2019-2020 St. Louis Blues - Defending the Cup - Part 3: The Prelude to Playoff Positioning

[TK 421]

This thread is about the Blues defending their title of Stanley Cup Champion.

Thanks a lot dude who never posts here derailing the thread. Maybe go find an NFL history board to talk about the Rams shortcomings.

 

[Mike Liut]

Not at all. You're discounting the efforts of those that were able to assemble and coach up such a team. It'd be like saying the Blues lucked into the Cup last year. Sure, we were extremely fortunate to have a guy like Binnington, who the Blues front office didn't even realize was as good as he is, come up and take the league by storm. But there was way more to it than luck, obviously. It was no different for the GSOT.

The Blues are good every year. The Rams were terribly every year except for 3. They had all that talent, and 3 years later, were terrible again.


Edit: sorry to detail this thread. I won’t post anything else about the Rams. Carry on

 

[SwivelSchwartz]

They just completely lucked out with Warner and the Faulk trade. Everything fell into place. And it took a complete failure of a bunch of morons to have that amount of talent only have a 3 year run.

Couldn’t the exact same thing be said about Binnington and RoR trade?

 

[Mike Liut]

It would be equivalent to the Blues being a lottery team prior to ROR and Binny, and returning to a lottery team in 2 years.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Couldn’t the exact same thing be said about Binnington and RoR trade?

Those are surprisingly analogous.

 

[Ridge1982]

This thread is about the Blues defending their title of Stanley Cup Champion.

Thanks a lot dude who never posts here derailing the thread. Maybe go find an NFL history board to talk about the Rams shortcomings.

Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
This no one in the west can beat us talk is eerily similar to those days.

 

[Bluesnatic27]

Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
This no one in the west can beat us talk is eerily similar to those days.

Well it's not like being completely pessimistic is going to change anything.

 

[Blues0307]

I still have my doubts about Kyrou being able to stick in the top 6 moving forward. His speed is exceptional, but he still has a below avg shot, gets out-muscled for the puck, and looks like a linear athlete. I thought he showed more intensity last night when he was demoted to the 4th line, so maybe he has a chance of sticking there for a bit, but I doubt that can be a long-term solution for him. I don't see him beating out any of our top 9 anytime soon though.

 

[Renard]

First, it was Mikkola, now Walman. Why these call-up on left defense?

We haven't seen Gunnarsson for a while. Maybe his "nearly always injured" status is a depth problem.

 

[Blues0307]

First, it was Mikkola, now Walman. Why these call-up on left defense?

We haven't seen Gunnarsson for a while. Maybe his "nearly always injured" status is a depth problem.

They probably want to give the young guys a chance to be around the team and give them that experience to grow from.

 

[bleedblue1223]

First, it was Mikkola, now Walman. Why these call-up on left defense?

We haven't seen Gunnarsson for a while. Maybe his "nearly always injured" status is a depth problem.

You don't want to risk one of the regulars getting a freak injury or bad flu without some insurance.

 

[MissouriMook]

You don't want to risk one of the regulars getting a freak injury or bad flu without some insurance.

Or getting hurt in warmups for that matter.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

First, it was Mikkola, now Walman. Why these call-up on left defense?

We haven't seen Gunnarsson for a while. Maybe his "nearly always injured" status is a depth problem.

I prefer to see the young guys take in a few practices, if that’s all the call up ends up being. Pouliot looked good in the Rampage game I watched last night (so did Mikkola). But none of those guys is outplaying Bortuzzo at the moment. And I don’t believe Gunnarsson was expected to be out long term.

 

[Renard]

Maybe the Blues wanted to see Mikkola and Walman back-to-back in practice to see whose closer to being NHL ready.

By the way, Walman's stats have improved dramatically over last year's. He finished up last year a minus 31. This season, he's a plus 1 so far. He's exceeded last year's point totals too, after only have the season gone.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

I still have my doubts about Kyrou being able to stick in the top 6 moving forward. His speed is exceptional, but he still has a below avg shot, gets out-muscled for the puck, and looks like a linear athlete. I thought he showed more intensity last night when he was demoted to the 4th line, so maybe he has a chance of sticking there for a bit, but I doubt that can be a long-term solution for him. I don't see him beating out any of our top 9 anytime soon though.

He is clearly not one of our top 9 forwards at this point. His skating though is exceptional and he flashes some skill. Realistically I don't see him more than as a bit player/fill in this year. When (if) we are fully healthy he should likely be in SA. But the experience he is getting is valuable and I think there is reasonable chance he can become contributor in future years.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Maybe the Blues wanted to see Mikkola and Walman back-to-back in practice to see whose closer to being NHL ready.

By the way, Walman's stats have improved dramatically over last year's. He finished up last year a minus 31. This season, he's a plus 1 so far. He's exceeded last year's point totals too, after only have the season gone.

I thought I heard he was first or second in the AHL for shots on goal for defenders in the broadcast last night. This was the San Antonio broadcast discussing adjusting for not having him in the lineup.

