Rutherford: Craig Berube Unofficially Named Head Coach

[Stupendous Yappi]

I think you go through the process no matter what. Given your profession, I would think you could understand the reasoning behind that. You can mollify Berube by telling him he's the clear front-runner and/or that the process will be over quickly if he has concerns and you truly are leaning heavily that direction.

If Berube wants to explore other options, there's not really much you can do about that.

Fair enough. I guess the difference is how much of a process we each believe Armstrong HAS followed.

 

[simon IC]

It is interesting that the Blues late season and postseason success is a double-edged sword. Don't get me wrong, I am in no way complaining about being in the WCF, but it has put Armstrong in a precarious situation with a couple of issues. With Berube, he almost has no choice in retaining his services. As others have stated, the message sent to the team, the fans, and the League by not demonstrating faith in Berube would be disastrous. In the case of Maroon, he is almost obligated to re-sign the Big Rig. That viral video with Maroon's son crying in itself makes it a PR nightmare if they let Maroon walk. Personally, I am not sure it is a good idea to re-sign Maroon. I also have hesitations about Berube. I still question his ability as a tactician, (just look at the PP!), and question his ability to maintain the intensity and confidence the team has after their emotional victory over adversity. Don't get me wrong, I love what he has accomplished! I just question its sustainability. I will say this, I feel for Armstrong. I wouldn't want to be making those decisions

 

[Reality Czech]

Based on comments from Stillman in the past, I seriously doubt it. Whether it should be is a different discussion, but I get the feeling that Stillman is all-in with Armstrong calling the shots come hell or high water.

And why shouldn't he be? Armstrong has done a great job lately. People criticized him for the Bozak and Maroon signings but they were both good moves. Getting O'Reilly for what he did was a coup. I know you like to question every move Armstrong makes but I think most hockey people around the league respect him as a GM.

Doing a coach search after the turnaround this team had would be disrespectful to Berube. He's earned his spot as head coach.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

And why shouldn't he be? Armstrong has done a great job lately. People criticized him for the Bozak and Maroon signings but they were both good moves. Getting O'Reilly for what he did was a coup. I know you like to question every move Armstrong makes but I think most hockey people around the league respect him as a GM.

Doing a coach search after the turnaround this team had would be disrespectful to Berube. He's earned his spot as head coach.

I've had a lot of thoughts go through my mind this morning, but I'm going to just pick on the last sentence. [I may come back to the rest of it at some point down the road, depending on what kind of free time I have.]

"Doing a coach search right now would be disrespectful." Really? I would consider it "being a good steward of the team." The GM's job is not to dole out rewards based on yesterday's actions; it's to have the vision to look near-term and long-term and say, "for the good of the franchise, this is what needs to be done." Results can play a piece in that, but they should never be the all-determining factor. If the GM is simply reacting to recent events or unsubstantiated wishful thinking, that's a problem. I think it's great this team is really doing well under Berube, but back to Easton's point from earlier: do you really know that everything going on right now is purely attributable to Berube? Or is it that we finally got competent goaltending for once, which then makes all our glaring defensive errors like last night's shitstorm even more glaring?

Because for all the "we haven't played our best hockey yet" comments, we've really only played great hockey for about 150 or so minutes this postseason: perhaps 50 minutes of Game 6 vs. Winnipeg, perhaps 60 minutes of Game 7 vs. Dallas, and then I'll throw in a few stretches here and there across the rest of the games. If we're still seeing the same defensive miscues, the same standing around and watching, the same lack of support for moving the puck, the same shitty PP, how much of that is really "Berube stepped in and has turned this team around?" and how much of that is "the shiny and new is wearing off and we're back to being what we were before, except how we have a goalie who isn't a live dumpster fire?"

