2020-2021 St. Louis Blues: Well, ****.

[GoldenSeal]

you’d think we lost Bobby Orr this past season. Petro isn’t even a HOF caliber player.

No he’s not, he’s the Captain who helped avenged us on a Boston loss with Orr in arguably the most famous hockey image taken almost 50 years ago ON BOSTON ICE.

Pie Captained a cursed franchise into a Stanley Cup, something HOFs who were Blues Captains never did.

He’s the first Blue to lift the Cup IN the Bluenote.

How quick y’all forget that.

To think Parayko is going to be on par, if not better than Pie is ludicrous. Y’all want to be hopeful for this group than angry that Army let his ideology override common sense.

Any team just coming off a Cup wins SECURES their core, they don’t let their leader, true elite 1D walk out the door because they want a guarantee they won’t be moved, THAT is bs and his ideology is going to do nothing but send us backwards, not forwards and people... are happy with that?

Maybe the thing with people posting updates about Pie are less about the player and more about how mad and concerned parts of the fanbase are for a GM who does this brand of nonsense.

 

[BlueKnight]

Amazing how overrated Petro is on this board.

Nope. Amazing how underrated Petro is on this board.

 

[Blueston]

Nope. Amazing how underrated Petro is on this board.

That is rich. Some of us saw Pronger and Mac and remember what truly elite defensemen look like. People equating him to Lidstrom and Orr? Please. On his best days he is slightly lesser version of Ryan Suter.

Petro is a nice player but not exactly generational. And that is with Parayko doing all heavy lifting and Petro getting easy duty. We are going to miss him much less than you think. Krug is better fit for this team (even if Petro may be better) and Parayko will likely blossom with increased role.

 

[BlueKnight]

No he’s not, he’s the Captain who helped avenged us on a Boston loss with Orr in arguably the most famous hockey image taken almost 50 years ago ON BOSTON ICE.

Pie Captained a cursed franchise into a Stanley Cup, something HOFs who were Blues Captains never did.

He’s the first Blue to lift the Cup IN the Bluenote.

How quick y’all forget that.

To think Parayko is going to be on par, if not better than Pie is ludicrous. Y’all want to be hopeful for this group than angry that Army let his ideology override common sense.

Any team just coming off a Cup wins SECURES their core, they don’t let their leader, true elite 1D walk out the door because they want a guarantee they won’t be moved, THAT is bs and his ideology is going to do nothing but send us backwards, not forwards and people... are happy with that?

Maybe the thing with people posting updates about Pie are less about the player and more about how mad and concerned parts of the fanbase are for a GM who does this brand of nonsense.

I can't like this enough. This is almost the same thing what I said in my post on the last page. Petro is the first Blues captain to lift the Cup the so many great captains that became before him wished they could've done.

How quickly everyone is forgetting that. It boggles my mind that everyone seems ok without Petro. LOL. I'm not drinking that kool-aid and thinking everything is sunshine and rainbows. I'm angry at DA because his fat ego insulted and drove away the captain. The Blues should be in win now mode, but instead DA set the team back. That is 100% pure honesty, There's no sugarcoating from me, I tell it like it is and the above is the truth. Whether you like it or not.

 

[BlueKnight]

That is rich. Some of us saw Pronger and Mac and remember what truly elite defensemen look like. People equating him to Lidstrom and Orr? Please. On his best days he is slightly lesser version of Ryan Suter.

Petro is a nice player but not exactly generational. And that is with Parayko doing all heavy lifting and Petro getting easy duty. We are going to miss him much less than you think. Krug is better fit for this team (even if Petro may be better) and Parayko will likely blossom with increased role.

I can't believe what i just read

 

[Blueston]

I can't believe what i just read

Suter was Norris runner up and 1st team All Star. Petro has never finished higher than 4th and never 1st All Star. So yeah, not quite as good as Suter.

 

[BlueKnight]

Suter was Norris runner up and 1st team All Star. Petro has never finished higher than 4th and never 1st All Star. So yeah, not quite as good as Suter.

