I think Bolduc looks good and they should keep playing him. Once he scores I think his confidence will return. I was hoping he could continue what he was doing at the end of last season. He’s a fast smooth skater with an above average shot with a goal scorers instincts and good hockey sense. He has also been strong on the puck. The Blues will need to have some skilled players that are fast as a lot of their prospects are not plus skaters. If they aren’t going to dress him it may be good to send him to the AHL for a couple weeks to lay some top line minutes and get his scoring confidence back. When they sent him down for the last 2 games in the AHL last year he looked dominant.
2024-2025 Blues Multi-Purpose Thread.
- Thread starter simon IC
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Klank Loves You
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Celtic Note
Living the dream
- Dec 22, 2006
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Snubbed4Vezina
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Looks like they're ending the Buchnevich experiment. Now, can we stop going back to that? It doesn't work.
If you don't have the center depth to play Buch on the wing, find another center.
If you don't have the center depth to play Buch on the wing, find another center.
Reality Czech
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Doesn't mean it was a bad idea to try it. Kind of ironic he looked a bit better the last week or so and now they move him back.
It helps having Sundqvist back and back in game shape.
PocketNines
Cutter's Way
I am forced to agree with JR on his take that in 20 years covering the team he never saw them quit like they did the other night.
Quit games are super rare in sports. Actually the very first game of the 11 game streak in the Cup year against Anaheim, the Blues won 5-1 and everyone showered praise on their play for that particular game. Nah. The Blues showed up, came to play like any normal night. But the Ducks full out quit. They had 13 shots in that game. They seriously quit skating, it was teamwide, it was noticeable and memorable.
That's what the Blues did on Saturday. They quit in front of their fans for the first time in at least a generation. It's a major crisis IMO. Quitting is the absolute red line.
Quit games are super rare in sports. Actually the very first game of the 11 game streak in the Cup year against Anaheim, the Blues won 5-1 and everyone showered praise on their play for that particular game. Nah. The Blues showed up, came to play like any normal night. But the Ducks full out quit. They had 13 shots in that game. They seriously quit skating, it was teamwide, it was noticeable and memorable.
That's what the Blues did on Saturday. They quit in front of their fans for the first time in at least a generation. It's a major crisis IMO. Quitting is the absolute red line.
shpongle falls
Ass Möde
If memory serves last year when the Blues hired Brad Richards to help their powerplay it got better and they started scoring. I wonder if they should do something similar this year if they can’t get it going.
joe galiba
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ChicagoBlues
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To me, way too much standing still is as indicative of the lack of chemistry as it is of structure and design. We have lots of parts, but we’re lacking chemistry. Idk maybe?
STL fan in MN
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Are we no longer paying Brad Richards to watch games from his couch in Florida and give notes?
ChicagoBlues
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LogosBlue
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You know, if us common folks can see the complete lack of depth at center, how much more should this be evident to DA? Then our only real center goes down to injury. Don't you think you'd be on the horn to any GM that would listen to try and work a trade to bolster the center position? Lots of wing depth and prospects to get someone decent. What's going on here?
And yes, the poor powerplay falls directly on the coaches. Who's working with our PP group at the moment?
And yes, the poor powerplay falls directly on the coaches. Who's working with our PP group at the moment?
bleedblue1223
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This was always going to be a transition year anyway. We can waste assets on a stopgap center that won't turn us into a playoff team, but that would be pretty stupid. With Dvorsky knocking on the door, it doesn't really make sense to give up high value assets for a younger center when we'll probably have other needs to focus on once the young guys come up to the big club.
Reality Czech
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Which prospects or draft picks do you want to trade for a center? Is it really wise to trade assets right now when we're not even close to being a contender? Doesn't really seem like it. Good players don't come cheap in the trade market and what's the point of trading for a bad player?
bleedblue1223
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It does suck that Dean happens to be hurt at a time when we need centers. Not that he's ready, but he could eat some minutes and win some faceoffs.
STL fan in MN
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I think it’s offensive wizard Steve Ott running the PP… Could be wrong though as perhaps it’s Claude Julien? Weber handles the d-men but not sure the breakdown is of what Ott and Julien’s exact responsibilities are.
And lots of teams are looking for a C. The price would be sky high and likely not worth it. Sure, we could likely get some C that could help us out the a couple seasons but in a couple years would likely be looking at a situation where that C leaves as a UFA (or we re-sign him through his decline) and perhaps be helped us finish 17th instead of 20th but now he’s gone and the prospect we traded away is just coming into his own with the org we traded him to.
