The St. Louis Blues' post-trade-deadline life hasn't been much easier than life with Erik Johnson and Eric Brewer—while their dear friends the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings continue to hover around the top five of the NHL Power Rankings, they've found themselves stuck, at Week 23, in the decidedly uncompelling 24 spot. ESPN has them there; Fox Sports, always more optimistic, has them 22nd.
↵Since acquiring Chris Stewart for Erik Johnson and Jay McClement on February 19 the Blues are 2-7-0, with just 17 goals in eight games since their nine goal outburst in Stewart's debut. With Jaroslav Halak still on the mend, Ty Conklin and Ben Bishop have struggled to pick up the slack on defense.
↵At Game Time, Joe Barker suggests that the most frustrating part of this latest rebuilding process isn't that the team is bad, though they're bad—it's that it's impossible to tell whether their relatively talented players will bother showing up. It's easier to root for bad overachievers than bad underachievers.
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