At one point early in the 2006/2007 NHL season, it looked as if once again that the St. Louis Blues would endure another long year. Kicking off the season with a horrid 7-17-4 record that would be good enough for last place in the Western Conference. The poor on-ice performance resulted in devastating attendance figures. On some nights, less than 10,000 people would show up at the Scottrade Center. November 30th, a measly crowd of 5,410 witnessed another Blues' loss to the Nashville Predators.There was no end in sight until current head coach Mike Kitchen was given his walking papers. Replacing him would be former L.A. Kings head coach, Andy Murray.
When I first heard the news, the first question that popped in my mind was, Why? At that point, the Blues season was well more than 1/4 over, the decision to bring in a new coach just didn't make any sense. There we no high expectations for this club in the beginning of the season and tossing Mike Kitchen to the curb seemed a bit rubbish. Did this organization really believe Andy could turn this club around and compete for a playoff spot? I sure as hell didn't.
Don't get me wrong, Andy Murray is a great coach, but the Blues were 15th in the Western Conference. To believe the Blues can climb up and beat teams like Detroit, Dallas, Nashville, heck, all of the teams, wasn't imaginable. How he proved me wrong..
Since taking over, the Blues lost four in a row but quickly recovered and went an astounding 8-2-1. The Blues are now 13-6-4 and have moved on up to 11th in the West. St. Louis, with 48 points, is tied with Phoenix, 4 points behind the Oilers, 6 points behind Colorado, and 10 points behind of a playoff spot. That's outstanding considering where this club once was.
So, the question? Can the resurgent Blues make the playoffs? Let's put this in perspective.
The Blues have 31 games left. 16 games left on the road, the Blues away record is 10-10-5. 15 home games remaining, the Blues home record is 10-13-3. With 48 points, let's say the Blues need 96 points to take 8th. Which means, they need another 48 points to get there. Meaning, they need to win 24 out of 31 games. Realistically, it doesn't look good.
Look away Blues fans, the opponents your team will be facing are not easy ones...
Detroit: 3 (1 home, 2 away)
Nashville: 2 (1 home, 1 away)
Dallas: 3 (2 home, 1 away)
Van/Edm/Cgy: 6 (1 home each, 1 away each)
Minnesota: 3(1 home, 2 away)
No easy task. Looking at their schedule, I will have to say the St. Louis Blues will not make the playoffs. But, whatever comes out of this season will be a positive for this club. Blues fans will definitely have something to look forward to next season (pending how the off-season goes). You never know though, maybe the Blues will surprise us all and squeeze in to the playoffs. They'll need a few teams to drop in order for them to do so. Who knows..maybe 92 points will do it, possibly 90.
Kudos to the Blues and their organization for doing a fantastic job and turning this rebuilding team in to a possible contender. You've managed to turn heads around the league and continue to play spoilers against some very tough teams. Job well done. Now only if we could get some more people to watch those Blues!
But to think...maybe if they hired Murray 10-15 games earlier...we could've very well of seen this team in the 2006/2007 playoffs.
--
I was originally going to do a St. Louis Blues blog/Conroy back in Calgary but chose to just do one. Hopefully you enjoyed this one, and keep doing what you do on Top Shelf. Represent your team!
Cheers,
Bruceki
