2022-2023 Blues Multi-Purpose Thread

[oPlaiD]

I'm not convinced that the goaltending is in need of 'fixing.' My eyes tell me that Binner has been better than his numbers suggest by a healthy margin. He hasn't played like you want/need a $6M goalie to play like, but I wouldn't describe him as bad. I've hated both contracts we've given him since the Cup win and will continnue to do so. I also don't like a lot of antics when he's getting blown up on the scoreboard. But I haven't disliked his play most of the year. We've seen him elevate his game for decent stretches multiple times in the last 12 months and I'm confident that the ability is still there.

Lateral movement has always been one of his weaknesses and our current defensive woes have greatly increased the number of times he's having to try to make lateral saves. He's at his best as a 'get square and make the first save' goaltender who can play on top of his crease and attack the puck carrier. Our D hasn't allowed him to play that game and has let him get burned on the back door when he tries. Allowing him to play that style should help.

I think there is a reasonable argument that he can be good enough over the course of a full season next year if we can return to taking away the back door and manage his workload better. Hofer appears capable of providing more quality starts than Greiss did, so I'm not convince that there is anything that needs to be 'done' to fix the goaltending. We're not buying him out, he's not getting traded, and Hofer will be the backup next year. This is the tandem we are running and I think it is reasonable to believe they are capable of being good enough if the D gets fixed. It could absolutely go the other way too. No one should be betting a large sum of money on our team SV% next year.

The D is in clear need of fixing, but I'm still not sure whether the structure or composition is the greater issue. I think both of them are issues that should be addressed, but I'm not confident which is the larger cause of the struggles. I think we should be actively shopping to swap one of Krug/Leddy out with a legit shut down or all situations top 4 D man (preferably Krug, but it might have to be Leddy out of necessity). I also think that we should bring in a new D coach and completely change the system.

At the very least there are definitely structural issues with the defense.

Allthreezones still has us as basically the worst team in the league at preventing zone entries, and that's completely at odds with last year's average number with the same defensive personnel.

Our team is good at transitioning the puck through the neutral zone and at creating a scoring chance off possession in the offensive zone, but we are not good without the puck in the defensive zone. And we're not playing in a way that minimizes time spent in our defensive zone. I think that exacerbates a lot of the obvious issues we see night in and night out where if we were more aggressive in certain spots sure we'd still be allowing a lot of cross ice passes and bad chances and whatnot, but every time you stop a zone entry you're preventing 2-3 of those chances before we manage to clear the puck again.

There is still compositional issues, and I think it's becoming more apparent after the changes we made during the season.

Vrana and Kapenen in with Tarasenko, Barbashev, and O'Reilly out doubles down even more on the Kyrou and Thomas style of creating chances off the rush while our defense is not a fit for that style of play. Parayko and Leddy are more suited to carrying the puck out of the zone over passing it out, but passing is what you want to support forwards who have speed and skill on the rush. Faulk isn't bad at that but isn't great at it. So I think there's a clear disconnect between the optimal play styles of our forward corps and our defensive corps even if we address structural issues.

Replacing the coaches is a lot easier to do than replacing the players though, so... hopefully we can at least take that step first.

 

[Xerloris]

You're more optimistic about Schenn than I am. 32. Physical player. I'd be very pleasantly surprised if we don't see a dramatic decline in his play over the next year or 2.

I think Schenn is a lot more talented and a much better skater than a lot of players used to justify the old belief that ophysical players drop off a cliff at 30+. I think he will decline but I believe it will be more gradual.

 

[ezcreepin]

Just a random thought that I think would be fun:

How many more years do we think Perron can play for? I think it's pretty obvious he's become a much better all around player and even better offensively than he has been at any other point in his career. He's scoring at a decent clip on a pretty young, still developing team, but it's in line with his points per season since he's turned 28. Right now, he sits at 719 points in 1051 games. Pretty remarkable considering his career and where he was drafted.

I'm super eager to see if he can eclipse 1000 points. I did the math last night and he would need to average roughly 56 points for 5 more seasons (misses about 9 games per season, though he's been healthy like 2-3 of his past 6 seasons) to score the 281 points needed to reach 1000. For context, his last 6 years with the Knights, Blues, and now Wings he's scored 341 points or ~56 points per season. Now I know this is a longshot, but I think it would be awesome for him and the Blues as a whole if he came back in his final year or 2 and completed this task. Ends his career as a 1000 point player, is tied for 35th all time in games played, and retires a Blue. One can dream right?

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

I think Schenn is a lot more talented and a much better skater than a lot of players used to justify the old belief that ophysical players drop off a cliff at 30+. I think he will decline but I believe it will be more gradual.

Agreed. Iginla was effective at advanced age.

 

[BlueDream]

You're more optimistic about Schenn than I am. 32. Physical player. I'd be very pleasantly surprised if we don't see a dramatic decline in his play over the next year or 2.

