Three Periods: On the Blues, Brodeur & rookie Allen; Weiss battles back for Wings; NHL notes

Nicholas J. Cotsonika’s Three Periods column appears on Thursdays. This week’s topics include Martin Brodeur’s tryout with the St. Louis Blues and his potential effect on Jake Allen; Stephen Weiss’ stop-and-start comeback from groin problems with the Detroit Red Wings; and notes on the Edmonton Oilers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers and Pavel Datsyuk.

FIRST PERIOD: How would a blast from the past effect the Blues’ future?

Before we get to Martin Brodeur and his tryout, understand what the St. Louis Blues have had in goal this season. They have had perhaps the best tandem in the NHL. Brian Elliott leads in the league in goals-against average (1.82) and ranks third in save percentage (.931), one-thousandth of a point off the lead. Jake Allen ranks sixth in goals-against average (2.12) and 11th in save percentage (.920).

Elliott is 29, a veteran with 249 games of NHL experience, a guy who has posted a .940 save percentage one season and sunk as low as the minors the next season and risen again. Allen is 24, a relative youngster with 24 games of NHL experience. Just a couple of weeks ago, Jim Corsi, the veteran goalie coach who joined the Blues this season, raved about their mentor-mentee dynamic.

“For me, it’s the ideal situation,” Corsi said after a practice one day. “This organization has done a great job of trying to put that together. I’ve never understood, ‘We need a guy so they push the other guy.’ If we have to push a guy, geez, I don’t know. What does that mean? I don’t think you can learn much from fear, learn much from trying to blow out another man’s candle so that yours shines more. I don’t believe that’s a strategy for great success.”

Elliott suffered an injury Tuesday night in the second period of a 3-2 shootout loss to the Ottawa Senators. All we know is that his right leg appeared to buckle after contact in the crease, and he threw his stick down the tunnel after he came off the ice. The Blues announced he was “week-to-week.” Then they announced they were bringing in Brodeur to practice with the team starting Friday morning.

Brodeur is the NHL’s all-time leader in wins (688) and shutouts (124), far ahead of everyone else. He has won the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goaltender four times. He has won the Stanley Cup three times. He’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer. But he hasn’t been good for years, frankly, and he’s 42. He chafed at a reduced role with the New Jersey Devils. He didn’t want to retire after 21 seasons with one franchise. No one wanted to sign him. He has been working out on his own.

The first questions are short-term questions: How bad is Elliott’s injury? How much does Brodeur have left? What role would he play? What role would he accept?

The other question is long-term: How will this affect Allen?

You’d have to think Elliott’s injury could be serious or the Blues wouldn’t have reached out to Brodeur. You’d have to think the Blues have reservations or they would have signed Brodeur. Brodeur is expected to practice through Tuesday. The Blues reportedly have made no promises and will take a few days to evaluate everything before making a decision. Brodeur said last week he was “willing to play any kind of role” for the right team.

“For me, it’s not about ego or anything,” Brodeur said. “I just love to play the game. I know I could help a team out somehow, and I just want to try to get an opportunity. The role will be the role that will be assigned to me.”

If Brodeur isn’t in shape or doesn’t have it anymore, the Blues should see that. Corsi knows what he’s doing. He tutored Dominik Hasek and Ryan Miller with the Buffalo Sabres. But if Brodeur looks like he can still contribute as a backup and is truly willing to be a mentor, maybe this make sense. The Blues need to win now, and while Allen has played only 24 NHL games, his current backup, 21-year-old Jordan Binnington, has played zero. The Blues also need to think about the future, and Allen is the future.

Corsi said there is a 10-year curve for goaltenders, starting from about 18 years old, their first exposure to high-end coaching and more-demanding games. They need their 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery in their field. “My research has shown that goaltenders really start to blossom in and around 26, 27, 28 years old,” Corsi said. “You can’t force a good wine. It takes time.”

Allen is fermenting well. He has a foundation from four years in the minors – confidence in his skills, humility in his development.

