Half-Assed GDT: Blues vs. Desert Dogs| COVID Induced Matinee

[Stlblue50]

Thomas Broken thumb 4-6 weeks. Maybe Sam Bennett might not be a bad choice right now.....

Sh** That’s something like 2-4 months in a normal season.

 

[Reality Czech]

I've always liked Bennet, but I am not familiar with Calgary's needs. What would the ask be?

I like Bennett as well, but I don't really see a good fit with the Flames for a trade. Seems they are set on LD, so doubt Dunn would be of much interest to them. Looks like they could use a veteran RD, and RW but they tried Bennett at RW on the second line last night so maybe he will stick there. I think the reason Bennett wants to be traded is that he wants a shot in the top 6, so I don't think the Blues are a team that can guarantee him that.

 

[Ranksu]

Lol, I thought you guys were talking about Ray Bennett.

 

[simon IC]

I like Bennett as well, but I don't really see a good fit with the Flames for a trade. Seems they are set on LD, so doubt Dunn would be of much interest to them. Looks like they could use a veteran RD, and RW but they tried Bennett at RW on the second line last night so maybe he will stick there. I think the reason Bennett wants to be traded is that he wants a shot in the top 6, so I don't think the Blues are a team that can guarantee him that.

Agreed. We don't really have anything to offer the Flames, and Bennett isn't guaranteed to crack our top six even with Thomas and Bozak out. Probably just as well. I don't think a panic trade because of injuries is a good idea anyway.

 

[DeuceNine]

Agreed. We don't really have anything to offer the Flames, and Bennett isn't guaranteed to crack our top six even with Thomas and Bozak out. Probably just as well. I don't think a panic trade because of injuries is a good idea anyway.

We're deep enough to weather this. Thomas is a blow, but honestly he's been slightly underwhelming this year anyway. Bozak is replaceable as is. We'll deal.

 

[Brian39]

We're deep enough to weather this. Thomas is a blow, but honestly he's been slightly underwhelming this year anyway. Bozak is replaceable as is. We'll deal.

Agreed. It is not an elite lineup, but this is a pretty damn good position to be in with three top 9 forwards on IR:

Hoffman-ROR-Perron
Schwartz-Schenn-Kyrou
Sanford-Sunny-Blais
Clifford-Barby-Mac

Those might not be how the exact lines shake out, but that is a good top 6 and adequate bottom 6. Not as much scoring pop as you'd like out of a 3rd line, but that group is solid defensively and should be very good on the forecheck/cycle. This is why you keep depth when you can. We are already in a situation where a healthy lineup would force the staff to scratch a good player like Sanford, Blais, or Barby. Now is not the time to spend an asset to acquire a middle/bottom 6 guy to help tread water. We should be good enough to weather this storm for 4-6 weeks.

The bottom of our division isn't much concern. Most people here are upset with the Blues' first 12 games, yet we are sitting in 3rd place. We're 2 points up on the Ducks with a game in hand. Moreover, 2 of their 5 wins were 1-0 finals and their other 3 wins were 2-1 (excluding empty netters). They have only beaten a goalie more than twice once in their 13 games this season. The only reason they have 13 points is because Gibson is just stealing them by himself. He's incredible, but .500 hockey from the Ducks is not sustainable. They are scoring 1.85 goals per game despite goal scoring being way up league wide. It will be genuinely shocking if they are still at or above .500 a month from now.

The Coyotes weirdly give us fits and we have had a losing record against them for each of the last 3 seasons. But they are not a great team. 22nd in goals for and 24th in goals against so far this year. Their underlying metrics are slightly above average, but I don't think there is much reason to expect them to go on a tear over the next month. We have a 4 point cushion on them (with an extra game played), so there isn't much chance that we are way back on them once we start getting healthy.

Minnesota is 23rd in goals per game and 19th in goals against per game. I had them pegged as the 4th best team in this division, but they don't scare me as a team that is going to go on an 8-1-1 run and put distance between a struggling Blues team.

The Sharks are decent when they get a good game out of their goalie. Jones has had 2 good games this year. Dubnyk has been better, but I don't think he can handle a huge workload at this point in his career and he is prone to stinkers. Their goaltending is just too inconsistent to let them go on a 10+ game heater. Already 6 points behind us, they would need a hell of a heater to pass us and put space between us.

The Kings have the worst expected xGF% in the league so far and are already 7 points back despite the offense being not-horrible. Quick has been one of the worst goalies in hockey this year and Peterson is 1-4 even though he's been a .925 goalie. Kopitar looks like he has gone back in time 3-5 years, but his 14 points in 11 games is probably not sustainable and has only been good enough to win the Kings 3 games. I have zero concern that they will go on a heater and catch us.

All we have to do over the next 4-6 weeks is tread water enough to not allow the Wild and another of these bad teams to drastically outpace us. Realistically, we could go 3-5-2 in our next 10 and either still be in 4th or just be a point or two back. We shouldn't be spending assets on a short term solution until we start seeing any indication that we might miss the playoffs.