2021 Blues Regular Season multi-purpose thread

[MissouriMook]

I think it's fairly obvious that Chief needs to take Perron off the line with Schenn and Kyrou. Perron and Schenn just has not been a successful combination overall. Here are Perron's numbers with our top 3 centers since 19-20:

	TOI	CF%	xGF%	GF%
w/ROR	1471	52.8	49.01	56.9
w/Schenn	379	46.3	45	43.5
w/Thomas	166	54.2	47.6	53.3

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Right now Thomas is playing well with Tarasenko and Barbashev and I assume Chief just doesn't want to demote Perron down to Bozak's line. He'll be back with ROR soon, but I hope Chief knows about their lack of chemistry and avoids putting them together when possible.

Buchnevich was the third player on that line at the beginning of the season so he would be an obvious candidate, but I wouldn't mind seeing Saad there either. I wish I could find them, but I remember seeing Saad pretty high on the charts for scoring chances generated off the rush last year. Kyrou was near the top of these metrics with McDavid, and since I think a lot of the other aspects of his game are still a work in progress, why not just go all out building a line around Kyrou's biggest strength?

Assuming ROR is ready to go Sunday when he is eligible to be removed from the COVID-IR list, I expect we will see Saad-ROR-Perron, Kyrou-Schenn-Buch and Barby-Thomas-Tarasenko as the Top 9. Once Sunny comes back (expected to be Tuesday in WPG) it will be interesting to see how the 4th line shakes out. Do they drop Barby down to pair with Sunny again since that has worked so well in the past or do they keep that 3rd line together while it is clicking and utilize the remaining forwards on the roster for Sunny's wings on the 4th line? I'm guessing they'll want to ease Sunny back in, but a Neighbours-Sunny -Kostin 4th line might be interesting.

 

[Renard]

I know I keep bringing up podcast related stuff, but if anyone is interested in hearing the full version of the Erik Johnson golf cart injury story it was discussed at length on the most recent Cam and Strick podcast. Cam Janssen was in the foursome with EJ along with Dan Hinote and Jay McKee (who was the guest on today's episode). If interested, Cam tells his version of the story at around the 1 hour, 7 minute mark and McKee tells his side of the story at 2 hours, 30 minutes. I don't think I had ever heard the full story before, so thought someone else might be curious to hear it.

Listen Now — Cam and Strick Podcast

I listened. I expected a wilder explanation since Jansen said he had never publicly talked about it before.

The Blues ought to reconsider team outings.
Gassoff, Johnson, Wickenheiser!

 

[MissouriMook]

Krug on the COVID list. Rosen recalled and Joshua returned to Springfield.

Schenn returning to STL for further evaluation.

At least we get an extra hour of sleep tomorrow night.

 

[Reagans Blues]

Krug on the COVID list. Rosen recalled and Joshua returned to Springfield.

Schenn returning to STL for further evaluation.

At least we get an extra hour of sleep tomorrow night.

Damn, feels like we're never going to see this full team on the ice

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Krug on the COVID list. Rosen recalled and Joshua returned to Springfield.

Schenn returning to STL for further evaluation.

At least we get an extra hour of sleep tomorrow night.

It’s ironic that guys end up on covid list right after playing their best. Husso after his shutout, Krug after back to back great games, even Clifford looked good in his game right before.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

I had a weird dream last night in which Tarasenko was traded. During his first game against the Blues, none of the Blues players smiled at Vladi. But then Neighbours finally smiled at Tarasenko, which made the rest of the Blues give Jake a severe razzing.

Tank did not receive a warm welcome upon his return to St. Louis.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Sounds like Schenn could be out awhile. No update until club returns from trip.

 

[Reality Czech]

Assuming ROR is ready to go Sunday when he is eligible to be removed from the COVID-IR list, I expect we will see Saad-ROR-Perron, Kyrou-Schenn-Buch and Barby-Thomas-Tarasenko as the Top 9. Once Sunny comes back (expected to be Tuesday in WPG) it will be interesting to see how the 4th line shakes out. Do they drop Barby down to pair with Sunny again since that has worked so well in the past or do they keep that 3rd line together while it is clicking and utilize the remaining forwards on the roster for Sunny's wings on the 4th line? I'm guessing they'll want to ease Sunny back in, but a Neighbours-Sunny -Kostin 4th line might be interesting.

Seems like you forgot Bozak, but now he'll be filling in for Schenn going forward. Bozie has looked great this season. I'd expect the 4th line to be Sunny and two of Neal, Kostin or Neighbors. Can't break up that Thomas line and Barbie is playing the best hockey of his career right now. Crazy depth up front.

Sucks about Krug, he's been playing so well. Guess Mikkola and Walman will get some more ice time. I thought both of them were solid last night.

