How lessons from 2019 have impacted the Blues' strategy this season

Doug Armstrong is successful his 12th twelvemonth moving the St. Louis Blues, making him the second-longest-tenured wide manager successful the NHL. While he's not definite what to marque of his squad this season, helium knows 1 thing.

"I've ne'er been portion of a radical that's had specified a diverseness successful play and results," Armstrong told ESPN implicit the weekend. "Our peaks are precocious and our valleys are low. And we get to some quickly."

The Blues person had a melodramatic commencement to the season. A franchise-record eight-game losing streak was followed by a seven-game winning streak.

Along the way, the Blues demonstrated immoderate atrocious habits, similar allowing a one-goal shortage to rapidly go 2 oregon three. They've besides engineered unthinkable comebacks, similar Saturday; down 4-1 entering the 3rd period, St. Louis stunned Florida with an overtime win.

"I cognize what our individuality has been successful the past and I don't deliberation this squad has an individuality yet," Armstrong said. "That's 1 of the struggles our coaches are having close now. You're a 4th into the play and you inactive haven't recovered thing you tin bent your chapeau connected and say, 'This is what a bully crippled looks like.'"

With an mean property of implicit 28, the Blues person the eighth-oldest roster successful the NHL. And they'll look large decisions soon: The 2 highest-paid players (captain Ryan O'Reilly and winger Vladimir Tarasenko, with matching $7.5 cardinal headdress hits) some go unrestricted escaped agents this summer.

But for now, Armstrong is exercising patience -- contempt his squad hovering astir .500 successful a competitory Central Division. With tenure comes perspective, and Armstrong knows however to upwind a storm. In a wide-ranging conversation, the Blues GM explained wherefore seismic moves this play are improbable -- and a rebuild isn't successful the team's plans anytime soon.

The 4th people is excessively aboriginal to panic

Rewind to the Blues' 2019 Stanley Cup season. In January, the Blues had the worst grounds successful the league and had already undergone a coaching change, replacing Mike Yeo with Craig Berube. The squad had made respective large escaped cause acquisitions the erstwhile summer: O'Reilly, Tyler Bozak, Pat Maroon, David Perron.

"A batch of pundits thought we were a coagulated team, a Cup-contending team, but we weren't playing similar it," Armstrong said. "We wanted to beryllium cautious not to propulsion the babe retired with the bathwater. Good players person atrocious years. I learned that aboriginal successful my vocation from Bob Gainey. If a subordinate is going to person a 12- oregon 16-year career, they're not each going to beryllium memorable. You don't privation to marque a mistake retired of frustration."

On a Western Conference roadworthy travel conscionable earlier Christmas, a displacement began. "We didn't triumph the games, but we started to play truly well," Armstrong recalled. "It didn't look similar we had turned the corner, but wrong it felt similar we were turning the corner. In January, Jordan Binnington came successful and a storybook play was had aft that."

Most of the sound is conscionable that -- conscionable noise

Every subordinate connected the Blues has seemingly seen their sanction travel up successful commercialized rumors, including the captain, O'Reilly. Armstrong laughs and says helium has learned to unrecorded with the achromatic noise.

"People conscionable marque up things that they deliberation would enactment due to the fact that they privation to play GM," Armstrong said. "I'm not definite however galore trades that get made up really travel to fruition. You cognize the radical person a occupation to bash -- whether it's each time connected TV oregon vigor oregon connected Saturday nights. That's conscionable wherever we're astatine arsenic a society, and we arsenic managers, players and owners person to recognize it."

When asked specifically astir O'Reilly, Armstrong said: "At the extremity of the day, he's a bully subordinate and he's been a bully subordinate for a agelong clip for us. If I accidental we privation to get amended successful incremental ways implicit the adjacent period oregon two, helium has to beryllium a large portion of that."

The commercialized marketplace isn't really that robust

"I don't adjacent cognize the past clip determination was a shake-up trade," Armstrong said. "Not successful season. And successful the offseason -- to me, those are contract-forced trades oregon shifting-direction trades. Not 'I privation to get people's attention' trades."

Since the Blues won the Cup 4 years ago, astir two-thirds of the wide managers successful the league are caller astatine their posts. Unfamiliarity makes it little apt to perpetrate to a franchise-altering trades, Armstrong said. There's besides an facet of hazard aversion.

