2016-17 Blues Discussion Thread Part I

[Klank Loves You]

How long till we see a charity for Parayko's broken sticks?

"For every stick Parayko breaks on the power play, McDonalds will donate a big mac to HF Boards!"

 

[Alklha]

Gunnarsson still out, so Hunt playing again tonight.

 

[Brian39]

I just finished reading the game day thread for the New Jersey game.

A couple of guys were expressing surprise that Allen was starting, playing three games in four nights.

I got a chuckle out of that. Earlier in the day, we went to the St. Louis Public Library, Main Branch, and looked at the Blues exhibit there. They had a full-sized effigy of Glenn Hall, in uniform, and in goal, on display. Next to it, there was information about Hall's career, including the fact that he played in something like 550 straight games.

The game and the position have changed pretty drastically in the last 50 years. They didn't used to have backup goalies in the NHL, but I'm sure no one thinks it is silly to dress a backup just because they didn't have one in the past.

Allen is currently facing a heavier workload than Price, Rask, Schneider, Holtby, and every other top end goalie besides Bobrovsky. That is odd for a goalie that is struggling and has never played more than 44 games in his career. I didn't expect Allen to finish the year top 5 in starts, especially given his average play most of this year. I think it is odd to ride a goalie this much unless it is out of necessity (like Dubnyk or Bobrovsky). He has plenty of things he needs to work on and I'd like to see him get more nights off so he can spend practice time tuning his game instead of prepping for the next start. It is really hard to fine-tune things as a goalie when you are playing almost every night.

How was that exhibit? I'm planning on checking it out when I'm in town over the holidays.

 

[TruBlu]

Tarasenko is now 2nd in the NHL in points. I hope we don't waste his prime years in a rebuild.

 

[BlueDream]

Tarasenko is now 2nd in the NHL in points. I hope we don't waste his prime years in a rebuild.

Yeah because the talk around STL is definitely that a full-on rebuild is coming.

What?

 

[TruBlu]

Yeah because the talk around STL is definitely that a full-on rebuild is coming.

What?

Doesn't look like much will happen this year. Can't really project much with the expansion draft, Shatty, etc. I never said a full-on rebuild is coming this year. I'd like to hear your thoughts as long as you are going to leave the richard cranium comments out.

 

[BlueDream]

Doesn't look like much will happen this year. Can't really project much with the expansion draft, Shatty, etc. I never said a full-on rebuild is coming this year. I'd like to hear your thoughts as long as you are going to leave the richard cranium comments out.

Then I don't understand your comment.

If you are talking about a re-tool in a way, where we trade from our defensive depth to get a better center than Jori Lehtera, then yeah, everyone in St. Louis is on board with that.

But nothing the Blues do should require or be anything close to a rebuild. Acquiring a top 6 center basically cements them as one of the top teams in the league for a while. Might not be the easiest to do, but I think we have the pieces to get it done if Armstrong takes action. Or at least we did...

 

[TruBlu]

Then I don't understand your comment.

If you are talking about a re-tool in a way, where we trade from our defensive depth to get a better center than Jori Lehtera, then yeah, everyone in St. Louis is on board with that.

But nothing the Blues do should require or be anything close to a rebuild. Acquiring a top 6 center basically cements them as one of the top teams in the league for a while. Might not be the easiest to do, but I think we have the pieces to get it done if Armstrong takes action. Or at least we did...

you did all the work...great.

 

[Celtic Note]

Then I don't understand your comment.

If you are talking about a re-tool in a way, where we trade from our defensive depth to get a better center than Jori Lehtera, then yeah, everyone in St. Louis is on board with that.

But nothing the Blues do should require or be anything close to a rebuild. Acquiring a top 6 center basically cements them as one of the top teams in the league for a while. Might not be the easiest to do, but I think we have the pieces to get it done if Armstrong takes action. Or at least we did...

What assets do we have to acquire this center? What does it cost us?

We need our picks to replenish our prospect pool. Our forward crop is pretty poor.

Unfortunately we can't trade Steen, as he has a NTC. He was a guy I would be looking to move in a retool.

If Shatty leaves we need to replace his points. So there is another hole and it is a big one.

Finally, we probably need another goalie. The Allen/Hutton combo doesn't seem to work.

 

[Oberyn]

What assets do we have to acquire this center? What does it cost us?

We need our picks to replenish our prospect pool. Our forward crop is pretty poor.

Unfortunately we can't trade Steen, as he has a NTC. He was a guy I would be looking to move in a retool.

If Shatty leaves we need to replace his points. So there is another hole and it is a big one.

