St. Louis Blues: Fight at practice reveals a much deeper problem

After entering the season with extremely high expectations, the St. Louis Blues now sit second last in the Central Division, with no happy ending in sight.

After an embarrassing 6-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks, the St. Louis Blues snapped. They apparently had enough of the losing and the frustration of not living up to the high expectations they set for themselves before the season began.

At practice the next day, teammates Robert Bortuzzo and Zach Sanford got into a fight and landed some punches before getting split up by the coaches.

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After the game, a lot of Blue’s players and coaches blamed it on “frustrations boiling over” and that it wasn’t a big deal, while veteran forward Pat Maroon had this to say.

“We’re still teammates. Sometimes people get heated and frustrations build up. I love that stuff. I think it’s great. That’s me though. I don’t know if anyone else likes it.”

Now, even though the team says that it’s not a big deal and that it helps build team character, what it really shows is the dangerous state the Blues’ locker room is. Constant losing saps the energy out of everybody. Without a strong leadership presence, it can tear a team apart.

We have seen the same movie over and over again with the Toronto Maple Leafs before Auston Matthews, the Buffalo Sabres before this season, and the Edmonton Oilers before Connor McDavid. When a team is constantly losing, it drains everybody. The team, the media, and the fans are all affected and they start to rip at the seams.

Last season, Ryan O’Reilly was very public about how much the losing culture in Buffalo was affecting his mental health. He talked about how he lost the love for the game and how he felt very lost. He got traded to the Blues for a change in scenery and yet it’s even bleaker than before.

Andrew Ference was on the 31 Thoughts Podcast (great listen by the way) and he talked about how difficult it was to play on a losing team like the Edmonton Oilers of 2013.

“That aspect of making a mistake, and being a whipping boy, rather than being bold and taking a chance and having that confidence to try a play…You take less risks and your urge to win and be bold is less than your urge to not be the whipping boy or stand out.”

Compare this quote with Chris Butler‘s from after the fight at practice.

“I think guys are afraid of making that second mistake, or making that turnover or that bad read that may lead to something. It’s a fragile group and it’s hard to go out there and just play and have fun and enjoy the game when things are not going your way.”

This is exactly the losing culture that O’Reilly was talking about with Buffalo. The toxic environment around the team changes the way they play the game and their will weakens every day.

This team has struggled the entire season, with problems scoring and keeping the puck out of their own net. Everything that could have gone wrong for this team has, and it just seems to keep getting worse.

In their last game against the Canucks, they started the game strong, keeping the puck in the offensive zone for a long time, but the moment it goes the other way, pandemonium breaks loose. Brock Boeser shoots, misses the net, but it bounces off the glass and off the back of Jake Allen into the net. It was a freak play that sucked all the energy right out of the Blues.

When it rains it pours and the Blues are right in the thick of things. They’ve already fired their head coach Mike Yeo to try and shake things up but it hasn’t worked. Now, they’ve put goaltender Chad Johnson on waivers, but if they want real change, they’re going to have to do something big.