detroit.

By then? The Wings will be coasting and the Blues will be fighting the Hawks for home ice. April 4th is going to be decided by whether or not Detroit feels like letting the Blues have a home playoff series. -- J.J. From Kansas

I'm no scientist, but it seems damn near impossible for one statement—just 40 words long—to be oh so very wrong.

The only way this statement is even remotely close to being true is if you flop the Blues references for Detroit. Then it's close.

The simple fact is this isn't a game worth getting worked up over. This game means a lot more to the Wings than it does to the Blues.

This is your Game Day Threat. Comment like the Blues are Central Division champs. Because they are. Suck it, Detroit.

Red Wings Lose to Blue Jackets (Seriously), Blues Magic Number Gets Smaller

2012-03-29T02:56:38Z

Red Wings Lose to Blue Jackets (Seriously), Blues Magic Number Gets Smaller

One of the worst road teams in hockey ran into the juggernaut known as the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday night and left with a 4-2 loss.

The Red Wings loss (16-21-3 away from home) means the Blues need just one win to clinch the Central Division. With five games left, Detroit can muster only 107 points and 44 ROWs. The Blues have 105 points and 44 ROWs with five games left.

By the time the Blues and Red Wings play on April 4, it looks like the game is only going to matter to one team, and it won't be the Blues.