Finally, we probably need another goalie. The Allen/Hutton combo doesn't seem to work.

No problem we got the main piece in the Oshie deal, the one and only Pheonix Copley

 

[ManyIdeas]

Remember that time the Blues had a goalie backstop them to the wcf?

 

[Vladys Gumption]

I ready for the Yak experiment to be over. The dude just doesn't have the hockey IQ to put himself in the right spots. Either that or he just doesn't care. Neither is good.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Yak has 15 shots in 18 games...what?

 

[Alklha]

Yak has 15 shots in 18 games...what?

Ask him to do something else and he'll focus on that, be ineffective doing it and useless at what he normally does. See: Stewart, Chris.

 

[joshyhockey26]

Yak has 15 shots in 18 games...what?

Not trying to be mean but for a player of his "caliber" or the level some people place him at, that's far from impressive.

 

[joshyhockey26]

Ask him to do something else and he'll focus on that, be ineffective doing it and useless at what he normally does. See: Stewart, Chris.

Forever bitter Stewart couldn't become a Diet Coke version of Milan Lucic hahah

 

[bleedblue1223]

Not trying to be mean but for a player of his "caliber" or the level some people place him at, that's far from impressive.

He hasn't even had a SOG in his past 6 games, that's just pathetic.

 

[Brian39]

Remember that time the Blues had a goalie backstop them to the wcf?

You mean the one who is arguably the worst goalie in the NHL this season? I love Moose, but let's not act like there is any reason to believe he would be doing any better than Allen this year if we had kept him and moved Allen. Elliott's SV% and GAA at this time last year were almost identical to Allen's stats right now.I'm not sure if you have watched Calgary much this year, but the few games I have seen Elliott play have been rough. The D is part of it, but there are tons of holes in Elliott's game right now. I haven't seen anything at all to suggest he improves his SV% by 4% if he is behind our D.

 

[Majorityof1]

You mean the one who is arguably the worst goalie in the NHL this season? I love Moose, but let's not act like there is any reason to believe he would be doing any better than Allen this year if we had kept him and moved Allen. Elliott's SV% and GAA at this time last year were almost identical to Allen's stats right now.I'm not sure if you have watched Calgary much this year, but the few games I have seen Elliott play have been rough. The D is part of it, but there are tons of holes in Elliott's game right now. I haven't seen anything at all to suggest he improves his SV% by 4% if he is behind our D.

Except for the fact that he put up a .930 save percentage playing in front of this defense just last year. Because of course how he plays behind Calgary is a MUCH better indication of how he would play for us than how he played for us.

 

[Vladys Gumption]

You mean the one who is arguably the worst goalie in the NHL this season? I love Moose, but let's not act like there is any reason to believe he would be doing any better than Allen this year if we had kept him and moved Allen. Elliott's SV% and GAA at this time last year were almost identical to Allen's stats right now.I'm not sure if you have watched Calgary much this year, but the few games I have seen Elliott play have been rough. The D is part of it, but there are tons of holes in Elliott's game right now. I haven't seen anything at all to suggest he improves his SV% by 4% if he is behind our D.

He's played a whopping 13 games. That's the definition of small sample size. But sure, that should be enough to totally override 180 games of a 2.01 GAA and a .925 save % for the Blues.

Who gives a damn how he plays on another team. We know what he gave the Blues behind this defense, and it's massively better than what we've gotten this year.

 

[Dbrownss]

Too much has changed. Elliott has looked awful regardless of the team infront of him. Here's another factor for me. Our defense is a paper tiger. Disorganized at times and prone to some baffling mistakes. Swap Elliott for Allen and we're still in the same boat. I'd say it was Brad Shaw but Minny always seemed to play sound defense...its just personal to me at this point. The Left side is just medicore at best. All this is magnified by forwards not back checking.

 

[542365]

You mean the one who is arguably the worst goalie in the NHL this season? I love Moose, but let's not act like there is any reason to believe he would be doing any better than Allen this year if we had kept him and moved Allen. Elliott's SV% and GAA at this time last year were almost identical to Allen's stats right now.I'm not sure if you have watched Calgary much this year, but the few games I have seen Elliott play have been rough. The D is part of it, but there are tons of holes in Elliott's game right now. I haven't seen anything at all to suggest he improves his SV% by 4% if he is behind our D.

You mean aside from the 180 games he's played for the Blues in the past 4 seasons, all of which were excellent? Yeah, aside from that there's no reason to believe he wouldn't be successful here.

 

[Alklha]

New thread.