“I had a cup of coffee before, but this is my first actual season,” Allen said a couple of weeks ago. “I’m still learning the ropes of the teams and the players, the people I’m playing against, the systems of our team. I’m just trying to take it all in stride, try to get better every day. I’ve still got a long way to go.”

Corsi loves Allen. He said he combines “the technical with the tactical” and has “rapier-like skills that allow him to attack a puck.” He said he chooses the right tool in his toolbox at the right time. He works hard and studies his craft. He has been studying little things like reading the play and slowing it down for himself and his team.

“That depth of process I’ve seen in very few, and to see Jake at his age, it’s really a special moment,” Corsi said. “I’m just happy to be there for it, because he really has that ability. When you look at that, he’s ahead of the curve. He’s at a good stage right now and really growing very well at this stage.”

But to stay ahead of the curve, Allen needs to keep refining, to keep learning. He needs someone to support him, not someone to push him.

“Over the years, I’ve found the young guy gleans stuff off the veteran guy, no matter what,” Corsi said. “The specificity is not what’s important. It’s by watching it becomes part of you.

“You’re across the room with your teammate, and it’s 1-0 going into the third. It’s a shootout moment, and the goalie comes to the bench. There’s observations going on there. You’re listening. You’re feeling the tension. You’re seeing how it’s handled. What looks like, ‘Oh, he’s just going to the bench,’ is also a learning moment for the young guy.

“I haven’t stopped a puck in 30 years. I’m not going to show them. That’s why we try to marry that combination.”

SECOND PERIOD: Weiss details his comeback from groin problems

Stephen Weiss said all he did was hold his stick and the puck hit it. But it was a set faceoff play, and he did what he was supposed to do. He got to the inside. He went to the net. He deflected a shot and scored his third goal in two games.

You have no idea how good it felt.

“It’s not easy, man,” Weiss said Wednesday night after the Detroit Red Wings’ 5-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. “Honestly, it’s been tough.”

Weiss signed a five-year, $24.5 million contract as a free agent on July 5, 2013. He was supposed to add offense as the second-line center, and there was little reason to think he wouldn’t, even though he had played only 17 games in 2012-13 thanks to a lockout and a wrist injury.

The previous three seasons with the Florida Panthers, he had never played fewer than 76 games, never scored fewer than 20 goals, never produced fewer than 49 points. He was 30 years old. He had a better track record than the second-line center the Wings let leave in free agency, Valtteri Filppula, who signed an almost identical deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

But while Filppula put up 25 goals and 58 points in 75 games for the Bolts last season, Weiss had only two goals and four points in 26 games for the Wings. He had a groin problem. He had surgery in December. He tried to come back after the Olympic break and suffered a setback. He would skate, take a week off, skate again. He would try injections – “you name it, every treatment in the book,” he said. Nothing worked.

“What I really felt bad about was not being able to show my teammates what I can do and get out there and compete with them, and the fans as well,” Weiss said. “I wanted to get out there and play in front of these fans. They’re awesome. I just wasn’t myself early on in the season because I wasn’t healthy. I couldn’t skate.”

Weiss went for another MRI and had another surgery in April. The doctor wanted Weiss to have hip surgery, too. Weiss declined because he didn’t want to miss more time. “He thought part of the reason I was having all my groin troubles was because I have a hip issue as well,” Weiss said. “With the two of them being done at the same time, I would have been out about six months, so I decided not to do that.”

The Wings were frustrated. They had no idea what to expect from Weiss, and coach Mike Babcock was not going to hand him a spot in the lineup. Weiss played one game in October – and suffered another setback. He went to the minors on a conditioning assignment – and suffered another setback. He didn’t make it through one game. He felt soreness in his groin at the end of the first period and felt it worsen during the second period.

“I really wasn’t going to say anything,” Weiss said. “I figured, ‘Well, if I don’t say anything and I come back here with a bad groin again, that’s not going to get me anywhere.’ ”

He ended up taking two more weeks off.

“That was one of the worst [moments], no doubt about it,” Weiss said. “I was pretty down for a few days. But what are you going to do at that point? I’d been through it so much. You just keep going.”