Don't get me wrong, I want to see Berube succeed and all that, but our GM has gone from "we're going to look at coaches at all levels" to "list of one" and it looks and feels like it's merely based on results from the current postseason run. And if that's the case, great - but then I think someone needs to ask "what changed that you decided to get away from a comprehensive search for the right guy?" which gets back to Easton's comments about the process by which the decision was made, and why there's potentially valid questions to be asked about why this time is suddenly going to be different and better than taking the time to make sure he [Armstrong] gets it right.

 

[Majorityof1]

I think Berube's success would make it very difficult to bring in an unknown quantity from a PR standpoint. I wouldn't be opposed to looking at other options, but there is no guarantee of success when you bring someone new in regardless of how good of a fit they seem in an interview. I think the odds are better that Berube repeats and builds off his succes this season than I think some new coach finds the same level of success. You can maybe justify the risk when you have a known quantity that has had success in the NHL. "Berube did great for us, but Coach Q is a multiple cup winner...etc". But those coaches are all off of the market. I think that factored into the narrowing of the list as much as Berube's success this year. Berube's success eliminated the unknown quantities while the known ones eliminated themselves by taking other jobs.

 

[Dbrownss]

I still think management needs to add an offensive coordinator coach. Someone who can develop offense. I know that isnt an existing position. A guy on NHL radio was talking about it and was baffled how it hasnt been addressed

 

[mk80]

I think what will happen is we'll essentially use "the list" to hire some assistant coaches. When Berube took over we never replaced his assistant position and Larry Robinson has been filling in as an assistant coach and done well, but I wouldn't expect him to continue in the role next season. So I think Armstrong and Berube will work together to identify some coaches on that list who could come in as assistants on Berube's coaching staff. I'm sure one of them will work with the special teams, notably the PP next season.

 

[ezcreepin]

Berube's success I don't believe are just because we got competent goaltending, but that definitely has a big role to play. His ability to manage younger players and get a system working is what I think has changed this club. Binnington has done wonders for this group's mentality, and I don't see why it wouldn't continue, but I think Berube as a coach is someone I trust going forward with this team. There could potentially be better options, but I believe those are unknowns or they are signed currently (Keefe). When you sign an unknown, you risk having a bad season, but the gain is that you are paying a coach far less than they should make, and you potentially win the cup (like Sullivan). I think Berube has deserved at least some time in this organization to get a staff he likes, and I'm sure he knows what he needs to work on in the off-season.

 

[PiggySmalls]

I think what will happen is we'll essentially use "the list" to hire some assistant coaches. When Berube took over we never replaced his assistant position and Larry Robinson has been filling in as an assistant coach and done well, but I wouldn't expect him to continue in the role next season. So I think Armstrong and Berube will work together to identify some coaches on that list who could come in as assistants on Berube's coaching staff. I'm sure one of them will work with the special teams, notably the PP next season.

If I had to guess. Van Ryn will become the associate coach. Either Ott will stay on the bench or Daniel Tzachuk will be brought up from SA (hope not). I think Ott has done a good job with the forwards. So I think they could bring in another assistant and stick him in the press box.

I’d really like to see Joey Mullen brought in. He ran the flyers PP for several years and was a top 10 PP regularly. He has history with Berube from time with Philly.

 

[Dbrownss]

If I had to guess. Van Ryn will become the associate coach. Either Ott will stay on the bench or Daniel Tzachuk will be brought up from SA (hope not). I think Ott has done a good job with the forwards. So I think they could bring in another assistant and stick him in the press box.

I’d really like to see Joey Mullen brought in. He ran the flyers PP for several years and was a top 10 PP regularly. He has history with Berube from time with Philly.

Did he get fired or quite? Their PP was outstanding....then it wasn't. Lucky for them, they'll have Mike Yeo to fix it

 

[Ted Hoffman]

OK, so now that I have a handful of minutes to more fully respond to RC's post:

And why shouldn't he be? Armstrong has done a great job lately.

