2022-2023 Blues Multi-Purpose Thread

[stl76]

Anyone know how many games the Blues have played with all of our top 4-5 dmen healthy? Not sure how to look this up, but I’d be curious to know how the team has played with all of Leddy, Parayko, Krug, and Faulk in the line up together. Scandella too. It seems like there probably isn’t a large sample of results with all 4-5 in the line up together.

Not saying we shouldn’t make moves with the defense or we just need our D to get healthy and then we can compete for a cup…just curious

 

[PocketNines]

One of the reasons you don't run a sum of the parts defense when there are almost continually injuries in the NHL is that defense collapses a lot easier with injury to guys down the depth chart than if you have a #1 who stays healthy when other players go in and out with injury. I want the Blues GM to know this about injuries and the NHL. It seems like something he should catch onto and it should inform his vision.

 

[tfriede2]

Agreed. I'd rather get paid an asset to take on $5M of dead cap than use it to bet on Vrana rebounding. He's a UFA after 23/24, so we'd still have to offer him a near-market value deal beyond that if he rebounds.

Krug for Vrana? Isn’t Krug a Michigan native?

 

[Brian39]

Krug for Vrana? Isn’t Krug a Michigan native?

I'd see if I could get anything else for Krug first. I'd take any asset they have besides Vrana for Krug if that was an option. I think I'd prefer to give Krug away for nothing than to take back Vrana.

If taking Vrana is the only way of getting out from the Krug contract then I'd do it. But I'm not trying to get him for Krug.

 

[Brockon]

Krug for Vrana? Isn’t Krug a Michigan native?

No way Yzerman bites on that. They have Seider and Hronek as offensive for their top 2 pairings. Both are RD, but I can't see Stevie Y playing a pure offense pairing or placing Krug on the 3rd line.

Then even though their cap hit is similar this year - Krug has 4 more years left.

 

[stl76]

One of the reasons you don't run a sum of the parts defense when there are almost continually injuries in the NHL is that defense collapses a lot easier with injury to guys down the depth chart than if you have a #1 who stays healthy when other players go in and out with injury. I want the Blues GM to know this about injuries and the NHL. It seems like something he should catch onto and it should inform his vision.

If there are almost continually injuries in the NHL then theoretically wouldn't the best solution be depth rather than relying on any one individual?

There are a lot of really good reasons to build around a #1 dman...prevalence of injuries doesn't seem like a great one, but maybe I'm missing something.

 

[PocketNines]

If there are almost continually injuries in the NHL then theoretically wouldn't the best solution be depth rather than relying on any one individual?

There are a lot of really good reasons to build around a #1 dman...prevalence of injuries doesn't seem like a great one, but maybe I'm missing something.

When injuries happen guys have to play up in the lineup out of their normal range. I am not saying that having a #1 means that player is going to be less injured, but if you have say two 2s and two 3s as your top four, one of those 2s is already being forced into a role that's a little too high and now you subtract one of those guys and it gets even dicier. Whereas if you have a 1-2-3-4, then 75% of the time (assuming injuries are randomly distributed) you still have that #1 in place so that it's less of a structural challenge to have a 5 pop up for a bit. And when it is 25% of the time that #1 going out (assuming injuries are randomly distributed) you'll have 2-3-4 which is not a lot different than when you start with a 2-2-3-3 and lose one of them. It's late and my mind is in The Big Lebowski but hopefully that makes sense. I see a #1 because they play all situations as being the one indispensable guy on the back end. When you have a 2-2-3-3 then your guys have certain facets they contribute, so you have to promote the player that brings the facet whichever of your 2-2-3-3 dropped out such as PP specialist or defensive stopper etc. And that might be your 7th best defenseman but he's the guy who has the element that was lost. Whereas your #1 is always going to have that element and you might have to lean on him more. But those players were born to be leaned on in that way and they like it and often rise to the occasion.