He just had a 65 point season. He should still be good next season. And if he can be good for another year after that before the decline, that’s okay with me.

 

[execwrite1]

Appreciate the loyalty to Binnington - he is an all-time Blues great for winning the Cup.

But his track record now proves he is not a true #1 goalie - a one-year wonder for sure. Good in stretches but not consistent.

Not the warrior he seemed - just a head case unfortunately. Good for him - he got his money.

Hofer is the best hope next season.

LINES - (I'm still pushing the kids)

Bolduc-Thomas-Buchnevich
Vrana-Schenn-Kyrou
Neighbours-Dean-Toropchenko
Blais-Alexandrov-Kapanen

Walker-Pitlick

The defense? Pray

 

[PocketNines]

For some dumb reason I checked in on what Jeff Gordon had to say about Tarasenko and this sentence was in it and it is unbelievably stupid and I know there are people who for some illogical reason agree with it:

Had Petro remained on the blue line for the entirety of his career, he would have earned the same enduring stature that Hockey Hall of Famers Al MacInnis and Chris Pronger enjoy.​

Pietrangelo played 10 full years for the Blues and led them to by far their greatest regular season stretch in franchise history and captained the only Cup team, but according to Gordon, only if he had remained could he have matched each of Pronger's or MacInnis' 9 full Cupless Blues seasons on loaded teams. MacInnis and Pronger made it to a combined 1 conference final which they lost in 5 games.

I don't know who needs to hear this besides apparently a 60 something year old decades long professional Blues writer but "almost winning" and "winning" are NOT approximately equal. Hello.

 

[HighNote]

The range of spots we can mathematically fall into by the end of the season is 21st to 25th (12th worst to 8th worst). It would be awesome if we lost both games against DAL in regulation and all of DET, VAN, and WSH passed us (they all have a game in hand). 8th worst would give us roughly a 1 in 8 chance of picking 1st or 2nd OA as opposed to our current odds of roughly 1 in 14.

 

[Brockon]

The range of spots we can mathematically fall into by the end of the season is 21st to 25th (12th worst to 8th worst). It would be awesome if we lost both games against DAL in regulation and all of DET, VAN, and WSH passed us (they all have a game in hand). 8th worst would give us roughly a 1 in 8 chance of picking 1st or 2nd OA as opposed to our current odds of roughly 1 in 14.

With those teams games remaining...
VAN @LAK, @Ana, @ARZ
WSH vs NYI, @BOS, vs NJD
DET vs DAL, @car, @TBL

Vancouver has a decent shot at winning against both Anaheim and Arizona.

I don't think it's likely either of Washington or Detroit win any of their remaining 3 games (or fetch more than 1 loser point).

Assuming that we lose both of our remaining games in regulation...

Washington would pass us in the standings if they won 2/3 games in regulation. Otherwise, we hold the tiebreakers and finish ahead of them in the standings.

Detroit owns the first tie breaker, and needs 1 point of the available 6 to pass us in the standings.

Vancouver needs 3 points to pass us, because we hold the RW advantage 27 to their 23.

Vancouver has a reasonable chance to get 3 points with their schedule. Detroit might be able to pick up the 1 point we need them to gain. Washington isn't going to pass us. And that's assuming we manage to lose both games to Dallas in regulation, which I feel our boys are unlikely to do, because the Blues just don't get nice things in general.

Most likely scenario is that we hold our current 6.3% odds to move up to one of 1/2. Maybe we squeak up to 7.3% odds if one of VAN/DET pass us. I'd love to see us hit the 10.4% chance if both VAN & DET pass us, but it's highly unlikely.

EDIT: removed the unintended user tags... Apologies for anyone who ends up here wondering why some random is tagging you on their team board...

 

[execwrite1]

Appreciate the loyalty to Binnington - he is an all-time Blues great for winning the Cup.

But his track record now proves he is not a true #1 goalie - a one-year wonder for sure. Good in stretches but not consistent.

Not the warrior he seemed - just a head case unfortunately. Good for him - he got his money.

Hofer is the best hope next season.

LINES - (I'm still pushing the kids)

Bolduc-Thomas-Buchnevich
Vrana-Schenn-Kyrou
Neighbours-Dean-Toropchenko
Blais-Alexandrov-Kapanen

Walker-Pitlick

The defense? Pray

I forgot Saad. He has to be in there too.

 

[HighNote]

With those teams games remaining...
VAN @LAK, @Ana, @ARZ
WSH vs NYI, @BOS, vs NJD
DET vs DAL, @car, @TBL

Vancouver has a decent shot at winning against both Anaheim and Arizona.

I don't think it's likely either of Washington or Detroit win any of their remaining 3 games (or fetch more than 1 loser point).

Assuming that we lose both of our remaining games in regulation...

