Bobby Orrtuzzo
Ya know
There was this part that was interesting from the article:
Armstrong said “there are some up-and-comers that have caught our interest” and that “we are not excluding anyone based on age criteria.”
2022-2023 Blues Multi-Purpose Thread
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Armstrong said “there are some up-and-comers that have caught our interest” and that “we are not excluding anyone based on age criteria.”
They need to eliminate some f***ing grandpa's unless their name is Robinson.
not 100% sure, but i assume that he was berube's choice but army signed off. but it definitely sounds like what they were looking for last year (nice guy who has been around) isn't what they are looking for now (someone who understands modern hockey). hopefully this year's hire will work out better.
Drew Bannister seems like a no brainer to me, he's had success with young Thunderbird teams and is familiar with our players.
He was extended last year but I don't know for how long.
He was extended last year but I don't know for how long.
Agree. Whether he gets job will tell us lot about how organization views him.
What would you want Bannister to be handling if he's brought in as an assistant?
STL fan in MN
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Agree. I don’t have much insight or opinion on Bannister but he seems fine to me. Don’t see anything amazing but I’d think he’s a candidate. If he doesn’t get the job after that much time in the org, my bet is he’d look to leave as soon as his contract is over and try his hand elsewhere as if he’s not moved up now, then clearly the Blues don’t see that potential in him.
I also wonder about Daniel Tkaczuk. He’s been Bannisters right-hand man for years. Was also a Blues assistant for 1 year (more if a skills coach) and then right back to the AHL the following season.
We need someone to handle d. He was a d…
I saw someone on reddit state that they have a personal friend with connections to the Blues and said that we plan to hire Mike Weber as an assistant. So if this turned out to be true, what do you all think?
This is copy/paste from reddit:
Mike Weber, 35 years old, is a retired defensemen for the Buffalo Sabres and Washington Capitals. Following his retirement from professional hockey joined the Windsor Spitfires, his former OHL team, as an assistant coach in January 2018. On September 17, 2020, Weber was hired as an assistant coach by his former team, the Rochester Americans, of the American Hockey League.
This is copy/paste from reddit:
Mike Weber, 35 years old, is a retired defensemen for the Buffalo Sabres and Washington Capitals. Following his retirement from professional hockey joined the Windsor Spitfires, his former OHL team, as an assistant coach in January 2018. On September 17, 2020, Weber was hired as an assistant coach by his former team, the Rochester Americans, of the American Hockey League.
MOGlLNY
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he fits profile of what we have apparently been seeking. I don’t know much about him but he was apparently in camp on pto with blues towards end of his playing career.
ChicagoBlues
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LGB51
2019 STANLEY CUP CHAMPION ST. LOUIS BLUES!
Moose and Squirrel
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we need someone to put a system in place that fits the players instead of the other way around
Moose and Squirrel
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what happened to Larry Robinson? I seem to recall him taking a position with NJ or something, but can't find it.
I DID find this tho:
What happened to Larry Robinson?
On May 23, 2014, the Sharks added director of player development to Robinson's role. In 2017, at the end of his five-year contract with the Sharks, Robinson left the organization. He is currently a Senior Consultant to Hockey Operations for the St. Louis Blues.
IF this is true, he needs to be heavily involved in fixing the D. if not, I would see what it would take to get him back into the fold here
I DID find this tho:
What happened to Larry Robinson?
On May 23, 2014, the Sharks added director of player development to Robinson's role. In 2017, at the end of his five-year contract with the Sharks, Robinson left the organization. He is currently a Senior Consultant to Hockey Operations for the St. Louis Blues.
IF this is true, he needs to be heavily involved in fixing the D. if not, I would see what it would take to get him back into the fold here
Reality Czech
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I'm guessing that Larry isn't interested in full time coaching or else teams would be lining up to get him.
I've said it before but I think our defensive issues are caused by our overall poor team play and the blame doesn't solely fall on the 6 guys on the blueline. I think if we can control possession, keep sustained pressure in the O zone then our defense wouldn't be so bad, but when you're giving up the puck constantly and playing most of the game in our D zone then of course we're gonna get beat more often than not. Successful teams play as a five man unit and we didn't see that consistently last season.
Robinson is 72. Last I read he was mostly retired but was maybe a part-time consultant still for us.
and I fully agree about defensive problem not being primarily our defensemen. We need to better coach defense and also to have full team commitment to better manage puck and play as unit. I don’t think our personnel on d are anywhere as bad as they are portrayed by many on this forum.
Brian39
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I agree in part and disagree in part. The part I agree with is that the defensive problem is not primarily on Faulk, Parayko and Leddy. However, I think that the D group after them was substantially lacking and that was a big part of the defensive woes.
I think that Faulk and Parayko are (and were last year) quality #2 D men (who can get themselves into the conversation as below average #1s in the proper situation). I also think that Leddy is a quality #4 D man who can play like a #3 in the right circumstances. From a pure roster construction standpoint, I think that you can build a quality top 4 that includes all 3 of these guys. While I absolutely prefer constructing a blueline around a no-doubt #1 guy, I do believe that these 3 guys can make up 75% of a "death by a thousand cuts" top 4 group. But it requires a 4th guy who is at or around their level.
Krug and Scandella weren't close to that last year and I think that time has passed for both of them to be that guy. Having three non-elite top 4 guys and then a collection of bottom pair guys isn't enough. We need another legit top 4 guy in addition to fixing the structure. The structure absolutely made this situation worse and could improve the current group from abysmal to adequate. But I think you need a structural change AND a talent infusion to get the team D good enough to do anything but adequate.