 

[stl76]

When injuries happen guys have to play up in the lineup out of their normal range. I am not saying that having a #1 means that player is going to be less injured, but if you have say two 2s and two 3s as your top four, one of those 2s is already being forced into a role that's a little too high and now you subtract one of those guys and it gets even dicier. Whereas if you have a 1-2-3-4, then 75% of the time (assuming injuries are randomly distributed) you still have that #1 in place so that it's less of a structural challenge to have a 5 pop up for a bit. And when it is 25% of the time that #1 going out (assuming injuries are randomly distributed) you'll have 2-3-4 which is not a lot different than when you start with a 2-2-3-3 and lose one of them. It's late and my mind is in The Big Lebowski but hopefully that makes sense. I see a #1 because they play all situations as being the one indispensable guy on the back end. When you have a 2-2-3-3 then your guys have certain facets they contribute, so you have to promote the player that brings the facet whichever of your 2-2-3-3 dropped out such as PP specialist or defensive stopper etc. And that might be your 7th best defenseman but he's the guy who has the element that was lost. Whereas your #1 is always going to have that element and you might have to lean on him more. But those players were born to be leaned on in that way and they like it and often rise to the occasion.

Think I get what you mean. Higher risk (if the #1 goes down you're f***ed) but higher reward (if another player goes down the team is better equipped to cover if they have a #1). Makes sense in an expected utility kind of way but NHL GMs seem like an especially risk averse group.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Blues assign Highmore to Springfield | St. Louis Blues

ST. LOUIS - St. Louis Blues President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Doug Armstrong announced today the team has assigned forward Matthew Highmore to its AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds.

www.nhl.com

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Apologize if someone else posted this, but great interview with Jake Allen on latest 32T. 32 Thoughts: The Podcast

 

[LetsGoBooze]

This is tough routing against the team i love every night, in the hopes of moving up a few spots at the draft. I dont care if we end up re-tooling or re-building, starting next year i go back to wanting this team to win every night, no matter what. Heartbreak or getting stuck in mediocrity aside, i gotta back my boys.

 

[Mike Liut]

This is tough routing against the team i love every night, in the hopes of moving up a few spots at the draft. I dont care if we end up re-tooling or re-building, starting next year i go back to wanting this team to win every night, no matter what. Heartbreak or getting stuck in mediocrity aside, i gotta back my boys.

I hear ya, but we’ll be worse next year I’m afraid

 

[PocketNines]

Craig Berube thinks that Thomas and Kyrou are simply horrendous quitting bums and honestly Toropchenko comes close to saying it as well. Berube really thinks nothing of 18 and 25, he is embarrassed to be associated with them.

 

[Vladys Gumption]

One thing that’s been on my mind for a few days. Im a bit worried at this point that we may see a negative culture shift associated with this season. It’s imperative that the coaching staff keep the standards of effort an execution up. I don’t want to end up like Edmonton where they get used to losing and think it’s okay. I want a team that’s going to come out and work its ass off every game. I know this season is a lost cause, and the players clearly do too. But damnit, show some heart and pride out there.

Thinking back to the Hitch coached teams, they may not have had the most talent but they sure as hell weren’t going to get out worked. You knew they were going to play hard and play lock down defense. That’s what I’m hoping for next season.

 

[bleedblue1223]

One thing that’s been on my mind for a few days. Im a bit worried at this point that we may see a negative culture shift associated with this season. It’s imperative that the coaching staff keep the standards of effort an execution up. I don’t want to end up like Edmonton where they get used to losing and think it’s okay. I want a team that’s going to come out and work its ass off every game. I know this season is a lost cause, and the players clearly do too. But damnit, show some heart and pride out there.

Thinking back to the Hitch coached teams, they may not have had the most talent but they sure as hell weren’t going to get out worked. You knew they were going to play hard and not if it defense. That’s what I’m hoping for next season.

Yeah, that's kind of the worry I had on previous discussions on if we'd be wanting a tank. The negative implications of a team that is tanking is the loss of a positive culture. The trade of O'Reilly had to happen, but hopefully we didn't lose the culture that he was a driving force behind. Thomas and Kyrou should've realized the responsibility when they signed the new contracts, but naturally they probably leaned on ROR and the vets at the start of the season, so I won't be too hard that leadership roles are just thrown their way after ROR was traded, but next season, they better realize the roles they have to fill. Especially Thomas, he has to realize that he's the guy that's going to set the standard and example for the new core.

