2023-2024 Blues Multi-Purpose Thread

[PocketNines]

I had a somewhat surreal experience yesterday. I decided to make a Christmas log cake because I've never tried making one and it's late April so I went to the grocery store around 530 pm to get whipping cream and raspberries and chocolate. And right over in the baked goods section of Safeway there's this guy with a Blues polo shirt on. And it's a fairly small (17k) town in northern California and I have never seen anyone else with Blues stuff living here for 8 years. So I'm like hey are you a Blues fan and he's like yeah I live here and my Neighbours jersey arrives in the mail tomorrow and he's going to be a future captain and my kids don't understand why I watch every game all the way to the end and I was just arguing with someone online about the value of Toropchenko and do you think we are going to stay with Bannister or hire the Denver coach and what do you think of Snuggerud staying in college and what about Steen scouting for us now ... on and on it went for 30 minutes. I swear this happened.

 

[Drubilly]

I had a somewhat surreal experience yesterday. I decided to make a Christmas log cake because I've never tried making one and it's late April so I went to the grocery store around 530 pm to get whipping cream and raspberries and chocolate. And right over in the baked goods section of Safeway there's this guy with a Blues polo shirt on. And it's a fairly small (17k) town in northern California and I have never seen anyone else with Blues stuff living here for 8 years. So I'm like hey are you a Blues fan and he's like yeah I live here and my Neighbours jersey arrives in the mail tomorrow and he's going to be a future captain and my kids don't understand why I watch every game all the way to the end and I was just arguing with someone online about the value of Toropchenko and do you think we are going to stay with Bannister or hire the Denver coach and what do you think of Snuggerud staying in college and what about Steen scouting for us now ... on and on it went for 30 minutes. I swear this happened.

You know he’s a true fan when he said he’s online arguing about Torpo. Lol

 

[PocketNines]

View attachment 861894

It was so much this that I was literally thinking of this gif while it was occurring and I'm standing there holding whipping cream. But here's the kicker we put our house on the market at the worst time almost 3 years ago and finally just dropped the price on Friday and I would be shocked if I am here in October. We are going up toward Olympia Tacoma Seattle we think

 

[bleedblue1223]

Would've been hilarious if it was a poster on here.

 

[PocketNines]

Would've been hilarious if it was a poster on here.

I thought it was you!

 

[PocketNines]

He also asked whether I thought Lindstein was going to be a good partner for Parayko, so what I did was blatantly steal Iowa's/STL fan in MN's opinion about Lindstein's high IQ and definite value as a top 4 NHL defender and pass it off as my own. (I knew it wasn't @STL fan in MN I was talking to, he is the only one of you I have met)

 

[Bobby Orrtuzzo]

He also asked whether I thought Lindstein was going to be a good partner for Parayko, so what I did was blatantly steal Iowa's/STL fan in MN's opinion about Lindstein's high IQ and definite value as a top 4 NHL defender and pass it off as my own. (I knew it wasn't @STL fan in MN I was talking to, he is the only one of you I have met)

Did he mention anything about Charlie Lindgren?

 

[Majorityof1]

I don’t know for sure what blues think of either guy. I am merely expressing my opinions. I look at woodcraft and don’t see the appeal. I know oil had goaltending issues, but there problems seemed to go deeper. I could be wrong, but I am not impressed by woodcroft as head coach. And I would say if he was our guy, we could have hired him anytime between when we canned Berube and now, as he was unemployed. That we didn’t suggests he isn’t at top of our list.

You again miss the point of a good hiring process. Even if Woodcroft was at the top of our list, there is no reason to jump the gun on his hire. When hiring for key positions, you should, if possible, interview multiple candidates in multiple ways with multiple people. There is always the threat that a candidate might take a role elsewhere, but if you make your interest known, they will generally give you a head's up before making a move if you were a top choice.

The reason I asked what the Blues thought is that if Army hires Woodcroft, you'll be defending the move the next day. And that's fair because we as fans don't know shit. Army before he even begins to start looking for candidates knows 10x what we know just from being plugged in with other GMs around the league. Add a thorough vetting and interview process, he'll have 100 times the info we have. For me, coaches are different than players. I think a lot of what they do goes unnoticed, and even the most ardent fans cannot even learn about it. They are the proverbial iceberg where we only see a fraction of what they do, while the rest is buried under water.

 

[STL fan in MN]

He also asked whether I thought Lindstein was going to be a good partner for Parayko, so what I did was blatantly steal Iowa's/STL fan in MN's opinion about Lindstein's high IQ and definite value as a top 4 NHL defender and pass it off as my own. (I knew it wasn't @STL fan in MN I was talking to, he is the only one of you I have met)

 

[Drubilly]

It was so much this that I was literally thinking of this gif while it was occurring and I'm standing there holding whipping cream. But here's the kicker we put our house on the market at the worst time almost 3 years ago and finally just dropped the price on Friday and I would be shocked if I am here in October. We are going up toward Olympia Tacoma Seattle we think

Nice! There’s great beer up there.

 

[Blueston]

You again miss the point of a good hiring process. Even if Woodcroft was at the top of our list, there is no reason to jump the gun on his hire. When hiring for key positions, you should, if possible, interview multiple candidates in multiple ways with multiple people. There is always the threat that a candidate might take a role elsewhere, but if you make your interest known, they will generally give you a head's up before making a move if you were a top choice.

