GDT: Blues vs. Avs|R1, Game 4| The End Is Nigh|

[Mike Liut]

Av’s came in ready to rumble. Nothing but respect for them except for Kadri. That guys an embarrassment and scum.

I want the Avs to hoist the Cup. Destroy Vegas.

I don’t have anything against the Avs. They are a great team. Don’t really care who wins at this point.

 

[Ranksu]

Av’s came in ready to rumble. Nothing but respect for them except for Kadri. That guys an embarrassment and scum.

I want the Avs to hoist the Cup. Destroy Vegas.

I would love to see Vegas beat Avs. Pietro be a key player for Vegas.

And End of playoffs

 

[Linkens Mastery]

pretty sure it'd have to be Krug+ for Schmidt

It's Benning tho.

 

[missionAvs]

Avs fan coming in peace. Wanted to post my GGs. This series was much much closer than the sweep indicates. Props to the Blues for making the push and making the playoffs despite all the injuries. I thought your team battled hard and could have easily taken games 2-3. As far as a specific player is concerned, Mikkola was the one that impressed me a ton. I thought he played great and will be a large part of your blueline going forwards. Anyways, good luck next year.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

That's not true. They may have looked "out of it" but they were out there anticipating plays, which is what you do against fast teams. Thomas and Kyrou were generating a fair amount of scoring opportunities, and it's more difficult to get engaged when you're only playing 13-14 minutes a night. The Blues need to get younger and faster if they want to keep up with some of these young talents in the league, and it starts with building around Thomas and Kyrou.

Perron ROR Tarasenko
Schenn Thomas Kyrou
Kostin Barbashev Sundqvist

That should be the top 9 next year.

Tell Berube that. He specifically called out Thomas for not being engaged. But while we do need to get younger and faster, Thomas needs to up his on and off ice work ethic if he is to be building block.

 

[Stealth JD]

Avs fan coming in peace. Wanted to post my GGs. This series was much much closer than the sweep indicates. Props to the Blues for making the push and making the playoffs despite all the injuries. I thought your team battled hard and could have easily taken games 2-3. As far as a specific player is concerned, Mikkola was the one that impressed me a ton. I thought he played great and will be a large part of your blueline going forwards. Anyways, good luck next year.

This is my worry with regards to the Kraken...Mikkola is unproven, but really intriguing. For a league-minimum guy who is still developing his North American game, he's one of the few players on this team (Blais perhaps being the other) who could be a home-run selection if the Kraken want to swing for the fences on overlooked young depth guys. The Blues already have Krug, Faulk, Parayko and Dunn vying for 3-protection spots; barring a philosophical shift from the Blues front-office derived from a need to dump salary, there's simply no way Mikkola will be protected. (Not that I agree with that decision) Colorado is going to run roughshod through this Blues defense for years to come if they don't add some beef to the back-end; and Mikkola is one of the few guys in the system who offer that dynamic.

Good luck to the Avs. We've seen them coming for a while now. I'm glad the Blues got their Cup when they did, because Sakic doesn't seem like the type who will cut off his own nose to spite his face and willingly drive his Stanley Cup contender into the ditch by playing hardball with his most valuable player. I expect the Avs to be beasts for the rest of the decade. Timmins, Makar, Graves and Byram are all veritable children. It's borderline unfair the depth, youth and talent of your blueline. When Graves and Toews are the gray-beards, and you're ready to run former #1OA EJ out of town, you know you're in good shape. Go get a Cup; Vegas can suck a lemon for all eternity.

 

[BlueMed]

If that is our top 9 next year, I personally won’t have terribly high hopes for this team to be successful. It is objectively worse that what we iced this year.

The problem isn't the players but rather Berube's inability to utilize skill. Let's take a look at Carolina's top 9

Svechnikov-Aho-Teravainen
Niederreiter-Trocheck-Necas
Foegele-Staal-Fast

or NYI's

Komarov-Barzal-Eberle
Beauviller-Nelson-Bailey
Palmeiri-Pageau-Wahlstrom

Those teams are getting much more out of their talent.

