Half-Assed GDT: Blues vs Florida

[GoldenSeal]

NOT WORRIED. Teams got heart and resolve. We will find a way. I believe!

 

[Ranksu]

looked like his groin so hopefully binner can come back soon

I watched. That didn't look good at all. Yes groin injury, couldn't do at all lateral movement.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Blues need to ask Perron and the doctors how much longer they project him to be out. Anything more than 3 games he should be placed on LTIR. Blues can't keep up with these injuries every game.

 

[execwrite1]

Haven't watched the tape. yet but what a victory. These guys that are still standing just keep battling.

Reflects the Chief's personality and influence. Bring in a bus load of Springfield guys and keep rolling as long as possible.

Well done Blues.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

I think the Blues website guy also got injured. Stats page hasn't been updated yet. Lol

 

[execwrite1]

Blues need to ask Perron and the doctors how much longer they project him to be out. Anything more than 3 games he should be placed on LTIR. Blues can't keep up with these injuries every game.

Trying to understand emergency call up/cap relief rules. This is from last year during Covid.

Emergency Roster Rules
Normally, if a team has less than 18 skaters and less than $800K (minimum salary of $700K + $100K) cap space to call up a player, they must play 1 game with less than 18 skaters, and then they can call up a player with a Cap Hit of $800K or less and are permitted to exceed the cap for that player until an injured player returns. For this year, those rules still apply, except the player called up can have a cap hit of $1M or less.
However, if the team goes to less than 12 Forwards & 6 Defencemen available due to COVID and not enough cap space to call replacements up, they do not have to play 1 game with less than 18 skaters like normal. They can skip the 1 game with less than 18 skaters, and replace the missing Forwards or Defencemen with a player with a Cap Hit of $1M or less immediately.
If a team has less than 2 active healthy goalies and not enough cap space to recall 1 from taxi squad, they can activate the taxi squad goalie and exceed the salary cap.
If both goalies are hurt during a game, the taxi squad goalie can get dressed and enter the game. The taxi squad goalie would not have a cap hit charge in this situation.

 

[Zezel’s Pretzels]

Another positive - the Blues have had the hardest schedule in the Central thus far, and they have the easiest remaining schedule in the division. Nice to be done with the FL teams and not have to play COL or VGK until the last two games of the season. If there’s a time to be battling through something like this, it’s now.

 

[BlueOil]

 

[AjaxManifesto]

NOT WORRIED. Teams got heart and resolve. We will find a way. I believe!

I want to believe.

My only issue is their inconsistency.

They will have gutsy games against good teams (VGK, Avs, TBL, Panthers) and then implode against weak teams (Yotes, DET, Hawks).

It's hard to figure out this team. Maybe this is the process they need to go through to be a Cup worthy team. However, I don't think we will see another story like '18-'19 (from last to Cup). Because of this I'd like to see more consistency.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Buch now has 20 points in 23 games, Tarasenko has 21 in 25, Thomas has 22 in 24, Kyrou has 25 in 25, and Saad is our leading goal-scorer with 11 goals.

 

[Honeycutt]

Great character building win last night! This is a fun team that can run with anyone. IF we are healthy going to the post season we will be able to do some damage!

 

[Blueston]

The league just needs to add a clause that you can bring up as many players who play at league minimum or close under emergency situations. Clearly there are no cap shenanigans going on, they need to have a solution to this problem.

That already is the rule.

 

[Majorityof1]

Couple thoughts from me:

I'm still shocked we won this game. We were sooo bad in the first. It looked like a college or junior team with an NHL goalie was playing the Panthers. We were trying but looked totally outclassed. Then suddenly in the 2nd we just flipped a switch and started dominating for awhile. It was so weird but fun to watch.

Husso was amazing, and it sucks he got injured. He really deserved the win. I'm glad they gave him one of the stars.