Does "lately" mean "since Jordan Binnington went between the pipes for us and backstopped this team from near last place to nearly the division title and into the WCF?" Does "lately" mean since the ROR trade [which I'll touch on below]? Does "lately" mean "across his almost 9 years ad counting as GM here?" We had a thread going here for a while about what to do with the GM spot, and I suspect a large handful of people were grudgingly going with "yeah, maybe we should make a change at GM" not out of real conviction that DA had overextended himself and was no longer suited to oversee things, but more "the team's still crap and we've changed coaches, we've sort of rolled the roster , ... f***, we might as well try the GM's spot too."

And as has been noted many times now, if Binnington doesn't step in and save this team's ass, who knows where the Blues end the season - but there's ample evidence to suggest Allen never gets his shit together and gets the Blues to even within a dozen points of the final playoff spot because he's too busy trying to go board-to-board in one giant lateral slide instead of trying to get himself to play even semi-solid positioning in net. Do we give DA - who's openly admitted he didn't bother giving Binnington a shot in camp because he didn't think anything of Binnington's ability while also admitting he can't evaluate goalies himself - credit for that? Or, do we mark that up under "totally dumb luck" and assign credit where it's really due?

People criticized him for the Bozak and Maroon signings but they were both good moves. Getting O'Reilly for what he did was a coup.

1. Maybe I missed all the Maroon love, because people crapped on him for 60+ games and only sort of [but not fully] came around for the final 20 or so. Yeah, the hometown boy scored the GWG to move us out of round 2; to many, that absolves him of all the indifferent, shitty play he had in the regular season. And yeah, there are people who are ready to hand him his next contract because of that GWG. I, ... just would like to think of the entire season, not just the feel-good pieces that happened really recently.

2. Bozak was ... OK. I wouldn't say that 13-25-38 was worth the $5 million he got, but he was OK. The postseason has been ... OK . Perron at 23-23-46 for $4 million was better, and he's got a similar 3-4-7 playoff stat line and I still wouldn't say "damn, Perron has been worth every dollar on that contract so far" given that he went AWOL for a large swath of the 2nd round when we really could have used him to step up and help close a series without needing a Game 7.

3. ROR - it's certainly made better by the fact that right now Buffalo only gets our pick at 28th overall instead of something closer to top-10 and ROR put up a Selke Trophy caliber season and the Sabres further derailed Tage Thompson's development with their handling of him this past season and Berglund's going AWOL, but like above ... is that DA's genius coming through, or is that dumb luck, or some combination of the two? I'm fine with the trade, I still can't believe Botterill did that [and it may well come back to be one of the reasons why he loses his job soon], but unless we win a Cup shortly so we can stamp WIN on this trade, let's see how history plays out before spiking the ball on this one.

But remember: for the apparent win this trade was, and how Blues fans still wanted to crow about it, it still didn't translate into actual results in the standings on its own. It took a change at HC, it took "getting to know each other" and getting rid of emotional baggage or whatever else, and it took a change in net to finally get the S.S. Bluenote off the rocks and back into the water - meaning, DA's apparent masterstroke of genius didn't generate Ws itself. It needed help - lots of help.

I know you like to question every move Armstrong makes but I think most hockey people around the league respect him as a GM.

I know there are people around the league who think he's overrated and can't understand how he inherited a highly-touted roster in 2010 and only got one (1) WCF appearance out of it, even considering Los Angeles and Chicago. I know at least 2 front offices [both in the West] think the current WCF appearance has little to do with anything he did. As Easton said in a similar disagreement on views earlier: where does that leave us?

And I don't question every move. I do [and always will] question the ones where you look at it at the time and say, why the hell are you doing that? Is that really necessary? Is that really for the long-term good of this franchise? Or, are you throwing shit at the wall and hoping some of it sticks? My career path is all about asking questions and being critical, at times in a "devil's advocate" kind of way just to force people to think about what they're really trying to do. I don't accede to authority "just because they said so" and sometimes that unsettles people because they don't like being challenged or don't like being questioned. You can call that being unnecessarily critical; I'm OK with that.