That's how severely underrated Pietrangelo is while lesser players have won Norris Trophies and all that other stuff.

 

[Blueston]

That's how severely underrated Pietrangelo is while lesser players have won Norris Trophies and all that other stuff.

 

[GoldenSeal]

Suter was Norris runner up and 1st team All Star. Petro has never finished higher than 4th and never 1st All Star. So yeah, not quite as good as Suter.

That is rich. Some of us saw Pronger and Mac and remember what truly elite defensemen look like. People equating him to Lidstrom and Orr? Please. On his best days he is slightly lesser version of Ryan Suter.

Petro is a nice player but not exactly generational. And that is with Parayko doing all heavy lifting and Petro getting easy duty. We are going to miss him much less than you think. Krug is better fit for this team (even if Petro may be better) and Parayko will likely blossom with increased role.

So you’re saying the players we have now are as good as any of the players you mentioned, because they ain’t and none of them are better than Pie and that’s the point.

Mentioning Blues players who were generational talents yet couldn’t help bring a Cup home and then comparing them to the Captain who saw the worst days and stuck around to lift the Cup on the best one just exemplifies my point home because I can guarantee you that EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of them would have traded any piece of personal hardware for their name AS A BLUE on the only piece of hockey hardware that matters.

 

[simon IC]

That is rich. Some of us saw Pronger and Mac and remember what truly elite defensemen look like. People equating him to Lidstrom and Orr? Please. On his best days he is slightly lesser version of Ryan Suter.

Petro is a nice player but not exactly generational. And that is with Parayko doing all heavy lifting and Petro getting easy duty. We are going to miss him much less than you think. Krug is better fit for this team (even if Petro may be better) and Parayko will likely blossom with increased role.

The bolded is an absolutely absurd assertion. Since when is a one-dimensional PP specialist, who needs sheltering at even strength and doesn't PK, a better fit than a two-way defender that plays on both special teams while putting up similar numbers, a better fit for the team? How is Krug a better fit than Pietrangelo on any team, nevermind one that employs a team defense-first strategy?

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

That's how severely underrated Pietrangelo is while lesser players have won Norris Trophies and all that other stuff.

Vollie, you remind me of notenoughbrewer. I think that ended up being a parody account, but the single-mindedness of the posting is the same. Also, defending a former Captain, ironically.

I can’t get over some of you writing about how much worse the Blues are now as though we’ve seen this roster play already. There are some interesting pieces to craft a line-up with. I think this season is going to be a lot of fun. The two biggest factors for me do not include Pietro leaving. I’d rank that 3rd in terms of impact.

1) How well do the coaches craft lines and effective pairings, special team out of this collection of players. I think the pieces are there to have a very good team or an entirely average team, with good/poor coaching making a big impact either way.

2) Does the team have a solid answer in goal? I’m worried that Binnington may yet turn into a pumpkin and the Blues suffer through one of those seasons like San Jose had where they were a decent team with horrendous goaltending. Nothing can make things unravel faster than a lack of reliability in goal.

3) Pietro’s absence and the ability of Faulk to be a top 4 caliber player as Parayko slides up.

4) Tarasenko being a contributor by the end of the season.....or ever again. I suspect he will work his way back and be a legit scorer again. But I don’t think he’ll draw the defensive attention he used to, and not sure the Blues have enough guns to score enough if Kyrou doesn’t progress, and if Perron doesn’t keep up his career year caliber play. I am kind of holding out hope that Armstrong has a deal with one of the unsigned UFA forwards that won’t be announced until he can place guys on LTIR at the beginning of camp.

 

[MissouriMook]

That is rich. Some of us saw Pronger and Mac and remember what truly elite defensemen look like. People equating him to Lidstrom and Orr? Please. On his best days he is slightly lesser version of Ryan Suter.

