fuck, we re-signed hitchcock to a 1year contract....

a coach as good as dan bylsma isnt on the market every year, and we need a new system with this team. this bullshit defensive system isnt gonna cut it when the blues have a pretty damn good balanced offense led by a potential superstar like tarasenko. any good team is gonna exploit the boring and predictable system hitchcock runs, and thats a big reason why this team cant succeed in the playoffs. unless grandpa hitchcock learns a new trick or two, thisll be another year that ends in the first rd of the playoffs.


very upset with this. the fucking blues wanted to make some moves this offseason to change things, and theres only like 2 contracts that seem movable right now im berglund and oshie.

why?



why should i not be concerned? the blues window to win is closing quickly, and as much as i really wanted bylsma, i wouldve been ok with literally any other coach than hitch.

This post was edited by Genetics on May 26 2015 09:52am

Bylsma been out of a job for over a year. I wouldn't be too concerned.

Really from a stand point you can say hitch has taken the blues to the playoffs every year.

They lose out in the first but playoffs > no playoffs.

I'm sure they laid it all out and told him if he can't do better then 1st round he's gone.

when youre constantly the home team in the first rd of the playoffs with one of the best if not the best regular season team in the league, you cant lose in the first rd for 3 straight years.

its not just losing though, its that the team isnt the same in the playoffs.

frankly were outcoached. his defensive system worked 10 yrs ago, but against any good to solid team, its way too predictable and seems to be fairly exploitable.


im by no way putting the entire blame on hitchcock, but he wasnt under contract. trying to trade players who dont fully buy into his system (which i think is like half the team, maybe more) who are also on partial NTCs is much harder than not re-hiring the coach who hasnt gotten his team to make any adjustments through the last 3 postseasons.

very frustrating for me and im sure many other blues fans.

This post was edited by Genetics on May 26 2015 07:33pm

I feel that Hitch can be held somewhat responsible, with the system and the constant line changes, etc.

However, you can only coach so much. The players have to be held responsible for not making things happen.

Berglund was our 2nd best goal scorer through the playoffs behind Tarajesus. I'm not taking anything away from Bergie, but that's not how it should be.

Hopefully something happens and we can figure something out this next year.

i agree with this, but hitchcock wasnt under contract.

we didnt have to fire him, we simply just didnt have to re-sign him. i have no idea why they would do that when they said changes were imminent. when a coach has a team that shits the bed for 3+ straight postseasons, something has to be done about it. the blues simply arent the same team in the postseason as they are in the regular season. i think alot of this has to do with players not fully buying into his defensive system.

oshie has made comments on it, stastny has made comments about it as well, and im sure many others believe it. after every fucking loss, we hear the same thing from the players, "we didnt stay within the system"/"we got out of system and lost ourselves"/"too many system breakdowns". when you say the same thing over and over and after every game you lose, you ask yourself why are they constantly out of system? i can come up with 2 possible reasons why. 1-the system doesnt work, and 2-the players dont buy into the system.

the one thing i didnt want to have happen was to re-sign hitchcock and keep a nearly identical roster from last year. now when we inevitably lose in the first round of the postseason next year, well be wondering once again what the problem is, the coach or the players. we shouldve figured that out this season, not next. and moving berglund and maybe oshie and calling it quits on top 9 forward/top 4defensemen changes isnt a big enough difference.

im as pissed off now as when the blues actually were eliminated.

obviously theyre letting jackman walk.

i hope sobotka decides to come back.

I've been waiting for this post to be bumped. I lost it.



Statsny > Sobe

well yea, but we could always have both. sobotka as a 3rd or 4th line center

Hitch and Sobe don't equate, and this is something that drove me insane while he was on the team. I may have even ranted about it on here once or twice.

Hitch -LOVES- effort and values it over everything. If you're playing hard over a 200 foot game, you earn more ice time.

No one is more persistent on a puck than Sobotka, not Schwartz, not Oshie.

When Sobotka does what he does all the time, he gets first and second line minutes. Sobotka is not offensively talented enough to be taking up a spot where Steen or Frank or anyone else should be in.

I like Sobotka, he's good on faceoffs, he's a beast on the puck, and he's a great 3rd/4th line center. But he's just that, a 3rd/4th line center.