2024-2025 Blues Multi-Purpose Thread.

[ChicagoBlues]

I think a lot of what you are seeing is what happens when a coaching staff makes changes up and down the lineup and puts players in roles that are above their skill level or plays skilled players out of their normal position. I am curious as to how things would have played out differently if we had simply put a placeholder into the void left by Thomas and left everyone else where they were instead of shuffling the entire lineup around. Or maybe this is something that just doesn't work in hockey like it does in baseball.

This is what we are seeing with Texier. Yesterday, I was trying to find these words to describe my opinion of Texier. You described it in the way I was thinking.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

This is what we are seeing with Texier. Yesterday, I was trying to find these words to describe my opinion of Texier. You described it in the way I was thinking.

What is appropriate role for him? He doesn't appear to do anything particularly well. He has decent size for a skilled player, but he doesn't seem to have much offensive instincts. He has decent skill for a checking role, but he doesn't seem to want to consistently check. I just don't see a role for him on decent team unless he really kicks it up a gear.

Off the top of my head I would have expected Detroit, Chicago, Minnesota, NYI, Columbus, Calgary, Philly, and Anaheim at the very least.

Other than Minnesota, those are all fairly crappy teams but are they really less talented up front than Thomas-less Blues? Maybe, but it's not clear to me they are. They certainly can't be any worse at center.

 

[Stealth JD]

What is appropriate role for him? He doesn't appear to do anything particularly well. He has decent size for a skilled player, but he doesn't seem to have much offensive instincts. He has decent skill for a checking role, but he doesn't seem to want to consistently check. I just don't see a role for him on decent team unless he really kicks it up a gear.

Europe. Dude is not an NHL-caliber player. We’re witnessing the end of his career in real time. If he never dressed for the Blues again, that would be a small step in the right direction for this organization.

 

[Celtic Note]

It seems like we loaded the team with bigger, hard skating and physical guys. We have depth for days. I see a short supply of hockey IQ and just general usable talent at the moment. I hope we aren’t losing sight of what wins hockey games.

 

[BlueDream]

It seems like we loaded the team with bigger, hard skating and physical guys. We have depth for days. I see a short supply of hockey IQ and just general usable talent at the moment. I hope we aren’t losing sight of what wins hockey games.

I don’t think we need to go chicken little here. There’s a lot of things that win hockey games. The Blues clearly aren’t losing sight of that because they made clear steps to improve the team’s skating and defensive ability in the offseason. Injuries have hindered that, but it’s not like we can just snap our fingers and easily add talent to the roster. We will just have to wait for a lot of that talent to arrive, in the form of our prospects. That’s what a re-tool is.