Weiss went back to the minors on another conditioning assignment. But this time he made it through two games and scored two goals. Babcock put him in the lineup Monday night against the Senators on the wing. Weiss had played the wing once last season and only once before that, for a period or two with Joe Nieuwendyk once upon a time with the Panthers. Babcock again made the point he wasn’t going to give Weiss anything.

“You know what?” Weiss said. “That’s what you want, honestly, as a player. You don’t want to be given anything. You want to earn it. It feels better when you get a chance to play and if you do well. He’s tough. We have a lot of depth on this team. It’s hard to get in the lineup.”

Weiss scored twice in a 4-3 victory over the Senators, doubling his goal total as a Wing in one night. Then came a goal and an assist against the Flyers. In three games, he has exceeded his goal total and matched his point total from last season. Filppula has four goals and 19 points in 23 games for the Lightning.

The challenge for Weiss is obviously to stay healthy and productive. If he regains his rhythm and form, it’s going to take weeks. You wonder not just about the groin but about the hip. But at least this is a start. At least, as Babcock said, Weiss can breathe.

“All athletes [in this kind of situation], you question whether you’re going to get it going or not,” Babcock said. “He’s been a good player in this league, so why wouldn’t he be? I think he can be a real good player if he just keeps battling, keeps working, and that’s what he’s done.”

THIRD PERIOD: Notes from around the NHL

— The Edmonton Oilers have finished 30th, 30th, 29th, 24th and 28th in the 30-team NHL the past five seasons. Entering Thursday night, they were 29th this season – with a 6-14-2 record identical to the last-place Buffalo Sabres, above the basement only because of a tiebreaker. Yet Bob Nicholson, vice chair of the Oilers Entertainment Group, told Sportsnet: “We can’t go out and make huge changes. We have to take it step by step.”

— Nicholson is right, but only if they do it right. Firing coach Dallas Eakins would be a bandaid at this point, even if justified. Making a dumb, desperate trade would only compound their problems. Face it: They aren’t going to make the playoffs once again this season. So they might as well take their time and review everything, starting at the top. Owner Daryl Katz can’t be afraid to fire two of his childhood heroes: team president Kevin Lowe and general manager Craig MacTavish.

— The Oilers must hire replacements who can analyze this team and make bold moves, not just promise them. They have talent because of all those high draft picks, and more might be coming this spring. But they must decide what to keep and what to trade based on a long-term vision. “We can’t start to just tear everything down,” Nicholson told Sportsnet. “We have to get a solid plan as we go forward here of how we can get this team to win a Stanley Cup. We’re a long ways from that where our record is today. We all realize that. We just can’t panic here and make major changes unless they’re going to help us in the future.”

— The Pittsburgh Penguins are off to the best start in the NHL with a .762 points percentage, and a big reason is … the best starts in the NHL. New coach Mike Johnston wants 10 shots by the 10-minute mark of the first period. The Penguins have scored first in 17 of their 21 games, and they have gone 12-3-2 in those 17. (They’re 3-1-0 when their opponent scores first, too.)

— Past moves haunt the Flyers, and they go beyond the departures of Sergei Bobrovsky, Jeff Carter and Mike Richards. Here are three examples: Two are on former general manager Paul Holmgren: Luke Schenn, acquired for James van Reimsdyk, has been a healthy scratch. Vincent Lecavalier, in the second year of a five-year, $22.5 million deal, has two goals and six points in 14 games. One is on new GM Ron Hextall: R.J. Umberger, acquired with a fourth-round pick for Scott Hartnell, has one goal and three points in 21 games. The Flyers received cap savings in that trade. Still …

— This can’t be true. Pavel Datsyuk, the ‘Magic Man,’ has never had a hat trick in the regular season? His only NHL hat trick came in the playoffs six-and-a-half years ago? It’s true. He has had two goals in a game, four assists in a game, five points in a game. But Datsyuk has never had three goals in a game in the regular season. His lone hat trick came in the playoffs on May 12, 2008.

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