Washington would pass us in the standings if they won 2/3 games in regulation. Otherwise, we hold the tiebreakers and finish ahead of them in the standings.

Detroit owns the first tie breaker, and needs 1 point of the available 6 to pass us in the standings.

Vancouver needs 3 points to pass us, because we hold the RW advantage 27 to their 23.

Vancouver has a reasonable chance to get 3 points with their schedule. Detroit might be able to pick up the 1 point we need them to gain. Washington isn't going to pass us. And that's assuming we manage to lose both games to Dallas in regulation, which I feel our boys are unlikely to do, because the Blues just don't get nice things in general.

Most likely scenario is that we hold our current 6.3% odds to move up to one of 1/2. Maybe we squeak up to 7.3% odds if one of VAN/DET pass us. I'd love to see us hit the 10.4% chance if both VAN & DET pass us, but it's highly unlikely.

EDIT: removed the unintended user tags... Apologies for anyone who ends up here wondering why some random is tagging you on their team board...

Well, DAL is going to be on their A-game. 1st in the central is within reach for them, and you know they'd MUCH rather play a team like WPG, CGY, or NSH instead of MIN or COL in round 1.

I think DET is most likely to pass us, and I wouldn't be surprised if VAN did either. It will be tough for WSH to pass us, but you never know. BOS might rest key players as they have nothing to play for anymore, and it's possible the NJD have already clinched their playoff position by the last game of the season and they do the same. The game against NYI might be their toughest, because they're desperately trying to hold onto their playoff spot.

Of course, I'm not expecting everything to go right, but you never know. Having 1 of DET or VAN pass us would be acceptable. Passing OTT for 12th worst would be a disaster. You just know the 11th worst team wins the draft lottery in that scenario.

 

[PocketNines]

The Blues have two must lose games in regulation and then everyone possible around us has to get to .500 (82 points) or better.

Ottawa is at 83 points and will own the tiebreaker. AUTOMATIC in this scenario.​

​

Vancouver has to stay .500 or better in their final 3 and has games at Anaheim and Arizona after visiting LA tomorrow. DOABLE.​

​

Detroit has to get a single point in this scenario because they own the RW tiebreaker by a game. Tough schedule but one point is DOABLE.​

​

Washington has to get 5-6 points out of 6 in this scenario which is difficult considering their schedule. LONGSHOT.​

Lose two games in regulation and they probably pick 9th. Win one of these games and I guess the silver lining is potentially helping our later pick if Colorado doesn't handle business on their own. But I would rather move up one slot up high in the round than one down low in the round so we gotta lose these.

 

[PocketNines]

The magic number to guarantee the Blues at least a shot at Bedard is 2 points with Ottawa. Ottawa plays Carolina today and Buffalo on Thursday.

 

[PocketNines]

Chance at Bedard: clinched

 

[Hrkac Circus]

Chance at Bedard: clinched

It’s destiny.

 

[Bobby Orrtuzzo]

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Finally get to see McGing!

There's your boy, @Stupendous Yappi !

I'm actually excited to watch him play. But someone here posted that call-ups weren't allowed after the TDL. me no no

 

[bleedblue1223]

Finally get to see McGing!

There's your boy, @Stupendous Yappi !

I'm actually excited to watch him play. But someone here posted that call-ups weren't allowed after the TDL. me no no

You get 4 non-emergency recalls after the TDL.

And another not, our season ends before Springfield's next game, so all these guys won't even miss a game down there.

 

[BlueOil]

 

[CaliforniaBlues310]

Thank god we won’t have to hear his ridiculous questions anymore

 

[STL fan in MN]

Makes sense now why the Post Dispatch hired an additional beat writer mid-season.

I wasn’t a fan of JT’s hockey work but he was put in a tough spot. He’s basically the sportswriter version of Lazlo Holmes.

 

[STL fan in MN]

Hofer starts tonight. Conflicted as I want him to do well but also want Dallas to win. So…hopefully he battles hard but Oettinger is also great and Dallas wins a close one. In regulation.

McGing makes his NHL debut and Krug plays in Game 700.
Projected Lineup: April 12 vs. Dallas

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Hofer starts tonight. Conflicted as I want him to do well but also want Dallas to win. So…hopefully he battles hard but Oettinger is also great and Dallas wins a close one. In regulation.

McGing makes his NHL debut and Krug plays in Game 700.
Projected Lineup: April 12 vs. Dallas

Oettinger isn’t playing, fwiw.

 

[STL fan in MN]

Oettinger isn’t playing, fwiw.

Ok. Well then I hope Scott Wedgewood has a good afternoon nap and is solid in goal tonight.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Thank god we won’t have to hear his ridiculous questions anymore

One of the worst sportswriters I've ever experienced.

If it's not frat boy circle jerk worthy, then Jim Thomas can't properly cover it.