Half-Assed GDT: Blues vs Wild

[Bluesnatic27]

I’m so happy I got to see Blais’ first goal while at the game. I’ve been such a fan of his for so long.

 

[Lakas]

Man we should have turtled after the first goal like a true cup contender and sealed the deal with an EN goal

And pray the refs want a clutch and grab game

 

[Meatball]

Bergie back next game, too.

 

[Novacain]

So... are we getting close to the point were we don't whine about Thorburn playing every game? I wasn't in love with it, but it's hard to say he hasn't been at least okay at his job.

 

[KirkOut]

So... are we getting close to the point were we don't whine about Thorburn playing every game? I wasn't in love with it, but it's hard to say he hasn't been at least okay at his job.

He was great in his 3 minutes of ice time today. Had a puck bounce off his skate, got his face punched several times, almost scored into a wide open net. He was a true force.

Anyway, no

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Blais is so soft spoken.

 

[Falco Lombardi]

So... are we getting close to the point were we don't whine about Thorburn playing every game? I wasn't in love with it, but it's hard to say he hasn't been at least okay at his job.

It’s not that I’m at that point but I think it’s fair to acknowledge he’s not taking a spot from anyone meaningful. It’s not like he’s playing at the expense of a Fabbri, it’s at the expense of a Paajarvi.

 

[Dbrownss]

Man we should have turtled after the first goal like a true cup contender and sealed the deal with an EN goal

I just hope Ajax turned off the game so he didn’t have to listen to Schwartz’s foolishly optimistic perspective on the subject of not going 82-0

 

[Novacain]

You know, I'm legitimately curious... How did we never rank Blais higher as a prospect? Like, maybe I'm wrong here, but it feels like we never REALLY started to view him as something to get excited about till this pre-season. But since we drafted him, he put out back to back 82 point seasons in the Q then had 26 goals as a 20 year old in the AHL last year. It feels like we should have been a lot higher on him then we were.

 

[yogintheaveragebears]

we collectively dont get to these prospects day in and day out must of us are either full time employed or full time students its easy to see why we miss big on procpects all the time... on the other hand who eversaid were a mentally weak team has a shoe to eat

 

[Novacain]

I get that in theory, but the thing is most fans who don't get to watch players can only go off stats. And Blais's stats have, imo, exceeded expectations every year. He put up 82 points in the Q the same year Barbashev put up 95, and they were same draft class. I'm not blaming anyone, it's just interesting cause I'm not sure what more we could have asked out of a 6th round draft pick to elevate their stock.

 

[nicholas89alex]

I get that in theory, but the thing is most fans who don't get to watch players can only go off stats. And Blais's stats have, imo, exceeded expectations every year. He put up 82 points in the Q the same year Barbashev put up 95, and they were same draft class. I'm not blaming anyone, it's just interesting cause I'm not sure what more we could have asked out of a 6th round draft pick to elevate their stock.

95 in 57 is more impressive than 82 in 61.
to answer your question i think that hockey IQ is Blais strong point and t\also the hardest to measure for non hockey professionals. most fans on here mostly rely on highlights and those dont make blais stand out the way other prospects do. Any time ive gotten the chance to see blais play i think to myself he scores but i dont see anything that seems impressive. Thompson you can see the dangles, Barbie and kyrou have shown playmaking skills, Dunn and Wlaman are obviously plus skaters. Blais doesnt have any one tool that really stands out from a physical perspective. that plus the fact he was such a late pick i think had a lot of people asking how it would translate to the pros and undervaluing him a bit.

 

[yogintheaveragebears]

plus all those guys have draft pedigree blais wasnt even ranked its easy to say we dont care about draft but subconsciously?

 

[yogintheaveragebears]

and the first thing you hear about the q is what? high scoring league blah blah

 

[Majorityof1]

I get that in theory, but the thing is most fans who don't get to watch players can only go off stats. And Blais's stats have, imo, exceeded expectations every year. He put up 82 points in the Q the same year Barbashev put up 95, and they were same draft class. I'm not blaming anyone, it's just interesting cause I'm not sure what more we could have asked out of a 6th round draft pick to elevate their stock.

Couple of things. One, Blias was a 6th round pick. That shouldn't matter but it does. Player expectations kind of get stuck in tar after the draft. 1-2 rounders have higher expectations and 5-7 much lower. Those expectations change slowly after that. If a 1-2 puts up bad numbers he may slowly move to the bottom of the 1-2 grp, and vice versa with a 5-7. However, it would take something extraordinary, or multiple years of good performance, to move from the 5-7 group into the 1-2 group.