 

[execwrite1]

Testing the depth early on - that's okay, Blues will persevere.

 

[execwrite1]

Know Your Blues history -

Name the top five in games played.

Answer - regular season

1) Federko 927
2) Jackman 803
3) Brian Sutter 779
4) Steen 765
5) Pietrangelo 758

If Ryan O'Reilly plays five full years he could just catch Bob Plager for tenth place at 616.

 

[Stealth JD]

this doesn't sound good:
Blues' Brayden Schenn returns to St. Louis for upper-body injury evaluation

 

[BlueDream]

Well I wanted Schenn to miss the next two games anyways. Not because I want him out of the lineup, but Berube confirmed it’s related to his injury against Chicago so it seems like he may have been rushed back. He needs to rest and get healthy because at least we are getting ROR back. And Anaheim isn’t that good so that’s still a very winnable game.

Saad-ROR-Perron
Kyrou-Thomas-Tarasenko
Kostin-Barbashev-Buchnevich
Neighbours-Bozak-Neal

Scandella-Faulk
Mikkola-Parayko
Walman-Bortuzzo

That’s what I’d roll with the next 2 games. Then hopefully get some guys back after that.

 

[Zezel’s Pretzels]

Seems like you forgot Bozak, but now he'll be filling in for Schenn going forward. Bozie has looked great this season. I'd expect the 4th line to be Sunny and two of Neal, Kostin or Neighbors. Can't break up that Thomas line and Barbie is playing the best hockey of his career right now. Crazy depth up front.

Sucks about Krug, he's been playing so well. Guess Mikkola and Walman will get some more ice time. I thought both of them were solid last night.

Bozo has been a treat to cheer for in the Note. Love that guy.

 

[Zezel’s Pretzels]

It’s ironic that guys end up on covid list right after playing their best. Husso after his shutout, Krug after back to back great games, even Clifford looked good in his game right before.

10,000 spoons, man.

 

[Louie the Blue]

 

[CoMoBlues]

I like to piss on JR just as much as the next guy, but this is some good info. At face value, I had too many questions about the Rosen recall to be able to rationalize it.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

I like to piss on JR just as much as the next guy, but this is some good info. At face value, I had too many questions about the Rosen recall to be able to rationalize it.

Army apparently said it in media call. Other reporters had it too.

 

[Louie the Blue]

This is not good.

 

[Vladys Gumption]

So we now have only 20 healthy players and can’t call anybody else because we don’t have cap room.

I’m sorry but this is ridiculous. There should be some emergency clause in the covid rules that allows you to call people up to avoid being short.

 

[Louie the Blue]

So we now have only 20 healthy players and can’t call anybody else because we don’t have cap room.

I’m sorry but this is ridiculous. There should be some emergency clause in the covid rules that allows you to call people up to avoid being short.

The defensive combinations for next week + are going to be interesting.

Scandella-Parayko
Walman-Faulk
Rosen-Bortuzzo

That seems horrendous.

 

[Reagans Blues]

Jesus why are we testing fully vaccinated players? This is ridiculous. There's no way in hell all these players were showing symptoms.

 

[ItsOnlytheRiver]

In a weird way this makes me a little more confident Schenn isn’t too hurt even though the news of him going to STL for further evaluations had me feeling it was bad. Almost feel like if they weren’t sure they may just ltir him for the extra help.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

I don't see it as particularly negative to have a handful of guys out with Covid and have to play some young guys in bigger roles. They'll win or lose, but its good for the overall growth of the team for guys to have to step into bigger roles temporarily. I agree with the earlier post that the lack of Cap relief for players out with Covid is pretty ridiculous. We've already seen several teams have a similar bind. Oh well, I guess that's just the way this season is going to be.

 

[Fez Whatley]

It's still pretty early, but this team has been an absolute blast to watch. They had some rough times, but have always been battling. The pk that looked rough in the beginning is at like a 90%. And the pp has been far more exciting than it has in the past. I'm in love with the offensive weapons DA has put together this year. There have only been 2 disappoining thingsso far: kostin, but I am hoping that he can adjust / find a role (especially with the injuries and covid stuff) and the covid stuff. As discussed above, I don't mind some of the established players missing due to covid, but losing husso and mikkola to it stinks as they are missing a good opportunity with others out. And that crap about cap when they have what like 5 people out with covid so no scotty too hottie either.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Brian39 explained to use why the PK was a vulnerability and looked bad in the first couple games (more the 5 on 6 defense maybe), but here we are and they're statistically 2nd in the league at 90.6%. They've certainly faced at least a couple inept PPs, but it feels like they've also faced a LOT of PPs lately. I guess they're not terrible?

(BTW, the PP is also 2nd in the league at 32%. I felt pretty good about that until I realized that Edmonton is 1st place at 50%!)