Bye week over, Blues back on the grind; what happens
between now and Wednesday; Paajarvi recalled, Barbashev day to day
CHICAGO -- The Blues were back at it Saturday afternoon preparing for the final grind of the regular season.
The Blues haven't done anything since that gut-wrenching 2-1 loss to the Florida Panthers on Monday in which the Panthers scored with 4.6 ticks left on the clock.
It wasn't the most ideal way for the Blues (31-24-5) to sit on the past five days, but as the Blues open the post-bye schedule with a Sunday night showdown with the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center (6:30 p.m. on NBCSN, KMOX 1120-AM), they have to turn their attentions to accumulating as many points as possible and remain in the top eight of the Western Conference playoff chase.
"It was nice, a nice few days to recharge and give the mind and body a little bit of a rest," left wing Alexander Steen said. "But it's nice to get back to work, in the rhythm of things again.
"... We go through this all the time, where you have injuries that keep you off the ice for three or four days and you come back on. We know what to expect, (and) it gives guys with little tweaks and bumps a chance to heal. And for other guys that don't really have things going on, it's a chance to take a mental break."
Perhaps a return to the grind against the Blackhawks, who have won eight of nine and have scored four or more goals in each win, wasn't the best-case scenario, but the schedule is what it is.
"We can't sit here and say it's a good thing, they're on fire right now," Blues coach Mike Yeo said of the Blackhawks. "I guess the only good part about it is that we know we have to be ready to go.
"I would say practice was about what we would expect it to be, guys having a tough time getting going at first. But we designed practice with that in mind, making sure that we had an opportunity for things to build through the practice, in particular the battle level and the execution."
Depending on Nashville's outcome with Edmonton on Sunday afternoon, the Blues could find themselves anywhere from 2-4 points in back of the Predators for third place in the Central Division with two games in hand.
"Yeah, going into Chicago, in that building and that atmosphere, it's going to be a fun game to get back into things," Steen said.
Teams haven't fared well coming off the bye. Heading into Saturday, they were 5-12-4 in those games.
"I haven't followed that until this morning and someone brought it up," said center Patrik Berglund, fresh off signing a new five-year, $19.25 extension on Friday. "It's just another challenge for us. Got to go out and play our game and fight for those two points. What happened to those other teams is nothing that bothers us.
"(The break) felt pretty good. It was good for everybody to get away for a little bit. Everyone came back happy had a little better tan on their bodies. We're excited to get going again."
* D-day approaching -- With the NHL Trade Deadline rapidly approaching on March 1, team general managers are busy working phones, sending scouts all across North America at one of the 30 fine arenas fielding NHL teams in search of information regarding trades as teams must decide whether they are buyers or sellers.
For the Blues, who are on that borderline of playoff reality, general manager Doug Armstrong made it clear that the next two games (Sunday at Chicago and Tuesday at home against Edmonton) won't affect the Blues in any way, shape or form.
"Even after our game Tuesday night, we're going to be in a playoff spot, so these next games aren't going to have a big affect on ... if you were four points back or six points out or four or five games under .500 or over .500 to that playoff spot and you won two or lost two would have an affect, right now, we're seven over and ninth place is two over," Armstrong said. "There's a cushion there. The next two games aren't going to have an affect on our standings. Obviously our goal is to finish as high as we can in the standings and make the playoffs. That's our short-term goal. Our longer-term goal is like everybody else, and that's to make the playoffs and then advance four rounds and win your last game.
"The conversations between managers are now at a more consistent pace. I think everyone's looking at the same thing. You look at your team and you're trying to improve your team, whether it's short-term, long-term. Obviously in the Western Conference, it looks like you have nine teams fighting for eight spots and we're comfortably into that group of nine. What I like how you check the standings total, it's no the points, it's games over .500. I think we're seven games over .500 and Nashville's seven over .500. Calgary is six over .500 and that's six, seven and eight and I think you have LA at two games over. There's a little bit of a gap between Los Angeles and the next three teams and our goal is to try and stay in that grouping of eight and climb obviously as high as we can."
