Blues Discussion Thread 2018-2019 - Part III

[BlueDream]

If Dunn sits, the 90/91 PP unit probably gets a bit neutered. I agree he's made some mistakes, but shift to shift, I'm not sure he's made more mistakes than Bouw.

Who knows, though...maybe it will be good for him.

I agree but Bouwmeester getting scratched is probably wishful thinking.

 

[Majorityof1]

Jerabek is a wannabe Dunn. There is no reason to sit Dunn for Jerabek. They play a similar game, but Dunn has more upside and NHL experience. Sure Dunn has been rough, but Jerabek just washed out of the Oilers camp. How rough must he have been? We should use Dunn-Schmaltz as the bottom pair, sit Jerabek-Borts from the practice pairings.

 

[BlueDream]

Jerabek is a wannabe Dunn. There is no reason to sit Dunn for Jerabek. They play a similar game, but Dunn has more upside and NHL experience. Sure Dunn has been rough, but Jerabek just washed out of the Oilers camp. How rough must he have been? We should use Dunn-Schmaltz as the bottom pair, sit Jerabek-Borts from the practice pairings.

We just traded a draft pick for the guy. Granted it was a late pick but we should absolutely see what he's got, just making him an automatic scratch makes that move pointless.

I know he'll be a scratch the majority of the time but it's the perfect opportunity early in the season to give him a game.

 

[bleedblue1223]

They need a wake up call. We all want it to be Bouwmeester, but most of us probably understand that it won't be him.

 

[trevorftw]

I love Dunn, but he's made some bonehead plays. I don't mind at all if he's scratched for a game.

 

[542365]

I'm fine with Dunn sitting for a game, but not for an extended period. Jerebek was apparently horrible in training camp, but he was playing for a tire fire of an organization so maybe that had something to do with it. I'm fine giving him a game here and there but there's no way he should consistently play over Dunn. Even at his worst Dunn brings quite a bit to the table and we've seen what a positive impact he can have on games. I really hope this doesn't become a trend, but I'm fine seeing what we have in Jerebek.

 

[Dbrownss]

I cant wrap my head around this situation. Given the plethora of garbage we've seen, Dunn isnt the focal point of issues. I've watched Petro go all

as Toews scores. I've seen Boumeester lose his coverage on several occasions. He just doesn't anticipate the play as quickly as he use to.

Yes Dunn lost the game in OT. But Vladi left him few options. He fanned on the pass, so he didnt get back to Dunn. Dunn had two options. Push the play and chance the shot....which failed or he could have bailed on the play and conceded a 2 on 1 between Toews and Saad(?) Which most likely ends up in the back of the net.

I dont know what the hell a Jerebek is, but we've never mined any useful player out of Edmonton.


Just feels Dunn has artificially been pressured this year. I can't remember if it was Yeo or DA who said "dont be the next Barbashev" but couple that with fighting for ice time between Boumeester and Gunnerson, then bringing in Jerebek. I cant imagine the pressure Dunn feels.

 

[WeWentBlues]

Yes Dunn lost the game in OT. But Vladi left him few options. He fanned on the pass, so he didnt get back to Dunn. Dunn had two options. Push the play and chance the shot....which failed or he could have bailed on the play and conceded a 2 on 1 between Toews and Saad(?) Which most likely ends up in the back of the net.
.

Those weren't Dunn's only options. He forced a play that wasn't there. Need to have better awareness there in that situation.

 

[Dbrownss]

Those weren't Dunn's only options. He forced a play that wasn't there. Need to have better awareness there in that situation.
View attachment 145007

That's fair, I remember'd the 3rd hawk being to his right, he may have been able to throw the puck into the corner. At full speed though. It looked different

 

[ManyIdeas]

Dunn messed up. who cares, he is our most dynamic offensive Dman. he will get it sorted out.

not sure why someone that couldnt make Edmonton of all teams as a defender is suddenly a better option

 

[taylord22]

I realize this can be an eye-rolling disclaimer to a statement, but here it goes: leaving the game Thursday, I thought Dunn was actually one of the better defenders. He was closing off a lot of lanes and his retrieval was one of the few things that kept the Jets forecheck at bay. He did make some dumb plays with the puck on his stick, but that was true of nearly everyone...just maybe didn't materialize as negatively as his.

