After the St. Louis Blues collected losses in five consecutive games for the first time under the tenure of Head Coach Craig Berube, Blues General Manager Doug Armstrong held a closed-door meeting with his team.
“(It wasn’t a) fire and brimstone meeting, but just a reality check,” Armstrong said after the Blues practiced at Centene Community Ice Center on Tuesday. “I went through some stats. We’re in the bottom quartile of anything that matters in the NHL right now. And that’s the best we are. Goals for, goals-against, goals-against average, we’re in the bottom. You look at our goal differential, we’re in the bottom. Our special teams are not special. We need to make sure this is ground zero and we start building our way up.
“What I said to the players… obviously we’re in the winning business, but what we need to see is a competitive level that is higher than what we have now.”
The Blues started the season 3-0 but began a losing streak on Oct. 24 in Winnipeg, when the team was shutout at Canadian Life Center for the first time in more than a year. The club followed that loss up by falling 3-1 to the Edmonton Oilers at home before a 6-2 blowout loss to the Nashville Predators the next day. Then, the Montreal Canadiens took a 7-4 victory on Saturday before Monday saw a 5-1 defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings.
Rather than have the players and coaches take questions about the recent struggles, Armstrong felt it necessary to give them a break to focus on getting their game in order.
“I thought you’ve probably heard enough from the coach and players the last few days, (so I wanted to) give them a chance to reflect on where we’re at and answer questions from a different viewpoint as a manager,” Armstrong said. “Obviously we’re not in a spot where we’d like to be, and we haven’t been (this way) under Craig’s tenure. Losing five in a row is something new to us and not something we want to acquire a taste for.”
Armstrong re-iterated the importance of not overreacting to a rough stretch just 10 percent into the season, but said it was also important not to under-react to it. He said he holds a lot of belief in the team but needs to see the group’s collective efforts rise to a higher level.
One thing Armstrong made perfectly clear was that he’s not pointing fingers at Berube.
“One of the things I told the players is that if this continues, in my 30 years of watching the NHL, it’s going to be OK, well then what happens – the coach? I told the players the coach is not going anywhere because the coach came from the American Hockey League, where he coached young players and made them better. And he coached veteran players and made them win here, so he can do both. So he’s going to be here… I believe in the coach, I believe in the system. This isn’t a system issue, it’s a competitive issue.”
The Blues, who are 3-5 with a .375 winning percentage, are back in action on Thursday night against the New York Islanders.
“The way we’re going to get out of it is together, and that was the meeting today (was about),” Armstrong added. “It has to happen because you don’t have to say what happens if we don’t get out of it.”