 

[Bobby Orrtuzzo]

Yeah, that's kind of the worry I had on previous discussions on if we'd be wanting a tank. The negative implications of a team that is tanking is the loss of a positive culture. The trade of O'Reilly had to happen, but hopefully we didn't lose the culture that he was a driving force behind. Thomas and Kyrou should've realized the responsibility when they signed the new contracts, but naturally they probably leaned on ROR and the vets at the start of the season, so I won't be too hard that leadership roles are just thrown their way after ROR was traded, but next season, they better realize the roles they have to fill. Especially Thomas, he has to realize that he's the guy that's going to set the standard and example for the new core.

We can only hope he was mentally taking notes when watching how guys like ROR, Schenn, Petro, Steen, etc. operate

 

[PocketNines]

"We look at him as the centerpiece of our organization moving forward" – Armstrong last July announcing the Thomas extension

Armstrong shifted the culture when he gave these two guys 130M and stated that he wasn't worried about the risk since he didn't see it as much of a risk, and then he explained the reasons (which Brian often correctly lays out) for why such and such a stats result gets X dollars. The job of the GM is to sift the fools gold from the real gold when those "justified" contracts are handed out.

You could see well before those contracts were handed out that these two guys are one dimensional and emotionally very young. Giving them their lifetime reward while they were in that state seems not to have worked, how odd.

Head coach openly stated "I guess they don't care about the team" last night and walked out of a press conference. That is fury.

 

[Brian39]

Craig Berube thinks that Thomas and Kyrou are simply horrendous quitting bums and honestly Toropchenko comes close to saying it as well. Berube really thinks nothing of 18 and 25, he is embarrassed to be associated with them.

That is quite the leap coming from someone who crafted a reading comprehension lesson on here not too long ago.

Berube is clearly livid with the entire team except the handful of guys he mentioned as positives. I don't blame him for that one bit, but let's not act like he's singling out 2 guys because a reporter chose to ask him about only those 2 guys. And let's also not act like him discussing the current level of play is representative of his overall, long term and permanent beliefs about anyone on the roster. His job is to try and win games (and short of that at least provide a watchable product at home) and a kick in the ass is what this team needs at the moment.

But there were plenty of passengers last night.

Berube talked about the top guys and the guys making a lot of money. That sure as hell isn't limited to two guys. Schenn, Faulk, and Parayko are all currently tied for the highest AAV on the team and all 3 make more than Kyrou/Thomas right now. Those three will make $8M, $7.9M and $8M next season. Saad makes $4.5M against the cap and will make $5.5M in real dollars next year. He was as bad as anyone last night, but I'd wager that Berube would give him a pass since he just got back from injury. I certainly do.

Schenn was the worst player on the ice last night. He's managed a whopping 0 points and 2 shots in the 4 game losing streak and managed a single hit last night in just under 21 minutes of ice time. He had a few particularly poor plays and got caught standing around doing nothing several times. If Berube is praising him right now because he's "playing the right way" then a hell of a lot of players in that room should be checking out of this team.

The first play in the recap is a great example of him doing nothing useful in our zone. Then that shift ends with a pretty lazy backcheck where he does little/nothing to help. The only reason he didn't take a well-deserved minus on his opening shift was because Binner made a half dozen saves.

Halfway into the 2nd Schenn sprung Garland on a breakaway out of the box by lobbing a grenade of a corner-to-point bouncing pass that Faulk couldn't handle. Binner had to make one of his many great stops to bail him out again.

He stands around doing pretty much nothing on their game tying-goal.

Schenn's xGF% was 10% and we were outshot 14-3 with him on the ice at 5 on 5 last night. Scoring chances were 11-3 in favor of Vancouver and high danger chances were 4-0. He was putrid and certainly didn't listen to his own advice about hard work. Zero high danger chances for the Blues with Schenn on the ice in all situations last night.