"I deliberation it's casual for managers, myself included, to say, 'Well the wage headdress makes it hard to trade,'" Armstrong said. "I really conscionable don't deliberation there's an appetite to marque those trades similar determination were successful the past. It's go a seasonal manufacture wherever you marque your commercialized astatine the commercialized deadline and astatine the draft. You're ever talking to teams, but it seems similar it's much speech and little action."

The Blues don't person an appetite for a retool oregon rebuild

"We each person a antithetic explanation of what a retool, rebuild oregon re-whatever means, but it truly conscionable means you're taking a measurement back," Armstrong said. "To me, taking a measurement backmost to instrumentality 2 forward, I person a imaginativeness for however that would look. But taking 8 steps backmost and trying to prime successful the apical 5 for the amended portion of 5 oregon six years, those things dependable large successful July but they're not a batch of amusive successful January. And if you bash that twelvemonth successful and twelvemonth out, it takes a peculiar marketplace to beryllium capable to prolong a gross and support fans wanting to travel retired and spot that team. Look astatine teams that person done it -- their attendance has dropped significantly. When they travel back, they'll astir apt person large attendance again, but it's inactive a concern astatine the extremity of the time and we inactive person to enactment a merchandise connected the crystal that tin merchantability tickets."

Armstrong is arrogant of the squad helium built and wants to spot his imaginativeness through. And there's 1 circumstantial crushed wherefore helium thinks the Blues tin stave disconnected a rebuild: drafting Jordan Kyrou successful the 2nd circular (2016) and Robert Thomas astatine No. 20 of the archetypal circular (2017).

"Those are some point-per-game players. If you redrafted those guys, they're astir apt some successful the apical 10," Armstrong said. "So successful my mind, we went done a rebuild without having to bash it due to the fact that our amateur scouting unit did a bully occupation of getting america competitory players. If we had picked mean players that spell successful that area, alternatively of point-per-game players, you've got players that you're trying to get into the league."

Kyrou is 24. Thomas is 23. They are some signed to extensions with a $8.125 cardinal headdress deed that kicks successful adjacent season.

"Because we person these gathering blocks moving forward, we tin support our veterans unneurotic and propulsion with the apical teams," Armstrong said. "So I don't deliberation a rebuild for america is going to look similar it has for different teams. If you look conscionable astatine those 2 players, they're excessively bully to fto america spell to past spot consistently."

Parity reigns present much than ever

"The teams that are rebuilding are getting amended quicker than the teams that person been bully are getting bad," Armstrong said. "So we person everybody gathering successful the middle."

The benignant of play has besides changed, starring to adjacent much unpredictability. "Now nary pb is harmless due to the fact that defending has taken a secondary thought process for astir teams," helium said. "They play discourtesy -- and discourtesy is large erstwhile you score, but it creates discourtesy for the different squad erstwhile you don't. It's an entertaining benignant of hockey, but it creates specified a variance time to time and squad to team."

And that besides has created crowded standings.

"Boston and New Jersey are the outliers astatine the top," Armstrong said. "Other than that, you person 5 oregon six implicit [.500], and 4 oregon 5 nether [.500] for 26 teams. Having caller teams sprout up is bully due to the fact that we're successful an amusement business. And that's the quality of the headdress system. Every organization, each owner, each instrumentality basal believes that they should beryllium competitive. But the world is that fractional the teams aren't going to marque the playoffs, and three-fourths of the teams volition beryllium done wrong 2 weeks of the playoffs."

The Blues are committed to consistency down the bench

Craig Berube was signed to a three-year hold successful February 2022. That content hasn't wavered. After the Blues mislaid 5 successful a enactment earlier successful the month, Armstrong decided to grip media availability himself -- and springiness the players and coaches the time off. And during that session, the GM reaffirmed his coaches' security.

"At that clip we weren't playing well, and usually calling for a coaching alteration is the lowest hanging fruit," Armstrong said. "None of america are immune. Craig took this job, I took this job, and each time we aftermath up, we're 1 time person to getting fired. That's conscionable the quality of the beast of our profession, and we judge that. But that's not thing we would instrumentality lightly.

"I thought it was beneficial for myself to get that retired determination due to the fact that we had mislaid five. If we mislaid different crippled oregon two, I knew that would beryllium the narrative. I figured if we squashed the communicative earlier it started, we didn't person to woody with it. But besides ... Craig is simply a bully coach. Like O'Reilly, it's incumbent connected him to get america retired of this too."