Krug was brutal, very bad, this game. He had multiple turnovers, misplays, and got obliterated on a hit where he crashed into Husso and could have hurt him earlier in the game. Perunovich might have been worse. He was totally sheltered, and still had some of the worst advanced stats on the team. He cost us a goal by puck watching while his man scored. I don't see what you all do with him. He is an ultra smooth skater, and pretty good on the PP. But his offense doesn't translate at the NHL level 5v5. Thankfully his bad defense hasn't bitten us too many times. However, he makes our goalie's life more difficult than he makes the opposing goalie's.

Our Russian brigade was great. They and Husso were the 3 stars. I know 3+1=4 but they all deserved recognition. It was almost criminal to ignore vladdy. He only had a goal and assist but they were crucial ones and beautiful ones to boot. Hello finally had a snipe, and that pass...whoo..so pretty. But how to take a star away from Buchnevich with that really smart OT wrap around, or Barby with 2assists and like a million hits (ok, only 6) or Husso with 150 saves in the first (ok, like 20-something). Great stuff from those 4.

I was by far the harshest on Logan Brown during the pre-season. I surmised that he might have a pathological fear of human contact. I won't go so far as to eat any crow, but he does look better on that front. He still shies away from contact far too much for my liking, but he hasn't completely checked out like he did in pre-season. He has done enough there to allow his skills to shine with some scoring. He still needs to get a lot better in physical battles to stick around, but I have hope. I don't need him to be a big hitter, but he needs to keep fighting for the puck when things get a little bit physical on the boards. In the board battles I could focus on him, he still looks distracted once pressure comes to his back side. At least he is not pulling his stick away and making himself small as possible like he did in pre-season. So good work by Drew Bannister with him in a short amount of time. I really hope we can get healthy enough to send Brown and Perunovich back to get trained a little more under Bannister.

 

[ItsOnlytheRiver]

Can we send Brown back down without waivers?

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Can we send Brown back down without waivers?

We can if he's sent down before 10 games played or up to 30 days. Whichever comes first.

 

[ezcreepin]

Couple thoughts from me:

I'm still shocked we won this game. We were sooo bad in the first. It looked like a college or junior team with an NHL goalie was playing the Panthers. We were trying but looked totally outclassed. Then suddenly in the 2nd we just flipped a switch and started dominating for awhile. It was so weird but fun to watch.

Husso was amazing, and it sucks he got injured. He really deserved the win. I'm glad they gave him one of the stars.

Krug was brutal, very bad, this game. He had multiple turnovers, misplays, and got obliterated on a hit where he crashed into Husso and could have hurt him earlier in the game. Perunovich might have been worse. He was totally sheltered, and still had some of the worst advanced stats on the team. He cost us a goal by puck watching while his man scored. I don't see what you all do with him. He is an ultra smooth skater, and pretty good on the PP. But his offense doesn't translate at the NHL level 5v5. Thankfully his bad defense hasn't bitten us too many times. However, he makes our goalie's life more difficult than he makes the opposing goalie's.

Our Russian brigade was great. They and Husso were the 3 stars. I know 3+1=4 but they all deserved recognition. It was almost criminal to ignore vladdy. He only had a goal and assist but they were crucial ones and beautiful ones to boot. Hello finally had a snipe, and that pass...whoo..so pretty. But how to take a star away from Buchnevich with that really smart OT wrap around, or Barby with 2assists and like a million hits (ok, only 6) or Husso with 150 saves in the first (ok, like 20-something). Great stuff from those 4.

I was by far the harshest on Logan Brown during the pre-season. I surmised that he might have a pathological fear of human contact. I won't go so far as to eat any crow, but he does look better on that front. He still shies away from contact far too much for my liking, but he hasn't completely checked out like he did in pre-season. He has done enough there to allow his skills to shine with some scoring. He still needs to get a lot better in physical battles to stick around, but I have hope. I don't need him to be a big hitter, but he needs to keep fighting for the puck when things get a little bit physical on the boards. In the board battles I could focus on him, he still looks distracted once pressure comes to his back side. At least he is not pulling his stick away and making himself small as possible like he did in pre-season. So good work by Drew Bannister with him in a short amount of time. I really hope we can get healthy enough to send Brown and Perunovich back to get trained a little more under Bannister.