Thomas also had a rough night, posting an xGF% of 17%, getting outshot 6-4 and watching Vancouver win the scoring chance battle 9-1. High danger chances were 2-0 Vancouver. Thomas at least managed to triple up Schenn's shot count by being useful on special teams and in OT. He was at least on the ice for 2 of our team's 3 total high danger chances, but it was still far from a good night.

Want to guess who led our forwards in xGF% and shots percentage? That would be Kyrou's (still bad) 38% and 44%. He was on the ice for zero high danger chances against at 5 on 5 and took his minus in OT where he covered his assignment on the left side of the zone while the attacker rushed the puck up the right side, went 1 on 1 with Faulk and beat Binner clean from the circle. Like Thomas, he also put 3 shots on net and was on the ice for 2 of our 3 high danger chances.

There is plenty of blame to go around for last night and the last 4 games. Thomas and Kyrou haven't been good enough and are deserving of criticism lately. They need to be better. But it is asinine to pretend that they are the only people Berube was calling out last night. Both of them were better and did far less useless standing around than Schenn last night. Same goes for Saad (but again, I'd give him a pass because I think he's clearly not 100%).

Berube absolutely didn't say the thing you are attributing to him and he certainly wasn't singling out two guys.

 

[BadgersandBlues]

I'm honestly surprised by how poorly Thomas has played. His pedigree is better then this. He was on the Cup winning team in 19 and has been surrounded by the type of leadership/veterans you'd want to cocoon a young player with (AP, ROR, Steen, and Jay-Bo for at least a year or so). He's had success at every level - maybe this is the first time he's really had to deal with sustained losing? I'm not sure, but I expect him to bounce back.

 

[PJJJP]

That is quite the leap coming from someone who crafted a reading comprehension lesson on here not too long ago.

Berube is clearly livid with the entire team except the handful of guys he mentioned as positives. I don't blame him for that one bit, but let's not act like he's singling out 2 guys because a reporter chose to ask him about only those 2 guys. And let's also not act like him discussing the current level of play is representative of his overall, long term and permanent beliefs about anyone on the roster. His job is to try and win games (and short of that at least provide a watchable product at home) and a kick in the ass is what this team needs at the moment.

But there were plenty of passengers last night.

Berube talked about the top guys and the guys making a lot of money. That sure as hell isn't limited to two guys. Schenn, Faulk, and Parayko are all currently tied for the highest AAV on the team and all 3 make more than Kyrou/Thomas right now. Those three will make $8M, $7.9M and $8M next season. Saad makes $4.5M against the cap and will make $5.5M in real dollars next year. He was as bad as anyone last night, but I'd wager that Berube would give him a pass since he just got back from injury. I certainly do.

Schenn was the worst player on the ice last night. He's managed a whopping 0 points and 2 shots in the 4 game losing streak and managed a single hit last night in just under 21 minutes of ice time. He had a few particularly poor plays and got caught standing around doing nothing several times.

The first play in the recap is a great example of him doing nothing useful in our zone. Then that shift ends with a pretty lazy backcheck where he does little/nothing to help. The only reason he didn't take a well-deserved minus on his opening shift was because Binner made a half dozen saves.

Halfway into the 2nd Schenn sprung Garland on a breakaway out of the box by lobbing a grenade of a corner-to-point bouncing pass that Faulk couldn't handle. Binner had to make one of his many great stops to bail him out again.

He stands around doing pretty much nothing on their game tying-goal.

Schenn's xGF% was 10% and we were outshot 14-3 at 5 on 5 last night. Scoring chances were 11-3 in favor of Vancouver and high danger chances were 4-0. He was putrid and certainly didn't listen to his own advice about hard work. Zero high danger chances with Schenn on the ice in all situations last night.

Thomas also had a rough night, posting an xGF% of 17%, getting outshot 6-4 and watching Vancouver win the scoring chance battle 9-1. High danger chances were 2-0 Vancouver. Thomas at least managed to triple up Schenn's shot count by being useful on special teams and in OT. He was at least on the ice for 2 of our team's 3 total high danger chances, but it was still far from a good night.

