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St. Louis Blues
Overall: 11
Central Division: 2
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| Pronger (44) is the Blues' tower of power. (David E. Klutho) |
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For 10
years the routine was as predictable as it was entertaining.
Blues right wing Brett Hull would arrive in camp in
September and spend the next eight months shooting the puck
and shooting off his mouth with equal frequency. No more.
Second-year general manager
Larry Pleau let Hull escape to Dallas as a free agent this
summer without even offering the team's alltime leading
goal scorer a contract. Did the Kiel Center roof fall in?
Hardly. Says winger Kelly Chase, "There's been a lot
less bitchin' around
here."
Not a bad first move for a franchise desperate to be
reinvented. Though they have made the playoffs in every
season since 1979-80, the Blues have never advanced beyond
the conference finals in that span. Entwined with that
legacy of springtime flameouts
is a pattern of player-versus-front-office tiffs, many of
them instigated by Hull. With the Golden Brett gone, the
Blues have changed their tune. Already, center Pierre
Turgeon has described Pleau as "first class" for
the way the G.M. handled Turgeon's
$4.65 million offseason arbitration victory. Unfortunately,
without Hull (27 goals) and defenseman Steve Duchesne (14),
who also left as a free agent, last year's top-scoring team
lacks firepower. Turgeon (22 goals) and winger Geoff
Courtnall (31) will
have to boost their production, and free-agent winger Scott
Young must net more than the 13 goals he had last season
for the
Ducks.
St. Louis remains deep on defense. Al MacInnis and Chris
Pronger are rocks on the blue line, and coach Joel
Quenneville can roll out a
seemingly endless string of grinders to clamp down his
neutral-zone trap. If ageless goaltender Grant Fuhr
(29-21-6, 2.53
goals-against average) has one more solid season in him, St. Louis could
find itself in a lot of 2-1 and 3-2
games.
In other words, playoff-type games—the kind the Blues
usually lose. This spring we'll see if things really have
changed in St.
Louis.
—By Stephen
Cannella
Fast Fact
The Blues have the NHL's
longest active streak
of making the playoffs
(19 years) and have missed the postseason only three times in
their 31-year
history.
Keys To Success
- With the exodus of Brett Hull, forwards Jim Campbell and
Pavol Demitra need to develop into topflight snipers.
- Jamie Rivers must adequately replace the departed free agent
Steve Duchesne on the point so the Blues can again be potent
on the power play (ninth in the league in 1997-98).
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