Husso has definitely taken another step in becoming a great backup/possible starter, but I feel badly for him because this was definitely a win he should have gotten. This has been 2 games in a row from him where he has given us a chance to win the game, and honestly he's the reason we got 3 points against Florida. I was at work so I didn't see much of the defensive coverage, but I'll have to take your word on Krug being bad. Perunovich I'm not necessarily as concerned since he and everyone else called up is asking to do a tougher job than what they really should be given. He lost coverage on one of those goals and you kinda hope he can learn from that. However, he did stop a really dangerous chance right in front of the net with a beautiful, and I mean chef's kiss poke check to push the puck off of the stick of the Panthers player. He's putting up points and making a 2nd powerplay incredibly dangerous, arguably should've gotten a assist last night, but the points 5v5 will come once he's gotten more comfortable with playing the system. There's no reason for him to be in the minors anymore; he can learn NHL defense up with the big club.

Brown has looked pretty good and energized since being called up, and maybe that's because he's playing for his home town team. He's still really young, and I would expect in 2-3 years he'll be much more difficult to push off the puck with that extra weight coming in. He looks more engaged, and he took a big hit last night from Gudas to make a play which resulted in the Saad goal. I'm hoping he can continue this play, but we'll just have to see how the roster shakes up when everyone is back.

 

[Majorityof1]

Husso has definitely taken another step in becoming a great backup/possible starter, but I feel badly for him because this was definitely a win he should have gotten. This has been 2 games in a row from him where he has given us a chance to win the game, and honestly he's the reason we got 3 points against Florida. I was at work so I didn't see much of the defensive coverage, but I'll have to take your word on Krug being bad. Perunovich I'm not necessarily as concerned since he and everyone else called up is asking to do a tougher job than what they really should be given. He lost coverage on one of those goals and you kinda hope he can learn from that. However, he did stop a really dangerous chance right in front of the net with a beautiful, and I mean chef's kiss poke check to push the puck off of the stick of the Panthers player. He's putting up points and making a 2nd powerplay incredibly dangerous, arguably should've gotten a assist last night, but the points 5v5 will come once he's gotten more comfortable with playing the system. There's no reason for him to be in the minors anymore; he can learn NHL defense up with the big club.

Brown has looked pretty good and energized since being called up, and maybe that's because he's playing for his home town team. He's still really young, and I would expect in 2-3 years he'll be much more difficult to push off the puck with that extra weight coming in. He looks more engaged, and he took a big hit last night from Gudas to make a play which resulted in the Saad goal. I'm hoping he can continue this play, but we'll just have to see how the roster shakes up when everyone is back.

Brown is closer to his 24th birthday than his 23rd. He isn't exactly a kid. In 2-3 years he'll be UFA eligible. 23-24 should be when an NHL player is in his prime, not still hoping to get his adult muscles. Besides I'm not so worried about his strength as much as his willingness to even try to be a little bit physical.

Perunovich has 81% offensive deployment and yet has sub 50% xg% and a 34% high danger chance%. That is awful. Parayko's getting caved because he is shouldering a ridiculous load. Krug is starting to get caved because we can no longer shelter him AND Perunivich. Krug with Faulk held his own when sheltered but at 50% deployment, its turning negative. Perunovich cannot even hold his own when heavily sheltered. Consequently we are getting caved on all 3 pairings. Perunovich either has to learn to play big boy defense or start producing more offense 5v5. We cannot afford to shelter him this heavily just to moderately improve our 2nd PP unit.

 

[GoldenSeal]

I want to believe.

My only issue is their inconsistency.

They will have gutsy games against good teams (VGK, Avs, TBL, Panthers) and then implode against weak teams (Yotes, DET, Hawks).

It's hard to figure out this team. Maybe this is the process they need to go through to be a Cup worthy team. However, I don't think we will see another story like '18-'19 (from last to Cup). Because of this I'd like to see more consistency.

