Opening night lineup predictions

[Thallis]

No way. This isn’t 2017 Tank. He is shadow of former self.

Even as a shadow he's better than those three.

 

[thedustman]

He's a lot better than all 3 lmao. The ghost of James Neal is a better player than the latter 2

no ghost is better than barbie. I agree with your sentiment in general, just not the ghost of Neal being better than Barbashev part

 

[Reality Czech]

It seems we have our 23-man roster.


So we're probably going to get something like this:

Saad - O'Reilly - Perron
Kyrou - Schenn - Buchnevich
Neal - Thomas - Tasasenko
Barbashev - Bozak - Neighbours
Clifford/Kostin

Scandella - Parayko
Krug - Faulk
Walman - Bortuzzo
Mikkola

Binnington
Husso

That's the lineup I would predict if I had to guess, but there are so many possible combinations. What I'm wondering about is who slots in next to ROR/Perron? Once that question is answered then the rest of the pieces can fall into place. I can certainly see Saad in that spot, but what about Kyrou or even Neighbors? Maybe Neighbors is a long-shot, but they played together in pre-season and he sounds like he is a hard worker with good hockey sense. ROR and Perron are good enough to shelter a young player and putting one of those two with them would strengthen the middle 6. You could go with either:

Perron ROR Kyrou
Saad Schenn Buch
Neal Thomas Tarasenko

or

Neighbours ROR Perron
Kyrou Schenn Buch
Saad Thomas Tarasenko

 

[Beauterham]

That's the lineup I would predict if I had to guess, but there are so many possible combinations. What I'm wondering about is who slots in next to ROR/Perron? Once that question is answered then the rest of the pieces can fall into place. I can certainly see Saad in that spot, but what about Kyrou or even Neighbors? Maybe Neighbors is a long-shot, but they played together in pre-season and he sounds like he is a hard worker with good hockey sense. ROR and Perron are good enough to shelter a young player and putting one of those two with them would strengthen the middle 6. You could go with either:

Perron ROR Kyrou
Saad Schenn Buch
Neal Thomas Tarasenko

or

Neighbours ROR Perron
Kyrou Schenn Buch
Saad Thomas Tarasenko

Yeah, we know Berube likes to think in pairs: 2 forwards he likes to keep together on a line with, more easily swapping the 3rd forward.

This years pairs appear to be:

O'Reilly - Perron
Schenn - Buchnevich
Thomas - Tarasenko

I can see all other players move up or down the lineup during the first couple of games or even during the first game itself based on, for example, hot or cold streaks, an element he wants to add to a pair for a specific game or games, etc. If Neighbours deserves to get a shot with the ROR-Perron line he will probably get one sooner or later as Berube seems to be really high on him.

Talking about the 3 pairs, this is what I love with this seasons forward group: I wouldn't describe either of these pairings as the outspoken first line pairing: On paper the Thomas - Tank pairing is on the 3rd line, but they could very easily be on the line that plays the most minutes if they're the most effective. We could be a nightmare for our opponents to match our lines.

 

[Ranksu]

Have to be really idiotic to play together Krug - Faulk. Should separate them right away. Seen it and it doesn't work.

 

[Mike Liut]

Have to be really idiotic to play together Krug - Faulk. Should separate them right away. Seen it and it doesn't work.

They want Scandella - Parayko to be the shutdown pair. And you aren’t moving Faulk or Krug to the 3rd pair. So that leaves them right there.

 

[Ranksu]

They want Scandella - Parayko to be the shutdown pair. And you aren’t moving Faulk or Krug to the 3rd pair. So that leaves them right there.

Well they will get exposed. Somebody needs to baby sit them. You don't add in two babysitting in same room alone, you at least keep one adult with them.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Well they will get exposed. Somebody needs to baby sit them. You don't add in two babysitting in same room alone, you at least keep one adult with them.

Broken record.

 

[TK 421]

*Looks at forward lines* Feeling optimistic....

*Looks at defense pairs* Can we just talk about the forwards again?

 

[Mike Liut]

I think our D will be much better than people think. Parayko was Scandella were both hurt and Krug was in a new system.

 

[BlueMed]

I think our D will be much better than people think. Parayko was Scandella were both hurt and Krug was in a new system.

I still don't even see how people can look at Parayko and Scandella last year and say "that doesnt work" when they were injured after watching their first 10 games together the year before and say "wow they look pretty good together"

 

[Meatball]

f*** the haters, that lineup got me hot and bothered.

I can vividly remember, during the Hitch era, we would dream about lineups like this. ROR as #1C with Perron and Saad?

I can't wait to see what we do!

 

[BlueSeal]

Anyone think Husso could potentially take over #1??

DAMN YOU MADE ME CHOKE LOL

 

[jura]

Kostin recalled from Springfield Thunderbirds

The Blues roster is now at 24 players.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Kostin recalled from Springfield Thunderbirds

The Blues roster is now at 24 players.

Sunny put on IR. Back to 23.

 

[stl76]

I think our D will be much better than people think. Parayko was Scandella were both hurt and Krug was in a new system.