 

[MissouriMook]

The problem isn't the players but rather Berube's inability to utilize skill. Let's take a look at Carolina's top 9

Svechnikov-Aho-Teravainen
Niederreiter-Trocheck-Necas
Foegele-Staal-Fast

or NYI's

Komarov-Barzal-Eberle
Beauviller-Nelson-Bailey
Palmeiri-Pageau-Wahlstrom

Those teams are getting much more out of their talent.

This may be the most intriguing storyline of the offseason. If Armstrong feels like retooling this team means that they need to get faster and more skilled to compete with teams like Colorado, Vegas and even lesser teams like Dallas and Arizona, is Berube the guy to coach a team being re-built in that image? Or do you strike while a guy like Gerard Gallant is available and hope he can do with a re-tooled Blues roster what he did for Vegas in its first couple of years?

 

[BlueMed]

This may be the most intriguing storyline of the offseason. If Armstrong feels like retooling this team means that they need to get faster and more skilled to compete with teams like Colorado, Vegas and even lesser teams like Dallas and Arizona, is Berube the guy to coach a team being re-built in that image? Or do you strike while a guy like Gerard Gallant is available and hope he can do with a re-tooled Blues roster what he did for Vegas in its first couple of years?

Thomas and Kyrou should be ready for bigger minutes next year. They represent the next generation of players that are faster and more skilled. If Carolina is playing Aho (age 23), Svechnikov (age 21), and Necas (age 22) in the top 6, there's no reason Thomas, Kyrou, and Kostin shouldn't be given room to grow there next season. Berube needs to understand that those players will make mistakes from time to time, but their speed and skill will bring much more positive contributions, especially if our D core can get healthy and possibly improved in the off season.

 

[Majorityof1]

If that is our top 9 next year, I personally won’t have terribly high hopes for this team to be successful. It is objectively worse that what we iced this year.

Agreed; however, they could then use the cap savings to improve our defense. IF (and these are big ifs) Parayko and Tarasenko heal enough to regain their form, while Thomas and Kyrou can find some consistency to play like we know they can, then that top 9 doesn't lose too much. Combine that by using the cap to find a difference making LD, it starts to look a lot better.

For example:

Perron RoR Tarasenko
Schenn Thomas Kyrou
Kostin/Sandford Sundqvist Barbashev

Ekholm Parayko
Scandella Faulk
Krug/Dunn Bortuzzo

I'm using Ekholm as an example, as his name was in the trade rumor mill and there are no great LD available in UFA. The problem with this approach is that most of the best D hitting UFA are RD. So we'd most likely have to find someone in trade or settle for Hjalmarsson or Edler. For me, improving our D is essential this offseason. I'm ok if our top 9 on paper is worse because our top 9 didn't live up to what they were on paper this year. Improving the D and an off-season to rest will hopefully let a top 9 that is worse on paper be better on the ice.

 

[BlueMed]

Agreed; however, they could then use the cap savings to improve our defense. IF (and these are big ifs) Parayko and Tarasenko heal enough to regain their form, while Thomas and Kyrou can find some consistency to play like we know they can, then that top 9 doesn't lose too much. Combine that by using the cap to find a difference making LD, it starts to look a lot better.

For example:

Perron RoR Tarasenko
Schenn Thomas Kyrou
Kostin/Sandford Sundqvist Barbashev

Ekholm Parayko
Scandella Faulk
Krug/Dunn Bortuzzo

I'm using Ekholm as an example, as his name was in the trade rumor mill and there are no great LD available in UFA. The problem with this approach is that most of the best D hitting UFA are RD. So we'd most likely have to find someone in trade or settle for Hjalmarsson or Edler. For me, improving our D is essential this offseason. I'm ok if our top 9 on paper is worse because our top 9 didn't live up to what they were on paper this year. Improving the D and an off-season to rest will hopefully let a top 9 that is worse on paper be better on the ice.

That top 9 is actually pretty good considering everyone in the top 6 is a real top 6 player (that's not the case for most teams in the league) and our 3rd line players can provide scoring support. The problem is, Berube wastes our skill. It's time to start allowing our players to use their speed and skill to score off the rush like Colorado and Vegas do.

