As we approach the 20 game mark in the seasons, the Blue are not anywhere near where they through they would be going into this season. Heading into the season there was and expectation that the Blue would be challenging for a playoff spot. Instead, the Blue look like they are heading toward a top 3 pick in the draft. The pre-season expectations came from the growth of the young core of the team. Bowen Byram and Quinn Hughes were going to anchor the defense in front of Alex Nedjeljkovic and Rasmus Kupari, German Rubstov and Klim Kostin were being counted on to provide the scoring needed to win games.
Now that we are a quarter of the way through the season, none of those things are happening. While individually those players aren’t in a bad position from a stats persepective, the team is near the top in the league in shots against per game, while being at the bottom of the league in shots taken per game. That is a recipe that doesn’t add up to many wins. The team sits at the bottom of the league in points, and unless something drastic changes, it looks like they will be there for the rest of the season.
Alex Nedeljkovic is holding his own as the only bright spot in the season so far. The Blues are giving up less than 3 goals a game on average, and his save percentage is over 91%. The lack of scoring has been the team’s major downfall. If that doesn’t change quickly, the Blues are going to spend a lot of time scouting over the next few months to figure out what to do with one of the top picks in the draft.
3/16/2022 - 293 words