I tend to agree with you. When healthy and properly utilized, I think our defense can be greater than the sum of it's parts. A Scandella - Parayko pairing is strong defensively, while Krug - Faulk is strong offensively. Put them together and have them cover for each other's deficiencies and you have a net result of 2 very strong pairings.

It's hard to over state the impact that missing Parayko had on the overall group last year.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

I tend to agree with you. When healthy and properly utilized, I think our defense can be greater than the sum of it's parts. A Scandella - Parayko pairing is strong defensively, while Krug - Faulk is strong offensively. Put them together and have them cover for each other's deficiencies and you have a net result of 2 very strong pairings.

It's hard to over state the impact that missing Parayko had on the overall group last year.

Exactly. Even when they were in lineup, both Parayko and Scandella were injured and not at their best for most of the season. Previous year they excelled together after Scandella arrived.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

If you assume Armstrong's moves to acquire the defensive players he has represent a deliberate strategy, I'd really like to see what this is supposed to look like with healthy players. The jury is out, but I don't believe Armstrong's moves were nearly as reactionary as some on this board.

 

[LetsGoBLUES91]

I tend to agree with you. When healthy and properly utilized, I think our defense can be greater than the sum of it's parts. A Scandella - Parayko pairing is strong defensively, while Krug - Faulk is strong offensively. Put them together and have them cover for each other's deficiencies and you have a net result of 2 very strong pairings.

It's hard to over state the impact that missing Parayko had on the overall group last year.

Why not Krug-Parayko and Scandella-Faulk pairings? Only thing I don’t get. I don’t mind them as a whole.

 

[rumrokh]

Why not Krug-Parayko and Scandella-Faulk pairings? Only thing I don’t get. I don’t mind them as a whole.

Because you don't want Krug getting the same opponents and zone starts as Parayko.

The idea that a stalwart defender can cover for your risky offensive guy is more of a video game thing, honestly. It does happen, but most teams' pairs revolve so much around match-ups and deployment. It would work better if the Blues, as an entire team, controlled the puck more. That way, they'd have to do less defending and would have fewer total defensive zone faceoffs. We'll have to see if it plays out that way with a healthy team and a revamped forward lineup, but until we see that work, there are very good reasons not to tie those two together.

 

[Vladys Gumption]

Because you don't want Krug getting the same opponents and zone starts as Parayko.

The idea that a stalwart defender can cover for your risky offensive guy is more of a video game thing, honestly. It does happen, but most teams' pairs revolve so much around match-ups and deployment. It would work better if the Blues, as an entire team, controlled the puck more. That way, they'd have to do less defending and would have fewer total defensive zone faceoffs. We'll have to see if it plays out that way with a healthy team and a revamped forward lineup, but until we see that work, there are very good reasons not to tie those two together.

To be fair though, Boston pretty much did exactly that with Krug. They played him with Carlo a ton.

 

[execwrite1]

I tend to agree with you. When healthy and properly utilized, I think our defense can be greater than the sum of it's parts. A Scandella - Parayko pairing is strong defensively, while Krug - Faulk is strong offensively. Put them together and have them cover for each other's deficiencies and you have a net result of 2 very strong pairings.

It's hard to over state the impact that missing Parayko had on the overall group last year.

Pietrangelo-Gunnarson, Parayko-Bouwmeester is the benchmark.

 

[Brian39]

Have to be really idiotic to play together Krug - Faulk. Should separate them right away. Seen it and it doesn't work.

As a top pairing I completely agree. If Krug-Faulk are consistently going against the top lines of top 10 teams in shut down situations, they don't work. We did see that last year. Good thing that isn't remotely the intention with the pairs as constructed.

I'm not sold that the Scandella-Parayko pairing is good enough to effectively play that shutdown role against top 10 teams either, but we are going to see how it looks with a healthy Parayko. That leaves Krug-Faulk getting offensive usage against 2nd tier talent. I'm very, very curious to know when you saw that and it didn't work. Krug-Falk were +4 at 5 on 5 together last year and were deployed in much more difficult usage than they should be with the proposed lineup.

If Scandella-Parayko are a legit top 10 shutdown pairing in the league then the above pairings will work. Krug-Faulk is a good 2nd pair when the 1st pair is handling most the shut down work. If Scandella-Parayko aren't capable of handling shut down duty, then I think the solution is to split them up and try to Krug-Parayko + Scandella/Faulk.

Scandella-Parayko played 130 minutes together at 5 on 5 last year across 25 of our 56 games. Parayko was Scandella's 3rd most common partner. Krug-Parayko played 126 minutes together. After returning from injury, Parayko averaged 2nd pairing minutes (20:32 a night) while Faulk played 23:34 a night and Krug played 21:04 a night. We absolutely have not seen Krug-Faulk fail as a 2nd pair role behind a top shut down pair of Scandella-Parayko.

 

[rumrokh]

To be fair though, Boston pretty much did exactly that with Krug. They played him with Carlo a ton.

The competition and zone starts he got with Boston were very similar to how the Blues always used Dunn.

 

[Vladys Gumption]

The competition and zone starts he got with Boston were very similar to how the Blues always used Dunn.

Also very true. And it’s how I think we need to use Krug to maximize his talents.