Petro is a nice player but not exactly generational. And that is with Parayko doing all heavy lifting and Petro getting easy duty. We are going to miss him much less than you think. Krug is better fit for this team (even if Petro may be better) and Parayko will likely blossom with increased role.

I think a lot of people are underestimating the value that balancing out the handedness of this defense will have on future results, if only because we won't have guys in the Top 4 playing on their off side like we did last year. I don't think you can objectively argue that the overall quality of our defense is down from what we had in the Cup season when we still had both Petro and JBo, but I think there is still plenty to work with and Chief won't have to worry about workarounds like last season when our Top 3 D were all righties.

 

[MissouriMook]

This is what I think of when people continue to blame the Norris voters for why Petro never finished in the Top 3.

 

[BlueKnight]

Vollie, you remind me of notenoughbrewer. I think that ended up being a parody account, but the single-mindedness of the posting is the same. Also, defending a former Captain, ironically.

I can’t get over some of you writing about how much worse the Blues are now as though we’ve seen this roster play already. There are some interesting pieces to craft a line-up with. I think this season is going to be a lot of fun. The two biggest factors for me do not include Pietro leaving. I’d rank that 3rd in terms of impact.

1) How well do the coaches craft lines and effective pairings, special team out of this collection of players. I think the pieces are there to have a very good team or an entirely average team, with good/poor coaching making a big impact either way.

2) Does the team have a solid answer in goal? I’m worried that Binnington may yet turn into a pumpkin and the Blues suffer through one of those seasons like San Jose had where they were a decent team with horrendous goaltending. Nothing can make things unravel faster than a lack of reliability in goal.

3) Pietro’s absence and the ability of Faulk to be a top 4 caliber player as Parayko slides up.

4) Tarasenko being a contributor by the end of the season.....or ever again. I suspect he will work his way back and be a legit scorer again. But I don’t think he’ll draw the defensive attention he used to, and not sure the Blues have enough guns to score enough if Kyrou doesn’t progress, and if Perron doesn’t keep up his career year caliber play. I am kind of holding out hope that Armstrong has a deal with one of the unsigned UFA forwards that won’t be announced until he can place guys on LTIR at the beginning of camp.

I started writing this last night but got tired and couldn't think anymore to finish.

So you think I'm a parody. I don't take too kindly to that.

I can't believe some of the stuff I've read tonight.

Petro is the first Blues captain to lift the Cup. How quickly people forget and It's ok with them to write him off because they like their new toys i.e. Faulk and Krug better. Any team that comes off a cup win Secures their core and you don't let your captain and #1 defenseman walk out the door because DA is too subborn get off his high horse and pay the guy what he rightfully deserves, Just like any other top 5 defenseman. I'm going to pull my hair out if someone says because of Covid. Please do not use that excuse, DA could've easily signed him back after the cup win Army knew what Petro wanted and his ego got fat and went and got Faulk and basically slapped Petro in the face. Because of DA fat ego he set the Blues backwards and people are happy with that? I'd like to hear everyone's answer to that question.

Pietrangelo is/was a lot more important to the Blues than people realize. Also don't forget about Bouwmeester he is also a big loss as well.

1. I like Berube, I think he is a good coach. The team that won the cup was the perfect team for his system. I'm not sure if Berube can adapt to a more offensive system. We shall see.

2. I'm just as worried about the goalie situation as everyone else is. Unless Binny returns to form prepare for a lot of goals against especially with Faulk and Krug on the ice as they can't defend to save their lives, Krug especially.

3. Some posters I've seen here are hoping Faulk will magically overnight return to his Carolina days from 6 years ago. Yeah right!!! In 2014-15 he had 49pts and has regressed since then. He just isn't good. He is never going to live up to what the Blues are paying him.

4. As for Tarasenko, I'm not sure. The guy has had 3 shoulder surgeries now on the same shoulder. I don't think he'll be the same. That's all I'm going to say.

 

[BlueMed]

Well I'm just being honest and seeing things the way I see it. The fact is the Blues have regressed. I'm sorry if you don't like it. And also I don't know what my username has to do with what I post.