 

[Reality Czech]

OK, so now that I have a handful of minutes to more fully respond to RC's post:


Does "lately" mean "since Jordan Binnington went between the pipes for us and backstopped this team from near last place to nearly the division title and into the WCF?" Does "lately" mean since the ROR trade [which I'll touch on below]? Does "lately" mean "across his almost 9 years ad counting as GM here?" We had a thread going here for a while about what to do with the GM spot, and I suspect a large handful of people were grudgingly going with "yeah, maybe we should make a change at GM" not out of real conviction that DA had overextended himself and was no longer suited to oversee things, but more "the team's still crap and we've changed coaches, we've sort of rolled the roster , ... ****, we might as well try the GM's spot too."

And as has been noted many times now, if Binnington doesn't step in and save this team's ass, who knows where the Blues end the season - but there's ample evidence to suggest Allen never gets his **** together and gets the Blues to even within a dozen points of the final playoff spot because he's too busy trying to go board-to-board in one giant lateral slide instead of trying to get himself to play even semi-solid positioning in net. Do we give DA - who's openly admitted he didn't bother giving Binnington a shot in camp because he didn't think anything of Binnington's ability while also admitting he can't evaluate goalies himself - credit for that? Or, do we mark that up under "totally dumb luck" and assign credit where it's really due?


1. Maybe I missed all the Maroon love, because people crapped on him for 60+ games and only sort of [but not fully] came around for the final 20 or so. Yeah, the hometown boy scored the GWG to move us out of round 2; to many, that absolves him of all the indifferent, ****ty play he had in the regular season. And yeah, there are people who are ready to hand him his next contract because of that GWG. I, ... just would like to think of the entire season, not just the feel-good pieces that happened really recently.

2. Bozak was ... OK. I wouldn't say that 13-25-38 was worth the $5 million he got, but he was OK. The postseason has been ... OK . Perron at 23-23-46 for $4 million was better, and he's got a similar 3-4-7 playoff stat line and I still wouldn't say "damn, Perron has been worth every dollar on that contract so far" given that he went AWOL for a large swath of the 2nd round when we really could have used him to step up and help close a series without needing a Game 7.

3. ROR - it's certainly made better by the fact that right now Buffalo only gets our pick at 28th overall instead of something closer to top-10 and ROR put up a Selke Trophy caliber season and the Sabres further derailed Tage Thompson's development with their handling of him this past season and Berglund's going AWOL, but like above ... is that DA's genius coming through, or is that dumb luck, or some combination of the two? I'm fine with the trade, I still can't believe Botterill did that [and it may well come back to be one of the reasons why he loses his job soon], but unless we win a Cup shortly so we can stamp WIN on this trade, let's see how history plays out before spiking the ball on this one.

But remember: for the apparent win this trade was, and how Blues fans still wanted to crow about it, it still didn't translate into actual results in the standings on its own. It took a change at HC, it took "getting to know each other" and getting rid of emotional baggage or whatever else, and it took a change in net to finally get the S.S. Bluenote off the rocks and back into the water - meaning, DA's apparent masterstroke of genius didn't generate Ws itself. It needed help - lots of help.


I know there are people around the league who think he's overrated and can't understand how he inherited a highly-touted roster in 2010 and only got one (1) WCF appearance out of it, even considering Los Angeles and Chicago. I know at least 2 front offices [both in the West] think the current WCF appearance has little to do with anything he did. As Easton said in a similar disagreement on views earlier: where does that leave us?

And I don't question every move. I do [and always will] question the ones where you look at it at the time and say, why the hell are you doing that? Is that really necessary? Is that really for the long-term good of this franchise? Or, are you throwing **** at the wall and hoping some of it sticks? My career path is all about asking questions and being critical, at times in a "devil's advocate" kind of way just to force people to think about what they're really trying to do. I don't accede to authority "just because they said so" and sometimes that unsettles people because they don't like being challenged or don't like being questioned. You can call that being unnecessarily critical; I'm OK with that.