For the Blues, all the focus is on what will they do with defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, who is an impending unrestricted free agent and arguably the biggest trade deadline target on the market, and Armstrong was close to the vest regarding who's talking to who, what is being offered and what the Blues will do.
Do they trade him? Do they keep him and make a run knowing they could lose Shattenkirk for nothing when July 1 comes around? Are they somehow able to keep him long-term? The latter appears to be the least possibility, but any direction that Armstrong goes with this makes for a dicey situation.
Armstrong would not comment on Saturday the discussions regarding Shattenkirk, nor was he willing to disclose if teams inquired about Berglund before the Blues signed the center iceman to a five-year, $19.25 extension on Friday.
Shattenkirk, who teams crave for his offensive-defenseman specialties, was on the ice Saturday.
"Obviously it's a challenge for him," Yeo said. "He's getting asked the questions every day. Unless he's living in a cave right now, then I'm sure he's hearing an awful lot about it.
"Again, for me, I'm not treating him any different than any other player on our team. He's a player on our team and we need him to go out tomorrow and be ready to play and play at a high level. That's our focus as a staff, just to make sure that we get him there."
The Blues don't appear to be sellers by any stretch, but they aren't likely to be big-time buyers either.
"I think getting Patrik signed has solidified our forward group right now," Armstrong said. "We're just going to take a look and see what we have. I don't see us moving a top pick or moving a top prospect for a rental player. There's always different moves, whether it's a depth move, which you don't see a lot of this time of the year as hockey trades but you never know when one of those might pop up, too."
Armstrong could always try and accumulate picks, but that would require selling off assets on the current roster.
"This draft, it doesn't have the 'wow' factor at the top end that the (Connor) McDavid draft had or last year's draft (with Auston Matthews), but I think it has some depth to it of equal level players. There's going to be NHL players come out of this year's entry draft; there always is, and it's up to our scouting staff's job to do their homework and find a guy, no matter where we're picking. There are going to be players to play and we have to grind away and give ourselves the best opportunity to find one."
The trade deadline is 2 p.m. (CT), so stay tuned. There will be plenty of chatter between now and then. How much execution there will be is yet to be seen.
* Paajarvi recalled, Barbashev day to day -- The Blues recalled winger Magnus Paajarvi from their American Hockey League affiliate, the Chicago Wolves on Saturday night, meaning Paajarvi didn't have far to go to meet back up with the Blues; he was reassigned after Monday's game to play this past Wednesday, the same day center Ivan Barbashev sustained an upper-body injury.
He practiced yesterday and again today and he's going to get a good skate in with the Wolves tomorrow to get a better indication, but it doesn't look like anything long-term or serious.
"I think getting Patrik signed has solidified our forward group right now. We're just going to take a look and see what we have. I don't see us moving a top pick or moving a top prospect for a rental player. There's always different moves, whether it's a depth move, which you don't see a lot of this time of the year as hockey trades but you never know when one of those might pop up, too.
This draft, it doesn't have the 'wow' factor at the top end that the McDavid draft had or last year's draft, but I think it has some depth to it of equal level players. There's going to be NHL players come out of this year's entry draft; there always is, and it's up to our scouting staff's job to do their homework and find a guy, no matter where we're picking. There are going to be players to play and we have to grind away and give ourselves the best opportunity to find one.
He practiced yesterday and again today and he's going to get a good skate in with the Wolves tomorrow to get a better indication, but it doesn't look like anything long-term or serious.
"He practiced yesterday and again today and he's going to get a good skate in with the Wolves tomorrow to get a better indication, but it doesn't look like anything long-term or serious," Armstrong said of Barbashev.
Barbashev, the Blues' 2014 second-round pick, had two goals and one assist in 12 games with the Blues before he was assigned during the bye week to get a game in with the Wolves.
"Yeah, all those guys, that's the point," Yeo said regarding playing in the AHL. "It's a different season when you're here all year, but I've always been a big believer that young players have to play and I think we saw the benefit of that with them coming up here and the confidence that they had and the energy that they had ... so yeah, I think it'll be a good thing."
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