 

[JoshFromMO]

If we are going to tend more for speed and skill then this makes the Fabbri trade more upsetting

 

[mw2noobbuster]

If we are going to tend more for speed and skill then this makes the Fabbri trade more upsetting

Fabbri is a shell of his former self and has had injury problems all of this season.

 

[Celtic Note]

Agreed; however, they could then use the cap savings to improve our defense. IF (and these are big ifs) Parayko and Tarasenko heal enough to regain their form, while Thomas and Kyrou can find some consistency to play like we know they can, then that top 9 doesn't lose too much. Combine that by using the cap to find a difference making LD, it starts to look a lot better.

For example:

Perron RoR Tarasenko
Schenn Thomas Kyrou
Kostin/Sandford Sundqvist Barbashev

Ekholm Parayko
Scandella Faulk
Krug/Dunn Bortuzzo

I'm using Ekholm as an example, as his name was in the trade rumor mill and there are no great LD available in UFA. The problem with this approach is that most of the best D hitting UFA are RD. So we'd most likely have to find someone in trade or settle for Hjalmarsson or Edler. For me, improving our D is essential this offseason. I'm ok if our top 9 on paper is worse because our top 9 didn't live up to what they were on paper this year. Improving the D and an off-season to rest will hopefully let a top 9 that is worse on paper be better on the ice.

I think we need to upgrade our offense and our dense to be able to compete. Maybe we can do both with all the potential money coming off the books, but I am skeptical. We also don’t have the assets to bring in those players through trades and if by some chance we do have the assets (not convinced) we will likely be mortgaging the future of this team to do so, unless we are bringing in young players (more skepticism here).

With this summer being a year of negative revenue streams for clubs, maybe we can buy players on the cheap and retool, but I am not confident. We have a lot of holes at the moment and some big contracts are Ott of the problem moving forward.

 

[Celtic Note]

The problem isn't the players but rather Berube's inability to utilize skill. Let's take a look at Carolina's top 9

Svechnikov-Aho-Teravainen
Niederreiter-Trocheck-Necas
Foegele-Staal-Fast

or NYI's

Komarov-Barzal-Eberle
Beauviller-Nelson-Bailey
Palmeiri-Pageau-Wahlstrom

Those teams are getting much more out of their talent.

We under performed this year. No argument here.

Are those lineups better or worse than the top 9 posted? I would say so. The name recognition might not be there for some, but I could argue they have more talented players.

Could a different coach motivate their players more? Sure why not. Our players didn’t look motivated since the Vancouver playoff series. Is Berube the problem? I would guess not. Our roster construction just isn’t that good. It has gotten pretty hodgepodge and doesn’t have much of an identity. We really aren’t good at anything anymore. We are above average in a few areas but that reeks of settling into the mediocrity category.

 

[Majorityof1]

I think we need to upgrade our offense and our dense to be able to compete. Maybe we can do both with all the potential money coming off the books, but I am skeptical. We also don’t have the assets to bring in those players through trades and if by some chance we do have the assets (not convinced) we will likely be mortgaging the future of this team to do so, unless we are bringing in young players (more skepticism here).

With this summer being a year of negative revenue streams for clubs, maybe we can buy players on the cheap and retool, but I am not confident. We have a lot of holes at the moment and some big contracts are Ott of the problem moving forward.

I agree that we don't have the assets to trade. I was really hoping there was a good LD hitting free agency but their isn't. I'm hoping someone shakes lose do to cap constraints that we can take advantage of if we move on from some of our expensive forwards (Schwartz, Bozak and Hoffman).

I do think our offense needs to be better. My point was more that it could improve internally than that it was fine as is. Tarasenko getting back to form and Thomas/Kyrou playing like consistent Top 6 players would go a long way to improving the offense without adding any players.

 

[DeuceNine]

Any Kroenke-owned team can ride the pole

 

[Louie the Blue]

Agreed; however, they could then use the cap savings to improve our defense. IF (and these are big ifs) Parayko and Tarasenko heal enough to regain their form, while Thomas and Kyrou can find some consistency to play like we know they can, then that top 9 doesn't lose too much. Combine that by using the cap to find a difference making LD, it starts to look a lot better.