Lol, you really really think about this stuff a lot don't you. I'm a results guy. This team is in the conference finals, not really interested in how they got here. Sure, some guys didn't play well all season long but is that really unusual? Nearly every player goes through hot and cold streaks. If you look at the body of work compiled by Maroon over the entire season up to the point, I'd say it was a good signing. Ditto for Bozak. I laugh at all the fans who thought they had figured it all out months ago (and have been proven wrong with time). You judge roster moves based on how they work out at the end. If you would be happier without Maroon and Bozak on this current roster, please say so.

Then you say who knows how we would have done without Binnington? I guess you do, because immediately after that comment you presented a scenario that I guess you feel is most likely. Who knows if Allen would have played better? Maybe the team would have found its form regardless. Either way, I'm sure glad we have the depth that army acquired last off-season.

Mainly I just find it asinine that you're constantly looking for reasons to bash management. Never mind the fact that we made the semi finals, never mind the fact that this team has exceeded most expectations already. Never mind the fact that we could still come back and win this series. You are just looking for things to nitpick. Have fun with that. I'll be enjoying the conference finals.

 

[PiggySmalls]

Did he get fired or quite? Their PP was outstanding....then it wasn't. Lucky for them, they'll have Mike Yeo to fix it

Hextall didn’t renew his contract in 2017. In an interview he said it was a “gut feeling”, so I don’t know what was going on behind the scenes. But I always loved how Philly ran their PP and the proof is in the pudding. I’d love for Schenn to be a PP specialist again. LOL.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Mainly I just find it asinine that you're constantly looking for reasons to bash management. Never mind the fact that we made the semi finals, never mind the fact that this team has exceeded most expectations already. Never mind the fact that we could still come back and win this series. You are just looking for things to nitpick. Have fun with that. I'll be enjoying the conference finals.

I don't go out of my way to trash you or anyone else who has full faith in Doug Armstrong as out GM, so I don't know why you feel the need to go to great lengths to rip on me whenever I dissent. You admitted, you're a results-oriented person. Awesome. I am not; I never let results dictate decisions. Play a role in? Sure, but they are never and should never be the be-all, end-all.

And I have said that if this team wins a Cup during DA's tenure, you'll see me admit I was wrong. Happily, because we'll all be celebrating.

The fact is, had DA's moves worked as intended we never would have been in last place in the league newrly halfway through the season. But, there we were. If you're going to insinuate in any way that the 2nd half was the result of some genius tactic by him, I'll call bullshit on that every day and every time.

You back our GM. I don't. Great, I respect your choice to give him your full backing. I don't know why you can't similarly respect my choice to not give him support.

 

[Brian39]

None of us will ever know exactly how extensive of a search was conducted. That's just the reality.

However, I think it is foolish to believe that no search was conducted. We may or may not have interviewed any candidates (I doubt it, that's uncommon mid-playoffs), but I'd stake my salary that we did all or most of the pre-interview due diligence to come up with the list of guys who we wanted to interview. I think it is just as likely that our entire list got other jobs than it is that Berube's performance forced us to throw away the list. I agree with the comments I've seen that Army wasn't going to hire a 1st time coach as this team's window was opening and I think that is wise with what Berube has accomplished. If you don't re-up Berube, his replacement needs to have tangible experience/gravitas to get the team to move past that decision. Even if there were 1st time coaches on our list, I would have crossed them off based on where we are at with Berube today.

There is something to be said about not letting the players pick their coach. However, you can't ignore the reality of how much this team has bought into Berube. Right or wrong, a good percentage of this locker room would be pissed if Berube wasn't brought back and that attitude is going to be (probably unfairly) associated with the new guy. That new guy needs to be a guy who can lean on his resume/success to combat that attitude. For the record, if I were Petro or Schenn, I wouldn't sign an extension this summer if we brought in a new coach. Not out of spite, but I would want to see results with a new coach before committing years of my career here.

Q, McLellan and Vigneault are off the board. Would anyone be surprised if those were the only serious candidates on our internal list? I sure as hell don't want Housley, Hitch, Boughner, Crawford or the other interim coaches this year over Berube.

