Blues Discussion Thread 2018-2019 - Part IV

[bluesfanforlife1992]

Yet another sign of incompetence in our coaching staff. Give your aging vet top pairing assignments and minutes knowing damn well he doesn’t belong on that pairing and now it comes out he is not even recovered from hip surgery. What a ****ing joke.

Just for what he has said about Bouwmeester the last few days would be enough for me to want him fired.

Seriously if guy wasn't healthy enough (let's just say from time he got his 1st healthy scratch).

Why did he play 1st d pairing minutes THE VERY NEXT GAME?!?!?!

Just fire him PLEASE!!!!

Why play the guy if he isn't fully healthy then when you have Schmaltz and other players who are capable of playing minutes.......

I am done with this coaching staff.

 

[Hockeyfreak1970]

So if Blowmeester gets 1st pairings minutes tonight and does something to cost us a goal does Yeo finally get fired for playing him. It's gonna happen. Jblow can't help himself.

 

[MissouriMook]

Maybe this is a coordinated effort to move him to IR (and eventually LTIR) to save the player the embarrassment of being the 7th defenseman for the rest of the year, while allowing the team the cap space to make moves to strengthen our D and goaltending situation. Bouwmeester still gets paid and the team gets the flexibility to make the team better. Can't see that passing the smell test of the Salary Cap rules but who knows...

/conspiracytheory

 

[WeWentBlues]

Maybe this is a coordinated effort to move him to IR (and eventually LTIR) to save the player the embarrassment of being the 7th defenseman for the rest of the year, while allowing the team the cap space to make moves to strengthen our D and goaltending situation. Bouwmeester still gets paid and the team gets the flexibility to make the team better. Can't see that passing the smell test of the Salary Cap rules but who knows...

/conspiracytheory

I think hes suddenly allergic to his hockey equipment.

 

[blueper]

The sad part is that Yeo is leaving himself room to reinsert Jbo into the lineup after he has a rest and a little work done on his hip. UGGGGHHHH.
Sometimes players who are aging hit a wall ... especially when the body starts breaking down. How hard is that to see?
He's so done. He was done last year before off-season surgery. Surgery just allowed him to enjoy retirement a little more. Just be kind and pull the plug on a really decent career.

 

[WeWentBlues]

I'm hoping it's just coach speak from Yeo and is scapegoating his play with the injury so as to not throw 19 under the bus.

 

[simon IC]

Maybe this is a coordinated effort to move him to IR (and eventually LTIR) to save the player the embarrassment of being the 7th defenseman for the rest of the year, while allowing the team the cap space to make moves to strengthen our D and goaltending situation. Bouwmeester still gets paid and the team gets the flexibility to make the team better. Can't see that passing the smell test of the Salary Cap rules but who knows...

/conspiracytheory

This course of action would be in the best interests of all parties involved. (If they could get away with it).

 

[A Real Barn Burner]

This course of action would be in the best interests of all parties involved. (If they could get away with it).

All the more reason to get coach Q back he has experience with this sort of thing now!

 

[Renard]

We were wondering if O'Reilly could set up Tarasenko. Lately, it looks like the other way around.

 

[MissouriMook]

We were wondering if O'Reilly could set up Tarasenko. Lately, it looks like the other way around.

I would be perfectly content for Tarasenko to get 50 assists this year rather than 50 goals.

 

[Majorityof1]

I would be perfectly content for Tarasenko to get 50 assists this year rather than 50 goals.

Agreed, as long as there are 20 or more goals with those 50 assists. We need Vladdy to be a 70+ point guy. Whether he is scoring himself or drawing coverage and dishing doesn't matter. 25g, 50a, 75p is nearly as good as 50g, 25a, 75p. But 10g, 50a, 60p would be disappointing for a $7.5M one-dimensional player.

 

[Chief Steele]

IMO with Vladdy getting a lot of assists right now are going to lead to a lot of goals down the road. right now everyone is expecting him to shoot and he is passing, soon he will start shooting again and beating goalies. I still think he has 30g 50A in him..

 

[Zamadoo]

Tank has improved his checking overall, and is doing most of the physical work on his line. That pass to O'Reilly was a nice little backhand floater from close, and he has been doing a great job of luring defenders to open up teammates.

 

[wannabebluesplayer]

Really thought we’d wake up to Yeo being fired. Last nights performance wasn’t great. They fired Payne for less...why not AV or Quenneville unless Q doesn’t want to coach.

 

[Brian39]

Agreed, as long as there are 20 or more goals with those 50 assists. We need Vladdy to be a 70+ point guy. Whether he is scoring himself or drawing coverage and dishing doesn't matter. 25g, 50a, 75p is nearly as good as 50g, 25a, 75p. But 10g, 50a, 60p would be disappointing for a $7.5M one-dimensional player.

