At this time last season he had 9 goals, he currently has 15. I COULD see him hitting 40, But I think he finishes around 35-38. Tho, he hasn't had many of his "Scoring 7 points in 3 games" streaks he has yet.
2024-2025 Blues Multi-Purpose Thread.
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Reality Czech
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- Apr 17, 2017
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This is satire right? Why break up the 10-25-81 line when it's been playing well? Holloway bumped up to PP1 as well. I seriously doubt he's discouraged.
Why would the coach want to break up a line that is scoring well and clicking? Seems dumb.
Based on this logic, Kyrou should be in the 1st line and Buch the 2nd or 3rd.
execwrite1
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- Mar 30, 2018
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I would rather go big at forward than D at this point. I am not sold as Ekblad being a huge difference maker at this point.
Majorityof1
Registered User
Too much risk on Ekblad. He'll be 29 when we would sign him, and I'd have to look into it further, but I believe he has a troubling injury history. We'd have to sign him for 7-8 years to make a competitive offer. If he gets squeezed out of a big UFA deal somehow, I'd take him for a cheaper, short-term deal. But no way I go 7 years until he is 36. at $8M+
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PocketNines
Cutter's Way
Next year's fantasy team has Faulk and Leddy on it?
Indeed. I don't mind the top four, but I would not be heartbroken if we cut ties with both Faulk and Leddy this off-season. That defense needs more youth
execwrite1
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The kids are coming on the blueline but I don't see anyone ready next season. Faulk and Leddy are vets until Lindstein, Jiricek, Ralph, Loof et al are ready.
execwrite1
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Fair point. He's only played more than 67 games in one season since 2018-19. Don't know what the injuries were. Perhaps his market value will be reasonable because of that.
PocketNines
Cutter's Way
for 20 years you have plugged pure prospects into full time NHL spots and the one clear line of feedback has been that you're way way way too optimistic about undeveloped guys holding down major minutes in the NHL. so we don't disagree on a practical basis that Leddy-Faulk (esp since they are under contract already) could plausibly on the roster. I'm just saying it's not ideal. but I appreciate your shift of approach, truly.
Lots of teams will have space with the cap going up. Someone will do something stupid and I don’t want it to be us.
Majorityof1
Registered User
Based on my understanding, and anyone who follows Florida more closely, please correct me. It's been a litany of things. Concussion, ankle, knee, shoulder. But he comes back from each a little diminished. He's the 6-million-dollar man if we didn't have the technology. They rebuilt him, but not better, stronger, faster, kinda the opposite. He is not the player he was projected to be. He is still a decent top 4 option, but not a stud 1OA pick he could have been. And who knows how well he will age if he has persisting issues from his injuries.
Blues have six players on the team that have a positive +/- and all six of them are a +6 or better.
Thomas +10
Broberg +7
Holloway +7
Bolduc +7
Buch +6
Kyrou +6
Thomas +10
Broberg +7
Holloway +7
Bolduc +7
Buch +6
Kyrou +6
Majorityof1
Registered User
After the first few games with Monty as coach, there was some discussion about a new coach bump and if it is a thing. Let's take a look at the stats:
Blues under Bannister 24-25 season - 9-12-1 - .432
First 5 games under Montgomery - 4-0-1 - .900
Blues under Montgomery after first 5 games - 4-5-2 - .455
Also keep in mind, Bannister didn't have Thomas for over half the games in his coaching tenure, didn't have Broberg for 10 (he missed 2 games under Montgomery) and didn't have Fowler at all. We iced a better team under Montgomery most nights due to those injury issues we faced early, but still have not had drastically better results over the last 11 games.
I am not trying to say hiring Montgomery wasn't the right call. But clearly the new coach bump was a thing. There are issues with this team that will take time and perhaps roster moves to fix. Montgomery will hopefully fix them, but he was not the single solution we needed.
As another note, I haven't pulled the advanced stats on if we are playing better under Montgomery despite not getting results. I do believe we probably are. I'm not sure how much Thomas has to do with that. But I will concede the team is playing better despite not getting the results we'd want, which indicates a step in the right direction.
Blues under Bannister 24-25 season - 9-12-1 - .432
First 5 games under Montgomery - 4-0-1 - .900
Blues under Montgomery after first 5 games - 4-5-2 - .455
Also keep in mind, Bannister didn't have Thomas for over half the games in his coaching tenure, didn't have Broberg for 10 (he missed 2 games under Montgomery) and didn't have Fowler at all. We iced a better team under Montgomery most nights due to those injury issues we faced early, but still have not had drastically better results over the last 11 games.
I am not trying to say hiring Montgomery wasn't the right call. But clearly the new coach bump was a thing. There are issues with this team that will take time and perhaps roster moves to fix. Montgomery will hopefully fix them, but he was not the single solution we needed.
As another note, I haven't pulled the advanced stats on if we are playing better under Montgomery despite not getting results. I do believe we probably are. I'm not sure how much Thomas has to do with that. But I will concede the team is playing better despite not getting the results we'd want, which indicates a step in the right direction.