Vitale seemed to be in the same boat listening to the post game show. So I was surprised to read the GDT later that night and see so many criticize his play. Obviously, I missed a lot since I doubt even Yeo would bench him after 1 bad game, but...I do wonder how much taking him out of the line-up will negatively affect the team. Even when he's not playing great, he really does negate a ton of dump and chase play at a really valuable rate.

Frankly, I find it hard to believe the Blues are ready to judge any of our defenders at this point (Bouw included). Changing partners night to night, shift to shift this early in the season should have the expectation of hiccups.

 

[WeWentBlues]

I wouldn't take Dunn out of the line up. My prior comment was specifically related to that play in overtime.

Assuming Eddie is back for Thursday, I'd go
6-27
29-55
43-41

Give me a younger, hungrier, more offensive minded Schmaltz on that third pairing, playing off-handed, over Jay Bouwmeester.

 

[Majorityof1]

Its not just the Dunn benching by itself, if indeed he will be benched, but roster decisions as a whole. Blias, Barbashev and Kyrou getting 10 minutes with Thomas getting extremely shafted in minutes, Schmaltz getting benched in game 2, now Dunn potentially benched, Kyrou not out in situations 4v4 or 3v3 where he would thrive, etc. Yeo created a team that relied heavily on youth, and now he is pulling back on it. We cannot shelter all 7 youngsters when they have a bad game or the game gets tight. We have to let them play through slumps, and play in tough situations. If not, we might as well just send them down and call up vets. We are sticking in bad players with experience over good inexperienced players. Its not making us better, and its not helping our good young players get the experience. Its still early, so we'll see where it goes, but I do not want to see a repeat of how they treated Barbashev last year, jerking him around the line-up for every mistake and calling him out in the media.

 

[Ranksu]

Really positive stats about faceoffs. Its Small sample size, but I've big hopes Thomas could manage 4th line center job.

St. Louis Blues- Face-off stats - 2018 - Puckbase

 

[bleedblue1223]

Really positive stats about faceoffs. Its Small sample size, but I've big hopes Thomas could manage 4th line center job.

St. Louis Blues- Face-off stats - 2018 - Puckbase

Yep. O'Reilly and Bozak will provide big upgrades in this area.

 

[BlueDream]

Dunn messed up. who cares, he is our most dynamic offensive Dman. he will get it sorted out.

not sure why someone that couldnt make Edmonton of all teams as a defender is suddenly a better option

I mean, if you're going to judge someone off of a couple bad preseason games, not sure that's exactly fair either.

I realize this can be an eye-rolling disclaimer to a statement, but here it goes: leaving the game Thursday, I thought Dunn was actually one of the better defenders. He was closing off a lot of lanes and his retrieval was one of the few things that kept the Jets forecheck at bay. He did make some dumb plays with the puck on his stick, but that was true of nearly everyone...just maybe didn't materialize as negatively as his.

Vitale seemed to be in the same boat listening to the post game show. So I was surprised to read the GDT later that night and see so many criticize his play. Obviously, I missed a lot since I doubt even Yeo would bench him after 1 bad game, but...I do wonder how much taking him out of the line-up will negatively affect the team. Even when he's not playing great, he really does negate a ton of dump and chase play at a really valuable rate.

Frankly, I find it hard to believe the Blues are ready to judge any of our defenders at this point (Bouw included). Changing partners night to night, shift to shift this early in the season should have the expectation of hiccups.

I do agree with this too.

One thing I have noticed is in our GDTs, a defenseman (or any player for that matter I suppose) makes one turnover and everyone seems to pile on them right away. Like seriously a player can make 1 or 2 bad plays and you get a slew of posts saying "Player X is terrible tonight" and there seems to be no recovering for them. It's herd mentality. I'm not sure if I'm the only one that notices this but by reading the GDTs, it really seems to me like some posters expect all of our players to be perfect. Mistakes are going to happen. I've said it before but if I only read our GDTs and didn't watch any of the games, I'd think Steen and Parayko were terrible players based on the way people talk about them. It's craziness sometimes.

 

[Majorityof1]

I mean, if you're going to judge someone off of a couple bad preseason games, not sure that's exactly fair either.


I do agree with this too.

