Doug Armstrong and the St. Louis Blues’ identity crisis

St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong apologized for his tears. “As a Canadian citizen, I just gave you my best impression of Chuck Schumer.”

Firing Ken Hitchcock was an emotional gauntlet for Armstrong. They’re great friends. This was supposed to be the coach’s final curtain, with the intention not to have that curtain fall 50 games into the season and with Hitchcock one win away from tying Al Arbour for No. 3 all time.

Those tears were shed by a man who knows he let his friend down.

“Whatever mess is here, is on me,” said Armstrong.

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And it’s a mess. That’s the main takeaway from Armstrong’s press conference: That the St. Louis Blues have lost their identity on the ice, and that the management of this franchise doesn’t know if it’s designing a roster for the present or the future.

One minute Armstrong says it’s a “rebuilding year and a retrenching year.” Another minute he says “I thought this was a playoff team.” One minute Armstrong is praising Yeo as the guy to figure this thing out, having hired him to apprentice under Hitchcock for this season before taking over in 2017-18. The next minute Armstrong is saying that Yeo’s presence in staff didn’t influence his decision on Hitchcock at all.

One minute Armstrong believes in the players and their abilities; the next he’s dropping a Ken Hitchcock-sized bomb on them, saying there’s only one Hall of Famer in that room and it’s the guy he just fired.

(Somewhere, Vladimir Tarasenko weeps…)

But Armstrong took the blame, and he should have. His decisions for the future had irreversible effects on the present.

Removing the Brian Elliott safety net and having Jim Corsi as the goaltending coach – he was fired, along with Hitchcock – helped turn Jake Allen into a quivering mess and the Blues into the worst team in save percentage in the NHL, despite allowing the fourth-fewest shots per game.

“Jake’s our goalie. We have to play a better game in front of him,” said Yeo, named head coach on Wednesday, and selling the company line that the Blues aren’t trying to replace or subvert Allen.

Armstrong’s solution is to have Martin Brodeur – the all-time great and an Allen backer – and Ty Conklin act as “goalie advisers” to get him going this season. At this moment, they could both un-retire and immediately improve the position.

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Removing David Backes and Troy Brouwer left the Blues with less toughness, less net presence and a leadership void that the team’s younger players weren’t ready to fill. “We made hard decisions last summer that I thought were going to put us in a different spot than we’ve been,” he said. “But I owe to the ownership group to do what I think is best for this franchise in the long-term.”

While Armstrong’s right when he said one can’t easily replace those players, their departure helped negatively change the culture on this team.

In the sense that it feels like less of a team.

“The culture has changed a bit. We have to regain what’s important for the Note on the front, not the name on the back,” said Armstrong. “We don’t lose with pride. It just felt like we were hit and miss, night in and night out. We need to demand more of ourselves.”

The term he used, over and over, was “independent contractor.” At first glance that might seem like an indictment of players on short-term contracts, but Armstrong clarified it.

“The independent contracting part of it has to go away. There has to be a sacrifice for the team,” he said. “When I use that term, what I’m referring to is on a 50-50 puck, you cheat on the offensive side of it. Good teams cheat on the defensive side of it, so as not to expose their teammates. So I hoping now that we don’t expose each other.”

(So say we all …)

With Hitchcock gone and Yeo now head coach, Armstrong basically has one month to discover the ultimate identity of the Blues: Playoff team or trade deadline seller.

It’s clear, from what Armstrong said, that ownership fancies the former. They want to win. They think they can win. Firing Hitchcock now is an attempt to stabilize a team that’s in danger of slipping out of the playoff seedings in the Western Conference.

But for Armstrong, it’s also the opening of a one-month audition to see if these Blues can earn their spot as a playoff contender or if they’re going to be sold off for scrap.

“I don’t want to sabotage the season. Over the next month, the players will let us know where they’re standing,” he said.

For six years, the St. Louis Blues’ standing was that of a stout defensive team. They aren’t one now. For six years, the St. Louis Blues’ standing was that of a cohesive group that, at the very least, played with and for each other. They aren’t one now.

For six years, the St. Louis Blues were a Ken Hitchcock team.

They aren’t one now.

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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