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Sportsnet: Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman on the 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – Too much Bieksa on the St. Louis Blues.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “I don’t know how much more we can talk about St. Louis, other than to say maybe is there a trade coming here? Like if there is one team you look at and say, ‘I know it’s early, but because they’ve been bit by the injury bug too.’ You mentioned it feels like something is off with St. Louis. Can you kind of feel a trade coming with them or something?
Friedman: “Doug Armstrong is a really fascinating guy to watch because the year they won the Stanley Cup in 2019, he was this close to blowing it all up and he didn’t.
So, what that says to me is, you know my rule, the surest predictor of future behavior is past behavior, right? And you can’t automatically assume that he’s going to blow it up. I mean he could. He’s not afraid. He is not afraid.
I remember that year. I asked for it, nobody will give it to me, but, I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this on here before. He sent out a legendary note that year on the GM email chain for Christmas. And it was like, Christmas sale and you can buy, I’m just making it up, but it was a Christmas sale-themed email. Like you can buy a slightly used this or a good value this, but he named the players.
Marek: “Oh no.”
Friedman: “That’s why nobody will give it to me because I think he named some of the players. And then at the end of the day he decided not to do it and of course, they won the Cup.
So, that’s the thing with him. He has his press conference the other day. Tried to take the heat off the group. And they responded with this night.
I would say to you, he’s not afraid and he could blow it up, but the one thing from preventing me from saying, ‘absolutely’ is, he almost did it four years ago but he didn’t. He held up and they won. So I’m curious to see what he’s gonna think this time.”