Obviously the team has regressed a bit swapping Petro for Krug, but people are already acting like our defense is now weak for some reason. It's still above average. Try looking around the league for once (www.dailyfaceoff.com). We still have a contender here. Those of you saying Vegas is now a superpower with Petro obviously havent taken a close look at their center depth and defensive depth behind Petro and Theodore. Be grateful, guys. For once.

 

[Stealth JD]

Obviously the team has regressed a bit swapping Petro for Krug, but people are already acting like our defense is now weak for some reason. It's still above average. Try looking around the league for once (www.dailyfaceoff.com). We still have a contender here. Those of you saying Vegas is now a superpower with Petro obviously havent taken a close look at their center depth and defensive depth behind Petro and Theodore. Be grateful, guys. For once.

Besides Parayko, who's obvious, name one defenseman on the Blues '21 roster that is strong in his own end, or would be considered an above-average defender. I'm not even looking for elite or even very good...just merely "above average". Maybe, maybe Scandella would qualify. Faulk? Dunn? Gunnarsson? Krug? They're ALL firmly in the average or below category when it comes to defending. Maybe Mikkola or Perunovich get there some day; but it's pretty obvious why some people are "acting like our defense is now weak for some reason". The scoring from the back-end should be solid; but keeping the puck out of high-danger areas looks to be a massive concern.

 

[MissouriMook]

...

Petro is the first Blues captain to lift the Cup. How quickly people forget and It's ok with them to write him off because they like their new toys i.e. Faulk and Krug better...

I'm struggling to see how Petro being Captain has anything to do with the quality of his play relative to others, his candidacy for the Norris or whether or not we should have done more to retain him.

Ask yourself this - if Steen had been named Captain when Backes left and still held that position in 2019 when we won the Cup, would he be automatically be considered irreplaceable, a life-long Selke snub, or the greatest left winger in team history just because he was the first one to lead us to the promised land? I'm not sure why you have so much trouble disassociating the two concepts.

 

[The Note]

I don't think you can objectively argue that the overall quality of our defense is down from what we had in the Cup season when we still had both Petro and JBo

I think you can certainly argue objectively that some combination of Parayko, Krug, Faulk, and Scandella is a step down from Pietrangelo, Parayko, Bouwmeester and Gunnarsson/Edmunson with the bottom pairing largely being the same group of defenseman + Mikkola as it was in 2019. I can agree that the step down isn't as drastic as some have made it out to be, but I also don't think it's fair to say there's no argument to be made that the defense is worse now that it was then.

 

[BlueKnight]

I'm struggling to see how Petro being Captain has anything to do with the quality of his play relative to others, his candidacy for the Norris or whether or not we should have done more to retain him.

Ask yourself this - if Steen had been named Captain when Backes left and still held that position in 2019 when we won the Cup, would he be automatically be considered irreplaceable, a life-long Selke snub, or the greatest left winger in team history just because he was the first one to lead us to the promised land? I'm not sure why you have so much trouble disassociating the two concepts.

Your missing my point. I don't care if Santa Claus is the captain you don't let your Stanley Cup winning captain leave. In my years of watching the NHL I've never seen a team that let their cup winning captain leave.

 

[MissouriMook]

Your missing my point. I don't care if Santa Claus is the captain you don't let your Stanley Cup winning captain leave. In my years of watching the NHL I've never seen a team that let their cup winning captain leave.

That's fine that you feel that way, just understand that such feelings are based entirely on sentimentality and completely ignore the part of the job of an NHL GM that involves roster construction, cap management, evaluation of future player performance, application of team standards and philosophies, as well as the needs and desires of ownership.

But yay Cup!

 

[MissouriMook]

I think you can certainly argue objectively that some combination of Parayko, Krug, Faulk, and Scandella is a step down from Pietrangelo, Parayko, Bouwmeester and Gunnarsson/Edmunson with the bottom pairing largely being the same group of defenseman + Mikkola as it was in 2019. I can agree that the step down isn't as drastic as some have made it out to be, but I also don't think it's fair to say there's no argument to be made that the defense is worse now that it was then.

