2019-2020 St. Louis Blues - Defending the Cup - Part 3: The Prelude to Playoff Positioning

[Reality Czech]

Do what you want with the Top 9, but when the playoffs roll around I want 20-49-70 on the fourth line if everyone is healthy. That combination was unstoppable. In your scenario, replace Sunny with Blais and Mac with Sunny.

Yeah, I now realize I forgot Slammin' Sammy Blais in my lineup. You're right, Sundqvist on the fourth line is ideal if we have enough healthy bodies in the top 9. He's capable of holding down a middle six spot but him and Barby together are dominant at times.

I don't think we've seen much of Schwartz, Schenn and Blais together. That could be an interesting line if and when Blais gets back into top form again.

 

[Majorityof1]

I wonder if we will have trouble/be unable to re-sign Binner after next year. He is trying to be political, but you can tell he was NOT happy with the Blues organization for how he was handled. He calls it "all that animosity that had built up". Do they ever ask in the full interview if and how he can put all that animosity aside?

I can totally see someone with animosity signing this past off-season with plans to leave UFA. This past off-season, he was an RFA, riding a huge momentum high but with ultimately a small NHL sample size. Holding out could derail all his momentum. So he doesn't rock the boat, gets his starter job and starter paycheck. St. Louis wants short term, so he takes short term. Then after 2 years, he is free to say screw you and go UFA.

I am not saying that is where his mind is at. He seems to love "the boys" so maybe he can forgive management. But I still sense some underlying resentment.

 

[Brian39]

I wonder if we will have trouble/be unable to re-sign Binner after next year. He is trying to be political, but you can tell he was NOT happy with the Blues organization for how he was handled. He calls it "all that animosity that had built up". Do they ever ask in the full interview if and how he can put all that animosity aside?

I can totally see someone with animosity signing this past off-season with plans to leave UFA. This past off-season, he was an RFA, riding a huge momentum high but with ultimately a small NHL sample size. Holding out could derail all his momentum. So he doesn't rock the boat, gets his starter job and starter paycheck. St. Louis wants short term, so he takes short term. Then after 2 years, he is free to say screw you and go UFA.

I am not saying that is where his mind is at. He seems to love "the boys" so maybe he can forgive management. But I still sense some underlying resentment.

My takeaway when I listened to that interview last weekend was that he is almost certainly gone at the end of his current contract. But that could very well be confirmation bias since that is what my guy told me when he signed a 2 year deal that walked him straight to UFA.

 

[Stealth JD]

My takeaway when I listened to that interview last weekend was that he is almost certainly gone at the end of his current contract. But that could very well be confirmation bias since that is what my guy told me when he signed a 2 year deal that walked him straight to UFA.

I can see it now - Jake Allen resigns 4 x $4M to reclaim his starters job after Binny walks.


Man...if Petro walks and Binny walks the following year, Army might as well begin the rebuild and start trading guys for futures.

 

[MortiestOfMortys]

Wow, that’s wild. I’m not surprised he felt that way at all, but it doesn’t give me very many warm and fuzzies about our Organization w/r/t our development program. With that, and the San Antonio news recently, it just really seems like we don’t give a rat’s booty about developing our prospects, which is a garbage mentality.

We honestly did the same thing to Brian Elliott. He won a Jennings trophy here, and owns a ton of franchise records, but we never trusted him, and never gave him the starter role that he had fully earned.

It seems like we have an extremely specific, narrow view of what kind of player can be successful here, and that leads to us (1) shortchanging our own players, (2) missing out on good value in the trade market, and (3) making some really weird drafting decisions.

Hopefully, Binner likes the team and coaching staff enough to ignore the front office. Remember, it was Yeo that tried to send him to Tulsa, not Berube.

But... at the same time, Berube was his coach in Chicago when we gave Binner’s job to Husso and basically benched him for like 3-4 months. That wasn’t really Chief’s call, but still, that’s what Binner was referring to when he was talking about a previous instance of disrespect.

 

[Ranksu]

Hopefully our front office will understand to not mess up with prospects and treat them well.

 

[Schwartz17]

The entire interview is over 50 minutes long starting at 1:02:00.