Again, none of us know exactly what the search looked like over the last month. However, given the options left on the table I'm completely satisfied. Replacing Berube with some guy the players have never heard of would be a disaster. Right or wrong, fair or not, the odds of that being successful are very, very low with how much these players have gotten behind Berube. I don't need interviews to tell me that the experienced guys left on the board are underwhelming candidates.

We may or may not have gotten the best coach still available by going this route. I don't know the answer to that question. I'm confident that Berube has a better chance of being successful with this group than anyone left.

 

[hullderko]

but it has put Armstrong in a precarious situation with a couple of issues. With Berube, he almost has no choice in retaining his services.

How is this a precarious situation? Is it not a good situation to have the opportunity to hire a winning coach who took the team from last place in the NHL to the WCF while acting as the interim? Maybe you think that this season is a fluke and there is a risk that Berube will not perform next year?

 

[Reality Czech]

I don't go out of my way to trash you or anyone else who has full faith in Doug Armstrong as out GM, so I don't know why you feel the need to go to great lengths to rip on me whenever I dissent. You admitted, you're a results-oriented person. Awesome. I am not; I never let results dictate decisions. Play a role in? Sure, but they are never and should never be the be-all, end-all.

And I have said that if this team wins a Cup during DA's tenure, you'll see me admit I was wrong. Happily, because we'll all be celebrating.

The fact is, had DA's moves worked as intended we never would have been in last place in the league newrly halfway through the season. But, there we were. If you're going to insinuate in any way that the 2nd half was the result of some genius tactic by him, I'll call bull**** on that every day and every time.

You back our GM. I don't. Great, I respect your choice to give him your full backing. I don't know why you can't similarly respect my choice to not give him support.

I don't respect your choice to pull that crap after game 1 of the conference finals. So many of you know-it-alls have been proven wrong time and time again this season, yet it doesn't stop you from thinking you've got it all figured out this time as well. You are clearly biased. I don't even care about Army that much, I just hate to see fans push their own agenda so blatantly.

So now we are criticizing the team for not turning it on soon enough? Give me a break man, you are embarrassing yourself. The team he built was good enough to make it to the final four, that's all that matters to me. You don't have to run the table and finish first overall to win the Cup, all you have to do is stay close and give yourself the chance.

Last point, I do not criticize you "every" time. Trust me, I would never go out of my way to comment on your posts, but every time I see one of your posts you are bending over backwards to bash Army in some way. It's kind of comical at times, but I'm not wasting any more time on you. Have a good day.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

....... OK. I'll just remember, I'm the one who's overly emotional right now.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

I give Berube a tonne of credit. He has got guys buying in. Total 110% commitment! I see guys finishing checks that I haven't seen before. It's a beautiful thing to see a team all on one page.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

....... OK. I'll just remember, I'm the one who's overly emotional right now.

You make good points at times, but I think if you surveyed the board I bet it would be almost unanimous that we think you have an axe to grind with Armstrong that goes way beyond routine criticism. But if I filter what you post through that lens I can find some worthwhile insights.

 

[Louie the Blue]

The fact is, had DA's moves worked as intended we never would have been in last place in the league newrly halfway through the season. But, there we were. If you're going to insinuate in any way that the 2nd half was the result of some genius tactic by him, I'll call bull**** on that every day and every time.

What trade/signing did not work out as intended by Armstrong from this season? I'll say Chad Johnson, but everyone else has done what they're supposed to do(including Bozak).

I think Armstrong deserves criticism when it's warranted, and I'd argue the three biggest indictments against him during his entire tenure are these:

1. Goal tender situation.
2.Not being more proactive in trading players after 2014 or 2015 (more players than Oshie and Perron should have been traded during that time span).
3. End of Hitch's tenure(Armstrong backed himself into a corner with having to retain Hitch after 2016. Hitch could have been fired after 2015, as well as possibly 2016, if not for the run to the WCF. I think Hitch was a great for the organization long term, but it was time to move on a certain point. I don't know how I feel about the Yeo coach-in-waiting situation now and I think I was in favor of it at the time, but now I don't think it was fair to either Hitch or Yeo to have that situation at all).