Getting the final top 4 piece is going to be expensive (probably at least 2 of assets in a trade, added cap hit, and/or assets used to clear cap space). However, as bad as the D was last year, I do think that adding one correct guy and improving the structure is enough to drastically improve the D. I don't think it is unrealistic to say that we could be a top D team defensively next year with "just" those 2 things.
Brockon
Cautiously optimistic realist when caffeinated.
While I agree with the gist of this, why are you mentioning Scandella at all in this post? He played in 20 games this season - playing his first game on Feb 21...
Basically, he was nowhere near game shape until after the trade deadline, and playing about 90s below his career average of 19:37 a game (17:50 aTOI) finishing +2.
In essence, once Scandella returns coincides with when our team stopped getting caved in on a regular basis defensively... Our top 4 looked passable once Marco returned.
'I don't want to hurt anybody': Darren Pang on decision to leave Blues, join Blackhawks
He's agreed to a deal in Chicago, where he began his NHL playing career and also made the transition into broadcasting.
theathletic.com
The reaction in St. Louis to Wednesday’s news that Blues broadcaster Darren Pang was finalizing a contract to join the Chicago Blackhawks was passionate, to say the least. One commenter said it was worse than a player leaving the team. Another said he blew out his knee the day before and thought things couldn’t get any worse but now they had.
Currently in Florida covering the NHL playoffs for TNT, Pang couldn’t respond to the report because it hadn’t yet become official. But when that happened Thursday — the Blues confirming that the Bally Sports Midwest color analyst will be leaving after 14 seasons with the club — he was able to address a situation that has been developing since the end of the regular season.
“Well, No. 1, I’d like people to know that this was not a decision that got made overnight,” Pang told The Athletic. “It was … anxiety-filled. I don’t want to hurt anybody. I mean, you can say it’s humbling or an honor (to see the emotional response of fans), but it’s more than that. It’s what we’re supposed to do in our business, make a good impression. I hope that they understand.”
That’s perhaps the most difficult aspect of Pang’s exit — not understanding how the Blues and Bally Sports Midwest let a broadcaster who had become like family in St. Louis leave, especially to join the rival Blackhawks.
Many are aware that Bally’s, by virtue of being a division of Sinclair Broadcasting, is going through a bankruptcy that may be putting financial constraints on contracts for broadcasters like Pang. Many know that Pang’s deal had expired and that any outcome was possible. But still many expected a resolution that included Pang’s return and were surprised and frustrated when that didn’t turn out to be the case.
So what happened?
“Well, that’s a difficult question for me to answer because I’m not on that other side,” Pang said. “I mean, around the league, we’re seeing what’s happening in our business and we all know that Bally is going through a tough run right now. Maybe the process (of signing him to a new contract) takes a lot longer to get approved? That could be one reason. Maybe the decisions don’t go through St. Louis? Maybe they have to go through L.A.? We’ve had it great in St. Louis. It’s been a very stable broadcast, from our hosts to our analysts. Maybe sometimes when you have something for a long period of time, it gets taken for granted."
“I guess in my heart, I didn’t really expect another team to be very aggressive in wanting me in their city, and then on the other side, having a situation where the other team wasn’t going to back it up and bring me back. The Blackhawks, they lost two unbelievable broadcasters in the last year — Pat Foley and Eddie Olczyk — and when one side is working so hard to try to get you, it’s incredibly humbling. I think that’s my situation in a nutshell. That’s probably all I can really say about that because I don’t really know.”
Neither Bally Sports Midwest nor the Blues offered any more insight Thursday.
Brian39
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My post is about needing a legitimate top pair (or really good 2nd pair) caliber LHD in order to make the top 4 group here work as a genuinely good defense. I don't think Scandella is that guy, which is why I brought him up as not being that guy. Regardless of coaching/structure changes, I don't expect the D to be above average if the top 4 is Parayko, Faulk, Leddy, and Scandella.
We allowed the 11th most goals per game and 8th most shots per game after Scandella's return. Scandy only played 15:19 a night at even strength, which isn't close to what you need out of a legit top 4 D man. He played 15:56 a night at even strength in 2021/22. I'm far away from the "blame Scandella" bandwagon, but he's a #5 (who can sub into the top 4 for stretches) at this point in his career. He hasn't been a #4 guy in two years and he's 33. I think the odds of him playing like a #2 or #3 D man in his age 33 season are pretty damn low and that's the thing I'm talking about needing.
Like Krug, I don't believe that he is capable of being playing a legitimate top 4 role on a team that is trying to succeed with a 'death by a thousand cuts' strategy in the top 4. he could probably be the 'stay back and cover the zone' guy for 17-18+ even strength minutes a night alongside a Fox, Makar, Heiskenen, etc but we don't have one of those here so we need more than that.
My ideal roster construction sees us bring in a top pair (or extremely good 2nd pair) LHD, moving Krug, and keeping Scandella for the bottom pair (and likely top PK unit). Scandella playing 12-15 minutes a night at even strength gives you the backbone to a good 3rd pair that doesn't need to be insanely sheltered. He can genuinely help the team in that role if you can make it work against the cap. I don't believe in the 'addition by subtraction' theory with Scandella. but the top 4 needs a LHD man better than him. And unfortunately, Krug's contract might be difficult enough to move that Scandella is the cap casualty to bring that upgrade in.
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It would have to be top 10 for me or at the bare minimum a legit #1 LD. If that means no one would trade for him then so be it, I'm not that entirely interested anway.
I'm getting excited to see what we do at the draft and FA day. I'm hoping for a big #1 LD blockbuster trade.
Agreed, though I think it's more likely we get a less exciting 2LHD type. I really think Hanifin is the play.
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