Spittin' Chiclets Episode 242: Featuring Jordan Binnington, Winnipeg Jets, Gambling Corner & More

The first 10-15 minutes were pretty rough and it honestly seemed like he was ready to get out of St. Louis when his contract expires. As the interview goes on he begins to break down smaller events in the minors in both Chicago/Providence and even mentions a time in Chicago (with Berube as head coach) he took a weekend off and went to Vegas to clear his mind. Eventually around 30 minutes into the interview he talks about after the call-up and his success through last year and how it all basically came full circle for him. Kinda sounded more to me like “everything happens for a reason” type situations for him. At the end of the day I wouldn’t worry too much about it. He won a Stanley Cup with the organization and he seems thankful to be in the situation he’s in.

Side note: sorry for the bad paraphrasing skills. Didn’t really make notations while listening and posted my thoughts here. Link is above for everyone to hear full interview.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

I would expect the Blues to have to make a reasonably competitive offer to re-sign him. He may have a chip on his shoulder, but it would have to be enormous to be willing to throw away the starting gig for a Cup contender with teammates he likes ina city that adores him. Maybe he gets a better offer. Maybe he’s only about maximum dollars. But I bet he would sign a reasonable deal.

I would say Armstrong already capitulated to his contract demands last time, when he had a lot stronger position to squeeze Jordan for a lower deal. But he kept the negotiation short and probably went pretty close to Binnington’s asking price, I wager. I think that was a sign of gratitude and respect.

 

[Renard]

Goaltending! How can you be sure of anything?

Before our championship season, my favorite Blues team was the 1980-1981 team. Mike Liut was the goalie, had a brilliant season. He was a first-team all star. He finished second it Gretzky in the Most Valuable Player balloting. He was still young. I thought we were set in goal for the next ten years.

But Liut was never as good after that season.

I don't follow other teams much, but I'm pretty sure there are other guys who had brilliant seasons, but then fell off.

Bennington hasn't been as good this season as last. He hasn't collapsed by any means, he's not off by much. But it's a mistake to think that his great season in 2018-2019 is what he will always be in the future.

Because of free agency, by the time a goalie gets in several years of consistent play, he's like to leave in free agency or cost a king's ransom to keep.

The best thing to do is keep trying to develop young goalies.

 

[bleedblue1223]

The entire interview is over 50 minutes long starting at 1:02:00.

Spittin' Chiclets Episode 242: Featuring Jordan Binnington, Winnipeg Jets, Gambling Corner & More

The first 10-15 minutes were pretty rough and it honestly seemed like he was ready to get out of St. Louis when his contract expires. As the interview goes on he begins to break down smaller events in the minors in both Chicago/Providence and even mentions a time in Chicago (with Berube as head coach) he took a weekend off and went to Vegas to clear his mind. Eventually around 30 minutes into the interview he talks about after the call-up and his success through last year and how it all basically came full circle for him. Kinda sounded more to me like “everything happens for a reason” type situations for him. At the end of the day I wouldn’t worry too much about it. He won a Stanley Cup with the organization and he seems thankful to be in the situation he’s in.

Side note: sorry for the bad paraphrasing skills. Didn’t really make notations while listening and posted my thoughts here. Link is above for everyone to hear full interview.

Yeah, at the end of the day, winning solves everything.

 

[WATTAGE4451]

I would expect the Blues to have to make a reasonably competitive offer to re-sign him. He may have a chip on his shoulder, but it would have to be enormous to be willing to throw away the starting gig for a Cup contender with teammates he likes ina city that adores him. Maybe he gets a better offer. Maybe he’s only about maximum dollars. But I bet he would sign a reasonable deal.

I would say Armstrong already capitulated to his contract demands last time, when he had a lot stronger position to squeeze Jordan for a lower deal. But he kept the negotiation short and probably went pretty close to Binnington’s asking price, I wager. I think that was a sign of gratitude and respect.

Lets wait and see if he still even want to resign him in 2 years. Since the first couple months, hes been trending downhill very fast.

 

[BlueDream]

One thing that Binnington did say that hasn’t been mentioned yet is that when he came up he last year, he realized that he wasn’t actually NHL ready in the past, even though he thought he was at the time.

So I feel like if we give him the contract he wants, he would be able to put that behind him.

 

[bleedblue1223]

One thing that Binnington did say that hasn’t been mentioned yet is that when he came up he last year, he realized that he wasn’t actually NHL ready in the past, even though he thought he was at the time.

So I feel like if we give him the contract he wants, he would be able to put that behind him.

Yeah. I think it's a perfect example of how easily poor communication can make something seem way worse than it really is, and a lot of the time, neither side thinks they are poorly communicating.