No stop-gaps. Or at least no trading assets for stop-gaps. Signing them as UFAs to fill out the roster during this transitionary period? Sure. But no giving up prospects for a temporary bandaid that will just slow down the current bleeding a bit but not really help longterm.
Majorityof1
Registered User
Also Holloway, while not great at faceoffs, has not looked bad at C. We can develop him and Dvorsky as our middle 6 Cs with Schenn around to spell them or take key faceoffs. That is serviceable C depth moving forward, assuming the youngsters develop properly.
If a established 26 or younger C with a favorable contract situation kicks loose, go for it. But as one of the Bleedblues (who can tell which is which) said above, no point in spending assets in anything short term given our situation. We'd just be spending assets to make our draft pick worse.
And there is no gurantee anyone who'd be available at this point would even be good enough to help. Teams aren't cap crunched right now (I don't think there us any team that needs to clear salary for a LTIR about to hit the books). Contending teams would want any player who is able to contribute and non-contending teams would wait until the TDL when there would be more buyers to bid the price up. We'd have to overpay to pull anyone serviceable in the middle 6, and a bottom 6 doesn't fix our issues
Brockon
Cautiously optimistic realist when caffeinated.
We've gone 3-5 during the last 8 games with Thomas out. That's good for a 0.375 point capture rate compared to the 4-3 record in the 7 games before Thomas was hurt which was 0.571 point percentage.
Our roster is flawed and looks pretty directionless at times, but we have arguably above average goaltending preventing us from free fall. Looking at some of the other organizations below us, their rosters are fundamentally flawed - being lifted by cornerstone pieces getting their feet wet or in their sophomore seasons while receiving pretty objectively poor goaltending.
We sit 22/32 in the standings. The 10 teams below us with the exception of San Jose missing Celebrini and Columbus having lost Johnny Gaudreau, none are dealing with significant injuries. Nashville, Detroit, Philly and Seattle are underperforming their expectations (bubble teams and then the Preds) - but none of the others were expected to do much of anything this year.
I don't see how 5 of those teams below us can reasonably be expected to pass us in the standings, because even if we continue to flounder with Thomas out - nobody is surging up the standings to the extent that Thomas' return won't boost our point capture rate so that we overtake them.
I know that the current 2 point difference is easily overcome with a bad bounce going in on Binner/Hofer or with our forwards getting snake bitten. But looking at the points percentage over the remaining ~66 games, I don't buy us dropping from our current 11th draft slot to a top 5 one, short of an uncharacteristically fortunate draft lottery win.
I think we're probably going to hit somewhere between a 0.47-0.51 p% and finish somewhere around the 76-82 point mark this year. That's accounting for a drop in play from Thomas returning from injury. Selling at the deadline might creep us towards the 70-75p range - but that won't get us into the top 5 at the draft. Unless our goaltending implodes or one/both of them miss significant time, I have trouble imagining us drafting inside the top 8 right now.
Reality Czech
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Good points. With all the despair and negativity around here it's easy to forget we're 1 game under .500 despite all the injuries. This team ain't great, but it's also not as bad as some fans seem to think.
Brockon
Cautiously optimistic realist when caffeinated.
Don't get me wrong - I would love to grab a top 5 pick and snatch up a cornerstone piece for our future core moving forward. I just can't objectively see it happening without further injuries turning this season into a complete train wreck...
Our injuries thus far have hurt our performance, but they're speed bumps shifting the expected 15-19th place finish to 17-22nd place in my guestimate.
I don't believe DA will pull the trigger on a trade using significant assets to "right the ship" this season unless its acquiring a young NHL player with some limited experience like Alex Turcotte or another forward like Holloway who are starting to hit their stride, but appear their team is moving on from them/got passed on the team depth chart due to injuries, stagnant development or have cap issues forcing them out the door.
Our injuries thus far have hurt our performance, but they're speed bumps shifting the expected 15-19th place finish to 17-22nd place in my guestimate.
I don't believe DA will pull the trigger on a trade using significant assets to "right the ship" this season unless its acquiring a young NHL player with some limited experience like Alex Turcotte or another forward like Holloway who are starting to hit their stride, but appear their team is moving on from them/got passed on the team depth chart due to injuries, stagnant development or have cap issues forcing them out the door.