I think the more I think about it, the biggest criticism I have with Armstrong is his decision making can lead to him being forced to do something that he otherwise wouldn't have to do, which I guess comes with him not over reacting one way or another.

Him insisting to do the something can lead to poor roster construction(Allen, Oshie, Miller(even though I don't have an issue with it because he was swinging for the fences like Jarmo did this season trades)).

I think Army backs himself into corners when he doesn't have to, but there are some situations where I don't think he has much of a choice(Berube, retaining Hitch after 2016, trading Bishop).

 

[Dbrownss]

What stud GM is out there?
Army may not be flawless but he's been good for the franchise.

Everyone was in love with Poile and now it looks like he's ran his team into a brick wall.

Yzermen built a star studded roster spectacularly failed.

Jim Nill's roster failed.

Jim Rutherford, who had B2B cups and shotgun'd his team by constantly fiddling with it.

I cant think of any other big name GMs.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Since I've seen the comment a couple times now, I'll ask: when is voicing a negative opinion about someone merely "speaking the truth" or "expressing an opinion" and when is it "having an axe to grind?"

Because I've seen a few people here go to great lengths to trash Pietrangelo after eveything he does wrong all season long, and I don't recall ever seeing anyone calling that out as "having an axe to grind." But I question our GM's ability, and it's like kicking an angry hornet's nest. So, I just want to know where the dividing line is on when it crosses over just so I have that for future reference.

TIA

 

[Note Worthy]

Since I've seen the comment a couple times now, I'll ask: when is voicing a negative opinion about someone merely "speaking the truth" or "expressing an opinion" and when is it "having an axe to grind?"

Because I've seen a few people here go to great lengths to trash Pietrangelo after eveything he does wrong all season long, and I don't recall ever seeing anyone calling that out as "having an axe to grind." But I question our GM's ability, and it's like kicking an angry hornet's nest. So, I just want to know where the dividing line is on when it crosses over just so I have that for future reference.

TIA

I would say there's a select group that has consistently called out Pietrangelo for everything and been labeled as doing so.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Since I've seen the comment a couple times now, I'll ask: when is voicing a negative opinion about someone merely "speaking the truth" or "expressing an opinion" and when is it "having an axe to grind?"

Because I've seen a few people here go to great lengths to trash Pietrangelo after eveything he does wrong all season long, and I don't recall ever seeing anyone calling that out as "having an axe to grind." But I question our GM's ability, and it's like kicking an angry hornet's nest. So, I just want to know where the dividing line is on when it crosses over just so I have that for future reference.

TIA

I'll try to answer this as a sincere question.

I view a poster as having an 'axe' when they are one-sided in their assessments over a long period of time. There are multiple posters on here that meet that test. However, most of those type of posters aren't worth paying attention to because they're just emotionally venting or don't have insights that I find worth much. Its low quality stuff that can be ignored or just passed by quickly. I'm not dismissing their right to participate in the board that way, its just serving a different purpose for them than what I'm looking for.

If you have posts where you congratulate Armstrong for making good moves at times, I am not remembering them very well. I would argue that his decision to 'double down' on this roster and not pull the trigger on any mid-season trades was a pretty huge one, and one that could have invited a great deal of deserved criticism. Most people would have not been that patient. Certainly the sentiment on this board wasn't that of being patient.

Your posts present a condundrum because they are generally logical and well grounded in detailed facts. But they ARE pretty one-sided to an extreme with regard to Armstrong.

I'm not telling you to change. I'm just telling you that when I read your stuff I have to put it through a translator to adjust for the bias I expect to find. But I find it hard to believe that you wouldn't agree that you're biased against Armstrong. But there is also no doubt you are a bleed-blue Blues fan either.