 

[Stealth JD]

This may seem stupid...but reading this thread got me thinking. If all of the forwards are healthy, but let's say Gunnar gets banged up, further depleting the defense, would Berube ever consider the following:

Schwartz-Schenn-Tarasenko
Blais/Sanford-ROR-Perron
Blais/Sanford-Thomas-Bozak
DLR/MacMac-Sundqvist-Barbashev

Faulk-Petro
Steen-Parayko
Dunn-Bortuzzo

A poster suggested Malkin would be good enough to play defense. Federov has done it. Steen seems like a smart enough guy with the requisite puck skills that it might not be an utter disaster in the short-term. It may be a fun experiment for a meaningless regular season game, if a couple of LHD happened to become unavailable.

 

[Brian39]

This may seem stupid...but reading this thread got me thinking. If all of the forwards are healthy, but let's say Gunnar gets banged up, further depleting the defense, would Berube ever consider the following:

Schwartz-Schenn-Tarasenko
Blais/Sanford-ROR-Perron
Blais/Sanford-Thomas-Bozak
DLR/MacMac-Sundqvist-Barbashev

Faulk-Petro
Steen-Parayko
Dunn-Bortuzzo

A poster suggested Malkin would be good enough to play defense. Federov has done it. Steen seems like a smart enough guy with the requisite puck skills that it might not be an utter disaster in the short-term. It may be a fun experiment for a meaningless regular season game, if a couple of LHD happened to become unavailable.

Parayko should be getting the absolute toughest defensive minutes in the playoffs and should be eating close to 20 minutes at 5 on 5. Steen may fall somewhere between "utter disaster" and "competent" as a D man, but that is not what I want on the pairing that I'm asking to neutralize MacKinnon, Benn, McDavid, etc.

 

[MortiestOfMortys]

Just wanted to say Sanford is still my boy, and I’m really happy to see his game rounding into shape! After yesterday’s goalfest, he’s on a 55-point pace for 82 games. Yes, consistency is still an issue. But it’s really hard for me to look at his game when he’s on and think that he doesn’t have it in him to stay in the top-6 full-time.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

I’m sure I’m the only one, but for now I like Steen on the Schenn/Schwartz line. Steen has been playing better the past few weeks. I think he’ll fade and end back on the 4th line if we ever see a healthy roster. The lineup looks a lot better if you add Sundqvist and Tarasenko.

 

[MortiestOfMortys]

Blues are gonna mess around and claim Bogosian. Watch.

 

[Blueston]

I’m sure I’m the only one, but for now I like Steen on the Schenn/Schwartz line. Steen has been playing better the past few weeks. I think he’ll fade and end back on the 4th line if we ever see a healthy roster. The lineup looks a lot better if you add Sundqvist and Tarasenko.

How crazy is it that my first reaction to this is how it negatively impacts 3rd line.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

The Blues must win both games against Nashville this weekend.

 

[shpongle falls]

Spittin' Chicklets episode with Binner was epic.

 

[Mike Liut]

Are we trying to go from worst to first in 2019, To first to worst in 2020?

 

[AjaxManifesto]

Are we trying to go from worst to first in 2019, To first to worst in 2020?

God, I hope not. But it's looking like it here in mid February.

We need some desperation from this team. They are coasting.

 

[MissouriMook]

I think this slump has gone on long enough that we could barbecue a few sacred cows to shake things up a bit and see if we can get some more consistent play. If I could make 4 changes (outside of a trade) here is what I would do.

1. Move Schenn to wing and Bozak back to center. Schenn needs a wake up call Ashe has been pretty ineffective for most of the season.

2. Split Schwartz and Schenn. They’ve both been off quite a bit this season and I would expect that some of the problem is that when one is struggling it fuels the other to struggle as well.

3. Stop with the offside D experiment in the Top 4. It hasn’t worked with any of 27, 55 or 72 there. Bortz is the only righty that has shown an ability to flourish on the left. Put 29-27, 77-55 and 41-72 together and leave them alone for a while with 4 as the extra.

4. The “second” PP unit goes out first. End of discussion.

12-90-57
9-21-10
17-18-33
20-49-70

29-27
77-55
41-72

50 gets 2/3 of the remaining starts.

 

[Dbrownss]

Are we trying to go from worst to first in 2019, To first to worst in 2020?

Good year to sneak a lottery pick