For example:

Perron RoR Tarasenko
Schenn Thomas Kyrou
Kostin/Sandford Sundqvist Barbashev

Ekholm Parayko
Scandella Faulk
Krug/Dunn Bortuzzo

I'm using Ekholm as an example, as his name was in the trade rumor mill and there are no great LD available in UFA. The problem with this approach is that most of the best D hitting UFA are RD. So we'd most likely have to find someone in trade or settle for Hjalmarsson or Edler. For me, improving our D is essential this offseason. I'm ok if our top 9 on paper is worse because our top 9 didn't live up to what they were on paper this year. Improving the D and an off-season to rest will hopefully let a top 9 that is worse on paper be better on the ice.

LD isn’t the issue-RD is. Perunovich should be good to go next season. Bortuzzo should be nothing more than a 7th D. Get a solid RD to pair with Krug and D is fine.

 

[MissouriMook]

Fabbri is a shell of his former self and has had injury problems all of this season.

And yet he was on a 27 goal pace and was +3 on an absolutely awful team.

 

[MissouriMook]

LD isn’t the issue-RD is. Perunovich should be good to go next season. Bortuzzo should be nothing more than a 7th D. Get a solid RD to pair with Krug and D is fine.

I'm not sure what color the sky is in your world, but Parayko and Faulk are the two best defensemen on the team right now. The last thing we need is to create another log jam of Top 4 righties. Get a solid LD that can push Krug to the 2nd pair and we're fine on D.

 

[Louie the Blue]

I'm not sure what color the sky is in your world, but Parayko and Faulk are the two best defensemen on the team right now. The last thing we need is to create another log jam of Top 4 righties. Get a solid LD that can push Krug to the 2nd pair and we're fine on D.

Dunn, Mikkola, Walman are all LD as well as Perunovich and Scandella.

Ideally, one of Dunn/Perunovich plays with Faulk and have a RD to pair with Krug.

 

[MissouriMook]

Dunn, Mikkola, Walman are all LD as well as Perunovich and Scandella.

Ideally, one of Dunn/Perunovich plays with Faulk and have a RD to pair with Krug.

So what happened to Parayko?

Again, our two best D right now are righties. I feel like there is room for one of Krug and Dunn in the Top 4 on the left side, but not both. To me, the hole to fill is the Top LD spot. Dunn, Mikkola, Scandella, Perunovich and Walman would be competing for the 3LD spot, lost to Seattle or traded. If we can’t fill that 1LD hole, one of them will have to grab it or we risk the same defensive issues that plagued us off and on this season.

 

[Majorityof1]

LD isn’t the issue-RD is. Perunovich should be good to go next season. Bortuzzo should be nothing more than a 7th D. Get a solid RD to pair with Krug and D is fine.

Dunn, Mikkola, Walman are all LD as well as Perunovich and Scandella.

Ideally, one of Dunn/Perunovich plays with Faulk and have a RD to pair with Krug.

LD is the issue because of the defensive side of the puck. Walman, Krug, Dunn, Perunovich are all offensive defensemen. We do not have strong enough RD to shelter them all as Faulk is also a offensive guy and Borts while defensive isn't anywhere near elite. We also literally do not have a 2nd PK unit LD. Our D on the whole was bad this year. A 3rd pair RD fixes about 14 minutes of a 60 minute game. A top 4 LD with a strong defensive game can push Krug down to be sheltered and fix our PK. That is a lot closer to a 60 minute solution.

 

[BlueMed]

LD isn’t the issue-RD is. Perunovich should be good to go next season. Bortuzzo should be nothing more than a 7th D. Get a solid RD to pair with Krug and D is fine.

Who would Perunovich play over? Mikkola or Walman? Not so fast...he hasn't played a single NHL game yet

 

[BlueMed]

I'm not sure what color the sky is in your world, but Parayko and Faulk are the two best defensemen on the team right now. The last thing we need is to create another log jam of Top 4 righties. Get a solid LD that can push Krug to the 2nd pair and we're fine on D.

That's what Scandella is for.