He's already at 6 goals. It would be absolutely stunning if he only managed 4 more over the next 69 games. He's on pace for 37 goals right now even though the eye test has him slumping. I don't see any realistic scenario where his goal floor is below 25. His shot is just too dangerous, even if he doesn't develop any more tools and plays 'lazy' as many people suggest.

 

[Dbrownss]

I've never cared how pts are scored as in goals or assists. The end result is a goal and that's what matters.


I've come to expect Yeo to not be fired because....well it's just a feeling.

 

[Brian39]

Really thought we’d wake up to Yeo being fired. Last nights performance wasn’t great. They fired Payne for less...why not AV or Quenneville unless Q doesn’t want to coach.

If we're in negotiations with a coach to bring in on a non-interim basis, it doesn't make a ton of sense to turf Yeo until that deal is finalized. Having an interim guy for 4 days and then bringing in a full time coach creates a lot of confusion. You can't exactly tell the locker room your intentions while a negotiation is ongoing and that breeds a tough dynamic.

I have no idea whether we are negotiating for a long term replacement. But if we are, we should finish that negotiation before firing Yeo.

 

[Majorityof1]

More fun with stats. I like fooling around with statistics, and am just sharing my work. There is no real point or agenda to this post, just thought people might find this interesting as well.

Below is the projected final season total for our presumed current 21 skaters on the NHL roster + Bortuzzo based on their current scoring pace over the remaining games.

[Sanford = 67] - [O'Reilly 120] - [Perron = 69]
[Schwartz = 28] - [Schenn = 60] - [Tarasenko = 82]
[Fabbri = 48] - [Bozak = 50] - [Steen = 50]
[Maroon = 44] - [Thomas = 34] - [Barbashev = 21]

[Edmundson = 28] - [Pietrangelo = 31]
[Dunn = 53] = [Parayko = 31]
[Bouwmeester = 14] - [Bortuzzo = 14]

Extras: [Sundqvist = 44] - [Schmaltz = 8] - [Gunnarsson = 0], [Soshnikov = 0]

So takeaways are: (1) Forwards are producing really well for their role aside from Schwartz as the lone outlier but (2) the D aren't providing a ton of offense like in years past. That should be obvious to understand why as our PP is producing most of our goals, but we only run 1 D on each unit. Also, (3) Offense really isn't our problem, which is also an obvious conclusion.

Fine Print: This projection assumes they will play all 69 remaining games and score at their current pace over those games, ["Projected Points" = "Current Points" + "Games Remaining" x ("Current Points"/"Games Played")]. Again, their points per game is projected out, but not the percentage of games played they have played. Few players will finish with the same ppg pace, and it's impossible for 22 guys to all play every remaining game. So its not an actual projection. It's just for fun. so....

 

[BlueDream]

Really thought we’d wake up to Yeo being fired. Last nights performance wasn’t great. They fired Payne for less...why not AV or Quenneville unless Q doesn’t want to coach.

Technically we are a bit better through 13 games than we were with Payne. 13 pts vs 12.

It's a game-by-game basis IMO. Yeo's seat is still hot. Another loss on Friday and I think he could be out of here. We'll just have to wait and see.

I think Armstrong is being smart about it right now. You have to realize that he has to be a bit more conservative than the fans. It's hard for a GM to fire a guy after 4 games into the season, because then what does that tell the guy he's hiring? That's he's going to be out of here too at the blink of an eye if he struggles? You still do have to be fair to the current coach while making the job look attractive as possible for the replacement. And you have to make sure you've given the current coach enough of a chance before making that switch, and that the switch will be a wise move.

Right now we're at .500. We need to start winning games. If we lose again Friday to dip below, I'd pull the trigger. And I wouldn't be surprised if that's what Armstrong is thinking. I'm sure he's already looked at available options.

Tank has improved his checking overall, and is doing most of the physical work on his line. That pass to O'Reilly was a nice little backhand floater from close, and he has been doing a great job of luring defenders to open up teammates.

Tarasenko is quietly PPG right now. He's been improving his game so I've been fine with his performance.

The key thing about Tarasenko is it helps when we have another guy that can flirt with PPG too. O'Reilly has been a big help. Tank is really good but he still needs help and another guy that can be a consistent threat for him to really shine, just like most other star players.

 

[Majorityof1]

He's already at 6 goals. It would be absolutely stunning if he only managed 4 more over the next 69 games. He's on pace for 37 goals right now even though the eye test has him slumping. I don't see any realistic scenario where his goal floor is below 25. His shot is just too dangerous, even if he doesn't develop any more tools and plays 'lazy' as many people suggest.