 

[Dbrownss]

I still have my doubts about Kyrou being able to stick in the top 6 moving forward. His speed is exceptional, but he still has a below avg shot, gets out-muscled for the puck, and looks like a linear athlete. I thought he showed more intensity last night when he was demoted to the 4th line, so maybe he has a chance of sticking there for a bit, but I doubt that can be a long-term solution for him. I don't see him beating out any of our top 9 anytime soon though.

So he's Robert Thomas from last year?


Kyrou has shown a huge improvement from last year. He's must better in puck battles, and his positioning has been very good. The only issue I see is he still defers too much when on the 1st line

 

[MissouriMook]

He is clearly not one of our top 9 forwards at this point. His skating though is exceptional and he flashes some skill. Realistically I don't see him more than as a bit player/fill in this year. When (if) we are fully healthy he should likely be in SA. But the experience he is getting is valuable and I think there is reasonable chance he can become contributor in future years.

It's not showing up in Kyrou's counting stats, but I don't think it is coincidence that Schenn and Schwartz have enjoyed a statistical resurgence since he was added to their RW. His speed draws defenders away from his linemates, especially given his willingness to get in deep and battle for pucks. He may not be winning a lot of battles and it wouldn't be too hard to argue that he's been less effective defensively than we normally expect from a forward, but I think he absolutely has a net positive impact on the game. The only way he is going to learn to finish and do more of the little things at the NHL level is to play in the NHL. I don't think there is anything left for him to learn at the AHL level.

Edit: to your last point, I think he absolutely has a spot when we are fully healthy, unless we trade for a Top 6 player before the TDL. With the current roster, when healthy, I think we should run forward lines as:

17-10-91
57-90-33
9-18-21
20-49-70

28, 61 and 36 are the extras, with 36 being the most likely to be waived to get roster compliant.

 

[BrokenFace]

You mean the Rams team that went to two Super Bowls in 3 years including winning one of them? They obviously weren’t a dynasty but it’s not like them winning in ‘99 was some crazy fluke. They were right back in the Super Bowl two years later and lost on a last second field goal to a team that cheated.

There was good reason to believe The Greatest Show on Turf was going to produce multiple Super Bowl wins.

The Rams never lost to the Patriots in the Superbowl. Watch that kick; there's still time on the clock. Until I get my kickoff I'm not recognizing that Superbowl, especially since the NFL doesn't recognize their own relocation rules.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

It's not showing up in Kyrou's counting stats, but I don't think it is coincidence that Schenn and Schwartz have enjoyed a statistical resurgence since he was added to their RW. His speed draws defenders away from his linemates, especially given his willingness to get in deep and battle for pucks. He may not be winning a lot of battles and it wouldn't be too hard to argue that he's been less effective defensively than we normally expect from a forward, but I think he absolutely has a net positive impact on the game. The only way he is going to learn to finish and do more of the little things at the NHL level is to play in the NHL. I don't think there is anything left for him to learn at the AHL level.

Edit: to your last point, I think he absolutely has a spot when we are fully healthy, unless we trade for a Top 6 player before the TDL. With the current roster, when healthy, I think we should run forward lines as:

17-10-91
57-90-33
9-18-21
20-49-70

28, 61 and 36 are the extras, with 36 being the most likely to be waived to get roster compliant.

He got a lot of quality shifts with Schwartz and Schenn. I see nothing wrong with him getting minutes like he is, limited somewhat but including shifts with skilled linemates for the time being. He’ll continue to learn as we go. And when the team is protecting a 1 goal lead late, he’ll probably see the bench a lot. But when they’re down a goal, he’ll be in the mix.

 

[Ranksu]

Watta f is this ram talk? Some swimming club?

 

[tfriede2]

The Rams never lost to the Patriots in the Superbowl. Watch that kick; there's still time on the clock. Until I get my kickoff I'm not recognizing that Superbowl, especially since the NFL doesn't recognize their own relocation rules.

I remember thinking the exact same thing when they kicked that field goal.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Maybe the Blues wanted to see Mikkola and Walman back-to-back in practice to see whose closer to being NHL ready.

By the way, Walman's stats have improved dramatically over last year's. He finished up last year a minus 31. This season, he's a plus 1 so far. He's exceeded last year's point totals too, after only have the season gone.

Yeah. I could see them doing some internal scouting for next season. Pouliot failed in his audition. Or possibly looking to see if we need to make a Del Zotto type move or not.

Also nice for them to get a NHL paycheck or 2.

 

[Renard]

During the Winnipeg game the other night, Kelly said the Blues' power play was scoring 24% of the time.

Gus Kyle used to say that if your power play efficiency is at 25%, it's excellent. So we are doing pretty well.

I 'm surprised that Dunn isn't seeing much power play ice time. He is our most elusive defenseman, speedy and has a good shot. His shot gets blocked too much, and maybe they are reluctant to use him. But I am surprised we are doing so well without Dunn being a part of the success.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]