The other big factor is Blais skillset. He gets by on hard work, hockey IQ and offensive instincts. He isn't big, or blazing fast, or have a super deadly shot. Its hard to predict how those type of players will translate at the next level until you see it. Will the lack of size/speed/skill finally catch up to him as he moves into a bigger/faster/more skilled league? That gives us a reason to discount those numbers from a low draft pick. Its not necessarily right, but its common practice amongst the group mindset. It took multiple seasons and multiple leagues (Q, AHL and NHL pre-season) for the group think to truly regard Blias as a strong prospect.

 

[Stopsight]

Glad to see Blais get the goal after the rough giveaway. Would be nice to see him stick for a while

 

[Novacain]

and the first thing you hear about the q is what? high scoring league blah blah

I would like to point out there hasn't been as much high scoring blah blah in the Q in recent years. the OHL has been the one going point crazy, but that was largely just due to a surplus of really good prospects. I'd hazard a guess even the WHL has more 100 point scorers in the last 5 years.

 

[yogintheaveragebears]

very correct but it doesnt mean you dont hear it just trying to give as many reasons even farfetched as to why he was skipped

 

[shpongle falls]

Blais was a little overlooked as a prospect but he was a 6th round pick and was super tiny when he was drafted. Was looking at some recent drafts and man 2014 was a hell of a draft for the Blues: Fabbri, Barbashev, Walman, Husso, and Blais all came out of this draft. Obviously Barby has regressed a little and we haven't seen what Walman and Husso can do at the NHL level yet, but still that's a pretty solid draft year for us. Blais looks like he can at least be a serviceable third line player, pretty impressive.

 

[542365]

Blais is so soft spoken.

Don't think English is his first language. I'm sure that at least has something to do with it.

 

[Frenzy31]

Couple of things. One, Blias was a 6th round pick. That shouldn't matter but it does. Player expectations kind of get stuck in tar after the draft. 1-2 rounders have higher expectations and 5-7 much lower. Those expectations change slowly after that. If a 1-2 puts up bad numbers he may slowly move to the bottom of the 1-2 grp, and vice versa with a 5-7. However, it would take something extraordinary, or multiple years of good performance, to move from the 5-7 group into the 1-2 group.

The other big factor is Blais skillset. He gets by on hard work, hockey IQ and offensive instincts. He isn't big, or blazing fast, or have a super deadly shot. Its hard to predict how those type of players will translate at the next level until you see it. Will the lack of size/speed/skill finally catch up to him as he moves into a bigger/faster/more skilled league? That gives us a reason to discount those numbers from a low draft pick. Its not necessarily right, but its common practice amongst the group mindset. It took multiple seasons and multiple leagues (Q, AHL and NHL pre-season) for the group think to truly regard Blias as a strong prospect.

Isn’t he listed as 6’3”? When he was drafted he was 5’11”, I believe. That growth spurt helped.

He was kind of an good player at each level. what is interesting to me is that he doesn’t seem to have ever been over his head, despite never being an elite player.

 

[DoubleK81]

I didn't get to pay full attention to the game, but caught them playing JBo with Pietro more than a couple times and immediately face-palmed. I figured they already put them back together full-time, but was surprised when I looked at the TOI stats and saw JBo had only 15min, while Parayko led the team with almost 26 ( 3 more than Pietro ). Did I catch just a few isolated shifts with 19 & 27 together?

 

[mw2noobbuster]

I didn't get to pay full attention to the game, but caught them playing JBo with Pietro more than a couple times and immediately face-palmed. I figured they already put them back together full-time, but was surprised when I looked at the TOI stats and saw JBo had only 15min, while Parayko led the team with almost 26 ( 3 more than Pietro ). Did I catch just a few isolated shifts with 19 & 27 together?

Parayko had a lot of PP time.

 

[Robb_K]

I didn't get to pay full attention to the game, but caught them playing JBo with Pietro more than a couple times and immediately face-palmed. I figured they already put them back together full-time, but was surprised when I looked at the TOI stats and saw JBo had only 15min, while Parayko led the team with almost 26 ( 3 more than Pietro ). Did I catch just a few isolated shifts with 19 & 27 together?

Pietrangelo had over 6 minutes of power play time, plus significantly more PK time. Bouwmeester was paired significant time with Pietrangelo, but later, Dunn was given time with Pietrangelo. Bouwmeester was rested a fair amount, and Edmundson also got some shifts with Pietrangelo.

 

[TruBlu]

Looks like Yeo is giving tryouts for pairings with Petro.