Want to guess who led our forwards in xGF% and shots percentage? That would be Kyrou's (still bad) 38% and 44%. He was on the ice for zero high danger chances against at 5 on 5 and took his minus in OT where he covered his assignment on the left side of the zone while the attacker rushed the puck up the right side, went 1 on 1 with Faulk and beat Binner clean from the circle. Like Thomas, he also put 3 shots on net and was on the ice for 2 of our 3 high danger chances.

There is plenty of blame to go around for last night and the last 4 games. Thomas and Kyrou haven't been good enough and are deserving of criticism lately. They need to be better. But it is asinine to pretend that they are the only people Berube was calling out last night. Both of them were better and did far less useless standing around than Schenn last night. Same goes for Saad (but again, I'd give him a pass because I think he's clearly not 100%).

Berube absolutely didn't say the thing you are attributing to him and he certainly wasn't singling out two guys.

I don't think he was singling players but it's more of the media guys focusing on Kyrou and Thomas. Kyrou has been the whipping boy of JR and others ever since he signed his contract. The first to report that vets were unhappy with the Thomas and Kyrou contracts was JR. When he asked Berube his questions he specifically said Thomas and Kyrou. He made no mention of Schenn until his article in the athletic later, but that article was mostly blaming Kyrou and Thomas. Dude has never called into question any other players work ethic other than the younger guys. While to some extent Kyrou and Thomas haven't given 100% the whole season, I can probably say only a couple of players have done so and we traded 2 of them. When Tarasenko was coasting before his trade JR made no mention of it. It's the same thing the stl media did to Tarasenko/Oshie/Perron/Berglund when they first joined the league.

 

[PocketNines]

That is quite the leap coming from someone who crafted a reading comprehension lesson on here not too long ago.

Berube is clearly livid with the entire team except the handful of guys he mentioned as positives. I don't blame him for that one bit, but let's not act like he's singling out 2 guys because a reporter chose to ask him about only those 2 guys. And let's also not act like him discussing the current level of play is representative of his overall, long term and permanent beliefs about anyone on the roster. His job is to try and win games (and short of that at least provide a watchable product at home) and a kick in the ass is what this team needs at the moment.

But there were plenty of passengers last night.

Berube talked about the top guys and the guys making a lot of money. That sure as hell isn't limited to two guys. Schenn, Faulk, and Parayko are all currently tied for the highest AAV on the team and all 3 make more than Kyrou/Thomas right now. Those three will make $8M, $7.9M and $8M next season. Saad makes $4.5M against the cap and will make $5.5M in real dollars next year. He was as bad as anyone last night, but I'd wager that Berube would give him a pass since he just got back from injury. I certainly do.

Schenn was the worst player on the ice last night. He's managed a whopping 0 points and 2 shots in the 4 game losing streak and managed a single hit last night in just under 21 minutes of ice time. He had a few particularly poor plays and got caught standing around doing nothing several times.

The first play in the recap is a great example of him doing nothing useful in our zone. Then that shift ends with a pretty lazy backcheck where he does little/nothing to help. The only reason he didn't take a well-deserved minus on his opening shift was because Binner made a half dozen saves.

Halfway into the 2nd Schenn sprung Garland on a breakaway out of the box by lobbing a grenade of a corner-to-point bouncing pass that Faulk couldn't handle. Binner had to make one of his many great stops to bail him out again.

He stands around doing pretty much nothing on their game tying-goal.

Schenn's xGF% was 10% and we were outshot 14-3 at 5 on 5 last night. Scoring chances were 11-3 in favor of Vancouver and high danger chances were 4-0. He was putrid and certainly didn't listen to his own advice about hard work. Zero high danger chances with Schenn on the ice in all situations last night.

Thomas also had a rough night, posting an xGF% of 17%, getting outshot 6-4 and watching Vancouver win the scoring chance battle 9-1. High danger chances were 2-0 Vancouver. Thomas at least managed to triple up Schenn's shot count by being useful on special teams and in OT. He was at least on the ice for 2 of our team's 3 total high danger chances, but it was still far from a good night.

