The Blues promised changes would be made after another disappointing playoff exit and they delivered with a surprising trade of T.J. Oshie to the Washington Capitals. Fan opinion on the deal has been split (almost exactly 50-50 based on this poll), but the dust is settling and all of the players involved in the trade have had time to comment.
Oshie’s statements are pretty interesting and indicate that though he expected the Blues to make changes, he thought they’d occur at the NHL Draft.
Via Pro Hockey Talk:
“I felt like it was a very good possibility. I did feel with the players in that locker room that we were falling short, but that if we went back with the same team we would’ve done a good job and hopefully learned from some of our mistakes.
After I found out that (Ken Hitchcock) was coming back, I figured there would be at least one or two moves that (GM Doug Armstrong) would want to make.”
Despite the feeling a change or two would be made, the timing caught Oshie by surprise.
“I thought something would possibly happen in the draft. As a couple days passed, I just figured that I’d be staying in St. Louis. Got a call from Armstrong today, and my initial reaction was a little bit of shock even though I knew it was a possibility. Then after a few minutes, I started getting excited and actually really excited to go on to the next chapter of my career.”
Oshie also commented on his own personal expectations as well as the media’s reporting of a supposed rift with Hitchcock.
“I expected big things out of myself. I think the fans did as well. There’s a lot of disappointment after the way we lost out. I feel like the media blew out of proportion the thing that I said about being refreshed after I missed (time) cause of the flu. I think fans thought that me and Hitch had a bad relationship or something like that. Changes had to be made.”
As Oshie prepares for his next challenge in Washington, he is pretty excited to be on the same roster as Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom.
“I couldn’t be more excited about going to Washington. To get out there with them would be amazing. I’d be excited. I feel kind of like a kid in the candy store playing with that calibre of players.”
Oshie’s excitement is high right now, but he’ll face more pressure with the Capitals. The Blues were content for several seasons to accept playoff disappoint and the media in St. Louis were relatively forgiving. That’s not the case in Washington (ask Ovechkin) as the media will latch on to even players performing pretty well and express their disappointment.
It’ll be interesting to see how Oshie performs with the Caps, but for now it’s time to close the book on his time in St. Louis.
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