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We also went for nearly a month without a practice under Monty. I think it was recently said that no practice allows bad habits to set in and not be corrected.
bleedblue1223
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- Jan 21, 2011
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Most of the issues for why we aren't pushing for a playoff spot simply come down to the roster, and that's why playoffs were never a serious objective this season. I know it's been said by some that Army and ownership were expecting playoffs, but I don't think that was ever the case. Army's view of a rebuild is that it's better to do it competitively than tearing it completely down, or at least that's the best option in our type of market. That can be debated.
And yeah, there was certainly a bit of a new coach bump, I do think the play is improved a bit, but nothing substantial, Monty was always a move for the future, and I think the team is performing about what the expectations should've been.
Goaltending hasn't been as good as last season, this is an area where people were a bit naive to think that we'd get the exact same level of play, Binnington and Hofer were both very good last season. Faulk has not bounced back, something a lot of us were thinking he would after getting healthy. Buch at C did not work, leaving us weak in that position. Neighbours hasn't really taken a step forward, he hasn't taken a step back either though.
On the positive side, Broberg and Holloway are two big ones. Broberg has helped cover for the poor play of Faulk. Not sure where our defense would be if we didn't acquire him. Holloway is 2nd in goals and has been playing some pretty major minutes.
Of the other summer acquisitions, most of them are either meh or busts.
And yeah, there was certainly a bit of a new coach bump, I do think the play is improved a bit, but nothing substantial, Monty was always a move for the future, and I think the team is performing about what the expectations should've been.
Goaltending hasn't been as good as last season, this is an area where people were a bit naive to think that we'd get the exact same level of play, Binnington and Hofer were both very good last season. Faulk has not bounced back, something a lot of us were thinking he would after getting healthy. Buch at C did not work, leaving us weak in that position. Neighbours hasn't really taken a step forward, he hasn't taken a step back either though.
On the positive side, Broberg and Holloway are two big ones. Broberg has helped cover for the poor play of Faulk. Not sure where our defense would be if we didn't acquire him. Holloway is 2nd in goals and has been playing some pretty major minutes.
Of the other summer acquisitions, most of them are either meh or busts.
PocketNines
Cutter's Way
bleedblue1223
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Yeah, we are 13th in points% since Montgomery took over, tied with Winnipeg for 3rd in the division. Kind of depends on if we think moving forward will we continue to have streaks like we did in Monty's first few games or will it be more of what followed that moving forward. I'm not expecting playoffs, but I believe we'll be better than we would've been under Bannister.
I think Fowler will play a big part in what we are moving forward. Can he maintain quality play on a top pair, and can he help improve the PP. Could see both of those going either way.
I think Fowler will play a big part in what we are moving forward. Can he maintain quality play on a top pair, and can he help improve the PP. Could see both of those going either way.
I think you’re onto something and the answer probably lies in the middle.
I feel the end of Drew’s tenure saw our expected outcome somewhat stale. It does seem to be mixed right now. In some ways we’re improving but others, like special teams, are costing us games imo.
I wish the process of coach change made sense that Bannister still worked in the coaching group but that’s not how it works.
I feel our main problem is that we aren’t a complete team yet. We still have a few holes or key roles that are empty or filled by younger guys. Teams always have some amount of this but relative to a contending team we have a lot. Due to that we’re primed for inconsistency for a bit.
Fowler makes a lot of sense to keep us from having too steep an uphill battle from our injuries. I think it’s important there is an expectation of playoffs even if it is a bit unfair.
Maybe it wasn’t a league all time record, I’m too lazy to look, but last year we had to be close to the record number of points a team had but missed playoffs. I think from a draft pick standpoint that’s horrible but from a total franchise health standpoint it is a big positive.
Allows us to peer our noses over the bannister at the bad teams, flex on them a bit while our prospects wreck them in a global tournament. We just have to skim the talent pool and look what happens lol. Imagine the team Doug would build if he sat dead last for 3 years straight. Honestly some team doing that should hire him next if he doesn’t become Bettman’s replacement.
Brian39
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Worth noting that the 67 game season in 2019/20 was a year where the Panthers only played 69 games. He only missed 2 games that year and he was healthy when the league shut down for COVID. I'd certainly put that season in the 'he was healthy' side of the equation. That doesn't change the fact that he missed 20+ games in 3 of the next 4 seasons and still missed 11 games in the lone 'healthy' season of those 4.
BlueMed
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- Jul 18, 2019
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Here's a fun interview with Jake Neighbours starting around 11:00. One thing that really jumped out at me was how involved some of the veterans were outside of the rink. Many people throw around the idea of trading Faulk now, but that will inevitably have effects on the lockerroom if another veteran isn't proactive about filling that leadership void. Just some food for thought.
PocketNines
Cutter's Way
It is possible to miss the playoffs with 96 points but very few ever have.
A 96 point pace for the Blues this year is 2-0 over the next two games in the Winter Classic then home vs Ottawa, and then averaging 4-2-1 for six consecutive chunks.
It feels like they will wind up with 90-92 points in 9th in the conf, but if they could ever string 3 wins together a playoff push has to start there. Super difficult to average 4-2-1 without a few mini streaks
A 96 point pace for the Blues this year is 2-0 over the next two games in the Winter Classic then home vs Ottawa, and then averaging 4-2-1 for six consecutive chunks.
It feels like they will wind up with 90-92 points in 9th in the conf, but if they could ever string 3 wins together a playoff push has to start there. Super difficult to average 4-2-1 without a few mini streaks
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