Want to guess who led our forwards in xGF% and shots percentage? That would be Kyrou's (still bad) 38% and 44%. He was on the ice for zero high danger chances against at 5 on 5 and took his minus in OT where he covered his assignment on the left side of the zone while the attacker rushed the puck up the right side, went 1 on 1 with Faulk and beat Binner clean from the circle. Like Thomas, he also put 3 shots on net and was on the ice for 2 of our 3 high danger chances.

There is plenty of blame to go around for last night and the last 4 games. Thomas and Kyrou haven't been good enough and are deserving of criticism lately. They need to be better. But it is asinine to pretend that they are the only people Berube was calling out last night. Both of them were better and did far less useless standing around than Schenn last night. Same goes for Saad (but again, I'd give him a pass because I think he's clearly not 100%).

Berube absolutely didn't say the thing you are attributing to him and he certainly wasn't singling out two guys.

You are calling me out for reading comprehension as if Berube didn't call those two out? That is nuts. He was directly asked about those two specifically, and he said "not even close" to good enough and he did it with disgust.

We are on different sides of the Thomas and Kyrou issue. My top line position is that these guys are a quicksand core and it's a fundamental misjudgment of hockey and competition to have decided to build on them. Your top line takeaway and my top line takeaway are in conflict on these two, and it's going to play out. We aren't going to decide it here, but I want to draw the clear lines.

 

[Majorityof1]

I'm honestly surprised by how poorly Thomas has played. His pedigree is better then this. He was on the Cup winning team in 19 and has been surrounded by the type of leadership/veterans you'd want to cocoon a young player with (AP, ROR, Steen, and Jay-Bo for at least a year or so). He's had success at every level - maybe this is the first time he's really had to deal with sustained losing? I'm not sure, but I expect him to bounce back.

Why take lessons from AP and ROR? You see what that gets you from this team. Nothing. AP is not worth an NMC and ROR is gone as soon as someone offered a first Why give your blood sweat and tears to an employer who won't give anything back?

 

[Frenzy31]

That is quite the leap coming from someone who crafted a reading comprehension lesson on here not too long ago.

Berube is clearly livid with the entire team except the handful of guys he mentioned as positives. I don't blame him for that one bit, but let's not act like he's singling out 2 guys because a reporter chose to ask him about only those 2 guys. And let's also not act like him discussing the current level of play is representative of his overall, long term and permanent beliefs about anyone on the roster. His job is to try and win games (and short of that at least provide a watchable product at home) and a kick in the ass is what this team needs at the moment.

But there were plenty of passengers last night.

Berube talked about the top guys and the guys making a lot of money. That sure as hell isn't limited to two guys. Schenn, Faulk, and Parayko are all currently tied for the highest AAV on the team and all 3 make more than Kyrou/Thomas right now. Those three will make $8M, $7.9M and $8M next season. Saad makes $4.5M against the cap and will make $5.5M in real dollars next year. He was as bad as anyone last night, but I'd wager that Berube would give him a pass since he just got back from injury. I certainly do.

Schenn was the worst player on the ice last night. He's managed a whopping 0 points and 2 shots in the 4 game losing streak and managed a single hit last night in just under 21 minutes of ice time. He had a few particularly poor plays and got caught standing around doing nothing several times.

The first play in the recap is a great example of him doing nothing useful in our zone. Then that shift ends with a pretty lazy backcheck where he does little/nothing to help. The only reason he didn't take a well-deserved minus on his opening shift was because Binner made a half dozen saves.

Halfway into the 2nd Schenn sprung Garland on a breakaway out of the box by lobbing a grenade of a corner-to-point bouncing pass that Faulk couldn't handle. Binner had to make one of his many great stops to bail him out again.

He stands around doing pretty much nothing on their game tying-goal.

Schenn's xGF% was 10% and we were outshot 14-3 at 5 on 5 last night. Scoring chances were 11-3 in favor of Vancouver and high danger chances were 4-0. He was putrid and certainly didn't listen to his own advice about hard work. Zero high danger chances with Schenn on the ice in all situations last night.