I don't think I worded that very well here. I agree that it would be hard to argue that we ARE more talented on defense than we were going into the last two seasons. My point is that talent alone doesn't make a team a winner. Does anyone honestly believe that we won the Cup in 2019 because we were the most talented team in the league? I sure don't. I believe that we won because we gelled as a team and had a roster designed to allow players to support and compliment each other, and each member of that team played for the guy next to them. I'm just saying that we shouldn't automatically assume that next year's team will be worse, or even worse defensively, just because we may have had a downgrade in talent on D. You can be objectively less talented and still perform better, despite the insistence of other posters in this thread.

 

[Quaz]

Besides Parayko, who's obvious, name one defenseman on the Blues '21 roster that is strong in his own end, or would be considered an above-average defender. I'm not even looking for elite or even very good...just merely "above average". Maybe, maybe Scandella would qualify. Faulk? Dunn? Gunnarsson? Krug? They're ALL firmly in the average or below category when it comes to defending. Maybe Mikkola or Perunovich get there some day; but it's pretty obvious why some people are "acting like our defense is now weak for some reason". The scoring from the back-end should be solid; but keeping the puck out of high-danger areas looks to be a massive concern.

Gunny is definitely solid defensively as is Scandella. Don't know if Gunny can stay healthy, but if he doesn't maybe you give Mikkola a shot who should also be good in his own zone. Bortz has also been decent in his own zone and been decent on the PK. We will have to wait and see how Krug, Dunn, and Faulk look in their own end this year. Faulk should be adjusted to the system the Blue play by now. Also, the Blues game is attacking as a five man unit and keeping the puck in the offensive zone. They have made minimal changes to the forward group, which should help them get to their game faster. The know how they need to play to have success. I don't think the changes on D are going to have a huge affect.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Besides Parayko, who's obvious, name one defenseman on the Blues '21 roster that is strong in his own end, or would be considered an above-average defender. I'm not even looking for elite or even very good...just merely "above average". Maybe, maybe Scandella would qualify. Faulk? Dunn? Gunnarsson? Krug? They're ALL firmly in the average or below category when it comes to defending. Maybe Mikkola or Perunovich get there some day; but it's pretty obvious why some people are "acting like our defense is now weak for some reason". The scoring from the back-end should be solid; but keeping the puck out of high-danger areas looks to be a massive concern.

I would say Scandella is Above-average defensively. When Dunn is on his game and not paired with Faulk he is most of the time also. I would also say Krug is Below average defensively and Faulk is pretty average.

I definitely believe that Dunn is going to take a good step in his defensive progression next season. The 24-25 age range is usually where most 2-way defensemen start to fully fledge out their defensive game.

Putting Faulk in his natural position would help him also, I'm not saying he's going to become some superstar or anything. But, I do believe putting him in one place in the lineup rather than him flipping around like if Hitch was still the Coach he will be a decent top 4 defenseman behind Colt.

 

[BlueKnight]

I don't think I worded that very well here. I agree that it would be hard to argue that we ARE more talented on defense than we were going into the last two seasons. My point is that talent alone doesn't make a team a winner. Does anyone honestly believe that we won the Cup in 2019 because we were the most talented team in the league? I sure don't. I believe that we won because we gelled as a team and had a roster designed to allow players to support and compliment each other, and each member of that team played for the guy next to them. I'm just saying that we shouldn't automatically assume that next year's team will be worse, or even worse defensively, just because we may have had a downgrade in talent on D. You can be objectively less talented and still perform better, despite the insistence of other posters in this thread.

You keep that team together if the chemistry and camaraderie was that strong. DA f***ed up a good thing.

 

[BlueKnight]

Faulk will be better for sure, but that where it ends for me. He still isn't going to live up to his contract.