The one thing consistent about this team is their perpetual inconsistency. 2019 was a lot like this too.

We’re the odd duck who doesn’t do things the easy way. How many shorties did we give up and were undefeated in those kinds of games. We defy logic and have a Cup to show for it.

 

[Ridge1982]

Last night was an example of how the Blues are the true heart and soul of St. Louis. They encapsulate the underdog spirit of the region. The Cardinals are a public trust, but compared to the Blues, they’re Elon Musk.

 

[Moose and Squirrel]

As long as we leave tonight with as many players as we came into it with. That’s a win

you were saying..?

 

[Brian39]

Brown is closer to his 24th birthday than his 23rd. He isn't exactly a kid. In 2-3 years he'll be UFA eligible. 23-24 should be when an NHL player is in his prime, not still hoping to get his adult muscles. Besides I'm not so worried about his strength as much as his willingness to even try to be a little bit physical.

Perunovich has 81% offensive deployment and yet has sub 50% xg% and a 34% high danger chance%. That is awful. Parayko's getting caved because he is shouldering a ridiculous load. Krug is starting to get caved because we can no longer shelter him AND Perunivich. Krug with Faulk held his own when sheltered but at 50% deployment, its turning negative. Perunovich cannot even hold his own when heavily sheltered. Consequently we are getting caved on all 3 pairings. Perunovich either has to learn to play big boy defense or start producing more offense 5v5. We cannot afford to shelter him this heavily just to moderately improve our 2nd PP unit.

I don't fully disagree about Perunovich, but I do think that you need to talk about the positives along with the negatives. He has been on the ice for 8 goals for and 2 against. Going into the Florida games, his xGF% was 50.8% and he was positive on every metric but high danger chances (which was still real bad). He isn't capable of defending well enough to prevent the other team's possessions from becoming dangerous. But I'm not sure whether he is at fault for the lack of high danger chances for. We generate a lot of medium danger chances with him on the ice, but few high danger chances. In an 11 game sample, I'm not sure how much of that is his lack of offensive ability vs the other 4 players not executing.

Again, I mostly agree. he has been a liability defensively lately and has lots to work on. But all of his underlying numbers besides high danger chances were very good before the entire team got cratered by the Panthers, so I want to see more before I say that he isn't good enough offensively at 5 on 5. The 8 goals for that he's been on the ice for at 5 on 5 is 4th on the team since he was called up. With the sample size at just 11 games, I'm not willing to abandon my eye test that tells me he is really good when we have possession of the puck.

FWIW, I thought Krug was much worse than Perunovich last night. Both were awful at defending when the Panthers had the puck, but Krug also seemed determined to give them the puck at every opportunity. I thought last night was Krug's worst game of the season by a mile.

 

[Moose and Squirrel]

Who predicted the Hofer-Lindgren tandem in mid December? Could be looking at that by Thursday.

problem is, there's no cap to bring Hofer back up unless someone goes on LTIR

 

[Moose and Squirrel]

Knight bit hard on the short side, but to be fair I even thought Buch was shooting that puck.

yup.. and his right foot is OUTSIDE the post, instead of against it

nothing to push off of to get across

 

[Moose and Squirrel]

Didn’t expect 2 points tonight.. thought the Blues might lose 27-1 after the 1st period..

Schenn scored a gimme goal but turned the puck over way too many times and still isn’t creating offense

We all hate Keenan but he turned Baron into a checking machine and he was a fringe NHL D.. maybe make Parayko live with Keenan until he becomes an aggressive player and he has to make quicker decisions with the puck

Scandella is a weak link

Not sure how to get the team to start playing in the 1st periods of games

they NEED to bring Robinson back in to coach the dmen.. unfortunately, I believe he's actually under contract to someone else now

 

[Moose and Squirrel]

He’s got a hole in his stick.

maybe he's using one of those plastic sticks we had as kids way back when..

anything heavier than a tennis ball and they flexed like crazy lol