Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on Tuesday’s The Jeff Marek Show: Third Frame Frenzy episode on the St. Louis Blues.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
“… I think with the Blues is, it’s going to be up to Doug Armstrong. What does he want to do here? I think he’s kind of had the mentality that if you have an idea, just reach out to him and he’ll consider it.
But I just think that it’s going to be up to him. We know the year they won the Cup, he could have blown the team up and he didn’t. And I don’t think this is the same, but I’m not the opinion that counts. His is the opinion that counts and we’ll see what he does.”
Marek: “But that’s just the thing though, the last time, earlier this season, when they went on that eight-game losing streak, there were the howls of start firing bodies out the door. Is it going to be O’Reilly or Tarasenko or is it going to be O’Reilly and Tarasenko?
What do you do with this blue line? Did they make the wrong decision on the netminding? And Armstrong again didn’t do anything, the Blues rebounded, seven games in a row. They rip off a nice little winning streak and now they’re kind of right back to where they were when they were losing again. Like, they’ve shown they can turn around and win seven games in a row. They’ve shown they can put together, now it’s not going to get any easier night against a veteran team led by arguably the best goaltender in the game in Ilya Sorokin. But this team has shown before, they can completely turn things around. Which has to be endlessly frustrating if you’re Doug Armstrong.
Because to your point, the biggest success, Stanley Cup happened when you went against your initial instincts to waive guys and trade guys.
Again, I go back to your mentioning of Doug Armstrong, this is a tough read. I have no idea who this team is. Doug’s a lot closer to it obviously than I am, He probably has a greater handle, I just don’t know what the answer is. I have no idea how Doug Armstrong would feel about this St. Louis Blues team that have lost horribly and won spectacularly. Don’t know how to read it.
And through all of it now, there’s the Jordan Binnington question. That shot from the point , ooof. There have been a couple but now you got the goalie question.”
Friedman: “Well, I would say you’ve forgotten to mention that grueling Manhattan to Long Island travel back-to-back.
I think this is different. Look, I don’t know what he’s going to do.”