With their former captain now a member of the Boston Bruins and their coach on year-to-year deals, it’s appropriate to say that the St. Louis Blues are in a period of transitions.
It’s also a convenient choice of words, as it sounds like the Blues are going to change the way they transition on the ice.
That’s the indication given by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and players like Chris Porter approve.
“The play in the neutral zone will fit this team great with the speed and the size that they already have in place,” Porter said. “I don’t think it’s a huge adjustment for the guys, I think it’s just a little tweak here or there.”
Perhaps hiring Mike Yeo had something to do with taking a more modern approach?
Either way, getting more aggressive makes a lot of sense for the Blues, at least on paper.
With David Backes and Troy Brouwer out of town, younger and speedier players get to take more of a role. Some Blues fans will probably view this tweak - big or small - as a long time coming.
Of course, there’s a give-and-take when it comes to situations like these, and becoming more attack-minded sure makes retaining Kevin Shattenkirk that much more important. The underrated blueliner still expects to be moved despite being named an alternate captain, yet you wonder if these changes might prompt GM Doug Armstrong to try to pull some strings to keep him around.
(Giving Alexander Steen a contract extension means that much less room for the likes of Shattenkirk.)
Even if the Blues eventually need to part ways with Shattenkirk, there are some other nice assets who can use this change as a catalyst to push this team up another level.
In an ideal scenario, the Blues would enjoy those improvements and keep Shattenkirk to reap those rewards.