One thing I have noticed is in our GDTs, a defenseman (or any player for that matter I suppose) makes one turnover and everyone seems to pile on them right away. Like seriously a player can make 1 or 2 bad plays and you get a slew of posts saying "Player X is terrible tonight" and there seems to be no recovering for them. It's herd mentality. I'm not sure if I'm the only one that notices this but by reading the GDTs, it really seems to me like some posters expect all of our players to be perfect. Mistakes are going to happen. I've said it before but if I only read our GDTs and didn't watch any of the games, I'd think Steen and Parayko were terrible players based on the way people talk about them. It's craziness sometimes.

I've noticed the pile-on effect too. Somebody posts "X has looked bad tonight". If a few credible posters don't immediately disagree, that idea pervades and everyone is watching X with a critical eye. Mistakes are magnified, and there is a large consensus that X had a bad game at the end. I rarely read GDT during the game and generally read it after. I often have a different take due to this (or maybe due to the fact I don't know what I'm talking about half the time depending on who you ask).

 

[Captain Creampuff]

Defensive pairs at practice:

Edmundson-Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester-Parayko
Jerabek-Bortuzzo
Dunn-Schmaltz

Eddy will really stabilize that top pairing and the trickle down effect should be helpful. I'm also eager to see what we have in Jerabek. Wouldn't mind if Dunn sat for a game tbh.

I like those pairing a lot and do agree that Dunn should sit for a game. I think people are overreacting about the team right now. I personally enjoy the way we are playing and think things just need a little time to click. I just think we need our goalie to be better than the other teams for a single game, but I don't want to keep beating that dead horse.

 

[MissouriMook]

I wouldn't take Dunn out of the line up. My prior comment was specifically related to that play in overtime.

Assuming Eddie is back for Thursday, I'd go
6-27
29-55
43-41

Give me a younger, hungrier, more offensive minded Schmaltz on that third pairing, playing off-handed, over Jay Bouwmeester.

You can wish all you want, but there is no way a healthy Jay Bouwmeester is in the press box. I feel like our best option 3rd pairing option right now is 19-43 but I concede that they are going to figure out what they have in Jerabek and that, for reasons unexplained, they are going to see Schmaltz as our 8th best option. He'll be down to the 9th best option when Gunnarsson is healthy.

 

[Celtic Note]

Mistakes are always magnified if you are looking for them. I could pick apart any Blues game if I wanted to.

Judging players in relation to the team as a whole is a much better way to assess player contributions. That’s harder to do though.

One thing I have noticed is that when following the puck around, I see an often different game then if I allow my eyes to relax and see the overall play. It’s much easier to see what everyone is doing on the ice when watching the game this way (assuming the camera angle allows).

 

[Dbrownss]

Looks like Yeo got ahold of JRs twitter lolz

 

[PiggySmalls]

Looks like Yeo got ahold of JRs twitter lolz

That moment Wilds fans warned us about Yeo and young players is really coming to light with these tweets. It’s clear Armstrong sees a bigger pitcher with the youth and Yeo is trying to go against for the sake of veteran experience.

 

[542365]

Looks like Yeo got ahold of JRs twitter lolz

Yeah. I really hated his comment that the young guys weren’t expected to make the team but they did so that means he isn’t terrible with young players. Like he deserves a gold star for identifying that Kyrou was quite easily one of our top 12 forwards in camp. Bravo Mike.

 

[Dbrownss]

That moment Wilds fans warned us about Yeo and young players is really coming to light with these tweets. It’s clear Armstrong sees a bigger pitcher with the youth and Yeo is trying to go against for the sake of veteran experience.

I could understand if we were 10-15 games in and these guys were carrying the play. Maybe I'm missing things off camera but I havnt seen any glaring mistakes. Kyrou isnt holding back Schwartz and Schenn. Those two alone dont look right. Schwartz couldn't break down the left side to save us life and Schenn still randomly handles the puck like a grenade. Again....I'm not meaning to pick them apart but I just didnt see Kyrou as the problem and deserving a demotion. I dont know if I ever noticed Thomas.

Its not like the team was rolling until the kids hit the ice, they all generally dont look great and I attribute that to coaching and the system.

 

[Dbrownss]

Yeah. I really hated his comment that the young guys weren’t expected to make the team but they did so that means he isn’t terrible with young players. Like he deserves a gold star for identifying that Kyrou was quite easily one of our top 12 forwards in camp. Bravo Mike.

Quite a few fans pegged Kyrou to make the team lol