Thomas also had a rough night, posting an xGF% of 17%, getting outshot 6-4 and watching Vancouver win the scoring chance battle 9-1. High danger chances were 2-0 Vancouver. Thomas at least managed to triple up Schenn's shot count by being useful on special teams and in OT. He was at least on the ice for 2 of our team's 3 total high danger chances, but it was still far from a good night.

Want to guess who led our forwards in xGF% and shots percentage? That would be Kyrou's (still bad) 38% and 44%. He was on the ice for zero high danger chances against at 5 on 5 and took his minus in OT where he covered his assignment on the left side of the zone while the attacker rushed the puck up the right side, went 1 on 1 with Faulk and beat Binner clean from the circle. Like Thomas, he also put 3 shots on net and was on the ice for 2 of our 3 high danger chances.

There is plenty of blame to go around for last night and the last 4 games. Thomas and Kyrou haven't been good enough and are deserving of criticism lately. They need to be better. But it is asinine to pretend that they are the only people Berube was calling out last night. Both of them were better and did far less useless standing around than Schenn last night. Same goes for Saad (but again, I'd give him a pass because I think he's clearly not 100%).

Berube absolutely didn't say the thing you are attributing to him and he certainly wasn't singling out two guys.

Stop presenting facts that don't fit a narrative that someone is trying to create.

 

[Brian39]

"We look at him as the centerpiece of our organization moving forward" – Armstrong last July announcing the Thomas extension

Armstrong shifted the culture when he gave these two guys 130M and stated that he wasn't worried about the risk since he didn't see it as much of a risk, and then he explained the reasons (which Brian often correctly lays out) for why such and such a stats result gets X dollars. The job of the GM is to sift the fools gold from the real gold when those "justified" contracts are handed out.

You could see well before those contracts were handed out that these two guys are one dimensional and emotionally very young. Giving them their lifetime reward while they were in that state seems not to have worked, how odd.

Head coach openly stated "I guess they don't care about the team" last night and walked out of a press conference. That is fury.

Weird how you left out the start of that quote which was "A lot of our guys; a lot of our best players not doing their job" and also left out the context that this was before anyone specifically brought up Thomas and Kyrou to Berube.

Also strange that you frame this as a mic drop moment where he got up and left as opposed to the reality where he continued to answer questions for another 2 and a half minutes. The very next answer was him stating that the proper compete level was brought by "a handful of guys, that's it." He then positively singled out Binner, Tucker, Torpo and Buch before again saying that he was only satisfied with a handful of guys.

He's absolutely pissed about the way Thomas and Kyrou are playing, but pretending that he is singling out their efforts is just incorrect. Berube is a blunt, no BS guy and he isn't going to dance around his fury by blasting the entire locker room if he's talking about 2 guys.

 

[Frenzy31]

Weird how you left out the start of that quote which was "A lot of our guys; a lot of our best players not doing their job" and also left out the context that this was before anyone specifically brought up Thomas and Kyrou to Berube.

Also strange that you frame this as a mic drop moment where he got up and left as opposed to the reality where he continued to answer questions for another 2 and a half minutes. The very next answer was him stating that the proper compete level was brought by "a handful of guys, that's it." He then positively singled out Binner, Tucker, Torpo and Buch before again saying that he was only satisfied with a handful of guys.

He's absolutely pissed about the way Thomas and Kyrou are playing, but pretending that he is singling out their efforts is just incorrect. Berube is a blunt, no BS guy and he isn't going to dance around his fury by blasting the entire locker room if he's talking about 2 guys.

Another thing and likely the most important thing: WE PLAYED LIKE BUTT AT MULTIPLE TIMES THIS YEAR WITH ROR AND TARASENKO ON THE TEAM. WE HAVE TWO LONG LOSING STREAKS WITH THESE "LEADERS." When it was pretty clear that effort and game plan both were part of the issue, why is this suddenly a RT and JK only issue.

I guess we can go back to blaming the kids now. This just didn't start a week ago, but has been an issue all year.