Agreed. I was just stating in general he needs 75 points. I wasn't really meaning to comment on how unlikely or likely it would be for him to fail to hit 20 goals.

I've never cared how pts are scored as in goals or assists. The end result is a goal and that's what matters.

I agree with the sentiment here. However, some players have a knack of picking up points without really doing anything special. Player B takes a terrible shot and misses the net by a mile. Player A hustles behind the net, snatches the puck, makes a crazy deke to get room to thread a seeing eye pass to Player G. Player G shoots a laser that goes just over the goalies mitt and bar down. All 3 get points. Player G and A made good solid plays and each deserve a point. Player A with the assist might even deserve one the most. Player B (Obviously Bouwmeester) made a terrible play and should feel bad, but gets rewarded with an assist anyway.

So that is not a differentiation between goals and assists. However, we need to use the eye test, not just look at a stat line. Did the player make a good solid play to contribute to that goal, or was he merely one of the last 3 players to touch the puck before it went in?

 

[DoubleK81]

I constantly see people calling 91 one-dimensional or lazy, and I just don't get it. Yes, there are times where he has looked completely disinterested and nearly every player goes through a stretch like that. In my limited viewing of games ( probably half of them so far this year ), he looks like a different player than in the past and in a good way. I see him throwing his body around more, I see him going after pucks more, I see him making even more passes than before. He has been putting more effort in on the backcheck. No, he's never going to be a Steen or ROR in the defensive zone, but he still blocks shots and more often than not isn't the player you point to and say "that's on Tarasenko" when a goal is scored against. His purpose here is offense, and thats what I want from him. I don't care if he has 40g/30a or 30g/40a, if he is putting up 70+pts per year, he is doing exactly what his job is.

I've said it before, I think people underestimate the impact of his shoulder surgery on his shooting. His shot has always relied on upper body strength. I know from personal experience that the surgery he had changes the dynamics of his shooting. This is why he has been taking one-timers far more often this season. He'll get his usual wrister back, but it will take time.

 

[Majorityof1]

Right now we're at .500. We need to start winning games. If we lose again Friday to dip below, I'd pull the trigger. And I wouldn't be surprised if that's what Armstrong is thinking. I'm sure he's already looked at available options.

We can't continually hover at .500 waiting to dip below before making a move either. .500 is not playoff hockey. Last year it would have been 11th worst in the league (which is the worst place for us to finish). Playoff hockey is >.600. The longer we play .500 hockey, the more over .600 we have to be over the remaining games to make up the difference. There is a difference between Payne and Yeo, as well. Yeo has an almost unarguably better team, and we aren't really even looking great in games we get points. We have decisively won 1, maybe two games. So even though we got 2 points last night, I don't really consider it a check mark in the "keep Yeo" box because we were pretty much outplayed and out-coached.

 

[Dbrownss]

Agreed. I was just stating in general he needs 75 points. I wasn't really meaning to comment on how unlikely or likely it would be for him to fail to hit 20 goals.



I agree with the sentiment here. However, some players have a knack of picking up points without really doing anything special. Player B takes a terrible shot and misses the net by a mile. Player A hustles behind the net, snatches the puck, makes a crazy deke to get room to thread a seeing eye pass to Player G. Player G shoots a laser that goes just over the goalies mitt and bar down. All 3 get points. Player G and A made good solid plays and each deserve a point. Player A with the assist might even deserve one the most. Player B (Obviously Bouwmeester) made a terrible play and should feel bad, but gets rewarded with an assist anyway.

So that is not a differentiation between goals and assists. However, we need to use the eye test, not just look at a stat line. Did the player make a good solid play to contribute to that goal, or was he merely one of the last 3 players to touch the puck before it went in?

So Patrick Maroons assists Lol....except 1 of them? I do agree with you, you have to watch how the play developed. That's why I hate "primary" assist. The secondary assist may have been the high end play that set up a simple bang bang play. All of it really is eye test. A few players have made a few goals happen that he didnt register a point on because they would have been the 1st person to make a pace but the 4th person in possesion

 

[Chief Steele]

SOOOO... Practice was canceled today???

Grabs tin foil hat....

 

[STL fan in MN]

Really thought we’d wake up to Yeo being fired. Last nights performance wasn’t great. They fired Payne for less...why not AV or Quenneville unless Q doesn’t want to coach.

Who knows what Army is doing behind the scenes. He could be kicking tires, he could be negotiating a contract for a new coach, he could’ve inquired on Q or others and told they weren’t interested or at least not interested at this time (reports are that Q may take some time to decide his next step). Who knows...but if he’s going to replace Yeo, he has to have his replacement set up first and that takes time and both sides to agree.