The reason I asked what the Blues thought is that if Army hires Woodcroft, you'll be defending the move the next day. And that's fair because we as fans don't know shit. Army before he even begins to start looking for candidates knows 10x what we know just from being plugged in with other GMs around the league. Add a thorough vetting and interview process, he'll have 100 times the info we have. For me, coaches are different than players. I think a lot of what they do goes unnoticed, and even the most ardent fans cannot even learn about it. They are the proverbial iceberg where we only see a fraction of what they do, while the rest is buried under water.

this isn't like hiring an entry level position. these guys all have tangible track records and have interacted with lots of folks army knows. a good hiring process for job like this is thorough dive on potential candidates. It isn't primarily about 'interviews". Interviews are always suspect way to hire anyway. Here it's about studying their teams performance, talking to guys who worked with and for them, and so much more. we have presumably done this for each of our potential candidates. if at this level you need to interview a bunch of candidates to figure out your hiring decision on that, you're doing it wrong. you should have bulk of your candidates assessment done before ever meeting with them, and "interviewing" should be one of the final steps in hiring. so yeah, if woodcroft is our guy, we should know by now. i'm fairly confident he isn't our 1st choice, and while we may not get our top guy, if we can't get one of our top tier guys, i would hope and expect we stick with bannister.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Who knows who our top guy is, but like others have sort of said, our top guy if we had one during the season, likely wasn't available to be hired during the season. It's also plausible that we really didn't have a top guy in mind, and needed to do analysis to determine our top guy and the rest of the shortlist. And in a scenario where our top guy is someone that isn't available this year, I could absolutely see Bannister getting a 2 year deal that would be cheap to try and get that top guy in the next year or 2. I'm also not going to read into many of the reports that are out there. I'm sure Carle is on the list, but I don't think anyone really has any idea of who our ideal candidate is.

 

[Mike Liut]

I’d be ok with Bannister for another year or 2. I think he did a good job considering our flawed roster.

 

[WeWentBlues]

Can we bring back Berube?

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Would've been hilarious if it was a poster on here.

Would be hilarious if you got along great, only to discover it’s a poster you’ve had run ins with or have on block. Conversation turned awkward.

 

[Celtic Note]

Would be hilarious if you got along great, only to discover it’s a poster you’ve had run ins with or have on block. Conversation turned awkward.

People often aren’t “people” when driving, customers or posting on the internet. So, it wouldn’t surprise.

 

[PocketNines]

Oh the only posters I have run ins with are the ones who attack me as a person repeatedly over a period of years when I say what I think should be happening with the Blues. Due to that series of choices, I can treat such a person however I elect to treat them, they have earned it. That's just how life works, there are no time machines

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Oh the only posters I have run ins with are the ones who attack me as a person repeatedly over a period of years when I say what I think should be happening with the Blues. Due to that series of choices, I can treat such a person however I elect to treat them, they have earned it. That's just how life works, there are no time machines

No doubt.

Still the prospect of unwittingly getting a fresh start and making friends with someone you have that history with is an amusing possibility. I suspect many posters would be much different in person. I hope so!

 

[Linkens Mastery]

No doubt.

Still the prospect of unwittingly getting a fresh start and making friends with someone you have that history with is an amusing possibility. I suspect many posters would be much different in person. I hope so!

You're right, I'm worse.... jkjk

 

[bleedblue1223]

Did everyone else know Monty's wife is from St. Louis or did I just forget. Makes me more optimistic that we could pull him.

 

[Blueston]

Did everyone else know Monty's wife is from St. Louis or did I just forget. Makes me more optimistic that we could pull him.

Petro’s wife was too.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Petro’s wife was too.

He's coming back too? Sweet, HC and #1 D.

For the record, my optimism is still fairly low that it would happen this summer.

 

[STL fan in MN]

Did everyone else know Monty's wife is from St. Louis or did I just forget. Makes me more optimistic that we could pull him.

It seems potentially possible. Maybe. At some point.

I found this Q&A from JR interesting:

Even with a year remaining on Jim Montgomery’s contract with the Boston Bruins, is there any way he could get out of his contract and become the Blues coach for the 2024-2025 season? — Shawn G.

When I was originally asked this question a few weeks ago, I gave it no chance of happening. I felt like prying Montgomery out of Boston would be close to impossible.

In two seasons with Boston, Montgomery’s record in the regular season is 112-32-20, the highest points percentage (.744) in the NHL in that span. Yeah, back-to-back early playoff exits could open a little hole for the possibility, but still that would be shocking.

The fact that he’s got a year left on his contract makes it seem even more unlikely.

But often when you write something like I did about Montgomery’s availability being extremely doubtful, someone will call you and say, “Don’t be so sure.” That was the case this time — with multiple sources close to Montgomery saying not to rule it out because of his family’s love for St. Louis, his wife’s hometown.

That doesn’t mean he’d leave Boston or that the Bruins would let him go. But you never know what could happen if there was mutual interest with the Blues.

So JR originally said no way and apparently multiple sources close to Montgomery called to say “don’t be so sure.”

Interesting…

 

[Xerloris]

It seems potentially possible. Maybe. At some point.

I found this Q&A from JR interesting:


So JR originally said no way and apparently multiple sources close to Montgomery called to say “don’t be so sure.”

Interesting…

Don't let him fool you. No one talks to JR, he makes all this shit up. He read the fans were getting excited talking about Monty so he had to hurry up and write some click bait bullshit. That's all he is.

 

[bleedblue1223]

I do think us being the one that gave him the opportunity to return means something. If Berube was fired with Monty still on staff, I think Monty would be HC.