Thoughts on Tyler Bozak?

simon IC

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Who could the blues have gotten that is producing at his level for less than 5 mil in free agency?

People complaining about bozak are just trying to sound smarter than they are and are analyzing everything in a vacuum..
Ah I see. And those that complain about Steen and Edmundson are just drawing on their expert hockey knowledge and insight. Right?
 

Honeycutt

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Ah I see. And those that complain about Steen and Edmundson are just drawing on their expert hockey knowledge and insight. Right?

Steen and eddy, have not been good. I know crap about hockey, but even I can see that.

Do you think Steen and eddy have been good this year?
 

Renard

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Nov 14, 2011
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I haven't been impressed by Bozek, but he made a nice play on the boards and set up Taraseko in overtime vs. Boston. It was impressive, but since Vladi didn't score, it was kind of forgotten.

Then, he was first up in the shootout, and scored. I was mighty surprised.
 

blueper

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Mar 29, 2012
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Bozak is a solid expensive 3C. If Schenn stays on the wing, I'd rather see Sunny move up to 2C.
Sunny is just playing good hockey in all 3 zones. Bozak is fine but he doesn't deserve big minutes.
 
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simon IC

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Steen and eddy, have not been good. I know crap about hockey, but even I can see that.

Do you think Steen and eddy have been good this year?
They have both certainly performed below expectations this season. I admit that I am very far from an expert myself. I played organized hockey in my youth, and I suffered a serious groin injury when I was 14. ( I would like to say that the injury ended my hockey aspirations, but it was really more my discovery of girls and beer during my recovery that changed my direction). :) I have been watching the Blues since the Gary Unger days in the '70s, so I will give myself credit for an experienced eye test, but that, and my limited on-ice experience is the limit of my expertise. You are absolutely correct in your evaluations of Edmundson and Steen respectively, and while I accept that I might be premature in my criticism of Bozak, I am confident that my eye test confirms my assessment of his play thus far, and I am not confident of any substantial improvement. Btw, I can be snarky and sarcastic in my posts and I apologize for that and for presenting myself as being more knowledgeable than I am. I appreciate and value your input to the discussions, and look forward to more of the same.
 
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BleedBlue14

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My personal assessment of Bozak is that he’s been a good/decent 3C. He’s certainly overpaid for what he brings, but barring a complete revamp of Oskar Sundqvists game and the ROR trade, neither of which we could foresee at the time of the signing I can at least understand why he got the contract.

I’m also not necessarily keen on Schenn as a center, at least early in the year. I wasn’t a fan of his game in his own end. Regardless, the Bozak signing allowed us to ease Thomas into a center role and also gives us depth. I just don’t like him centering the second line.
 

shpongle falls

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Bozak is a solid expensive 3C. If Schenn stays on the wing, I'd rather see Sunny move up to 2C.
Sunny is just playing good hockey in all 3 zones. Bozak is fine but he doesn't deserve big minutes.
Boazak has been solid but I’d love to see Sundqvist in the 2c spot for a game just to see how it looks.
 

Renard

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Nov 14, 2011
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They have both certainly performed below expectations this season. I admit that I am very far from an expert myself. I played organized hockey in my youth, and I suffered a serious groin injury when I was 14. ( I would like to say that the injury ended my hockey aspirations, but it was really more my discovery of girls and beer during my recovery that changed my direction). :) I have been watching the Blues since the Gary Unger days in the '70s, so I will give myself credit for an experienced eye test, but that, and my limited on-ice experience is the limit of my expertise. You are absolutely correct in your evaluations of Edmundson and Steen respectively, and while I accept that I might be premature in my criticism of Bozak, I am confident that my eye test confirms my assessment of his play thus far, and I am not confident of any substantial improvement. Btw, I can be snarky and sarcastic in my posts and I apologize for that and for presenting myself as being more knowledgeable than I am. I appreciate and value your input to the discussions, and look forward to more of the same.

The discovery of girls is a groin problem of another sort.
 

Blueston

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Bozak played his entire career in a Toronto until this year. Took him a while to get comfortable here. He’s not flashy and needs to be in synch with linemates to really produce. But he is smart player and has been solid contributor to our turnaround.
 
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BlueDream

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He’s stepped it up. Been a factor offensively and it seems he’s been more physical recently too.

It’s funny how we say we wouldn’t have signed him if we had known we were getting ROR... but that signing is actually looking key now that Schenn has been on the wing and also injured.
 
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Meatball

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Jul 1, 2014
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Looks great. I think he'll be fine in the #2C role come playoff time.

Healthy top six:

Schenn-O'Reilly-Tarasenko
Schwartz-Bozak-Perron

As good as any, and gives him good wingers, finally.
 
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PerryTurnbullfan

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Sep 30, 2006
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Looks great. I think he'll be fine in the #2C role come playoff time.

Healthy top six:

Schenn-O'Reilly-Tarasenko
Schwartz-Bozak-Perron

As good as any, and gives him good wingers, finally.
It looks great as long as Schwartz doesn’t continue to play like Hartland Monahan and actually finishes on his layups. Bozak has played clutch hockey to which many should take notice of the crap he has had to skate with including Schwartz and Steen.
 

AjaxManifesto

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He works for me.

Game winner last night. Shoot out goal a few games before. Does his job. Doesn't cough up the puck in our end.
 

ScratchCatFever

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Oct 14, 2018
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Steen and eddy, have not been good. I know crap about hockey, but even I can see that.

Do you think Steen and eddy have been good this year?
Steen is good for the type of player he is now, which is a 34 year old veteran whose best offensive days are behind him, but can still do important fundamental things that might go unnoticed and not show up on the stat sheet. With that said, if there is a way to move him with his NTC in the off season I wouldn't be opposed to it. But he can still offer this team quite a bit down the stretch as a defensively responsible 3rd line winger, which is what he will be when the team is fully healthy.
 

execwrite1

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Mar 30, 2018
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Looks great. I think he'll be fine in the #2C role come playoff time.

Healthy top six:

Schenn-O'Reilly-Tarasenko
Schwartz-Bozak-Perron

As good as any, and gives him good wingers, finally.

Totally agree. That works for next year as well.

Bozak'a value isn't strictly in the numbers. His defensive play is outstanding and he doesn't make mistakes. Good value for the money because of his veteran leadership on the ice.

Looks like Berube will use Bozak going forward on the 1st PP unit instead of Thomas.
 
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Brian39

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Apr 24, 2014
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Looks great. I think he'll be fine in the #2C role come playoff time.

Healthy top six:

Schenn-O'Reilly-Tarasenko
Schwartz-Bozak-Perron

As good as any, and gives him good wingers, finally.

I can absolutely live with this, but Fabbri's play lately makes me want to try him with ROR and Tarasenko for a 3-4 game stretch to see if he can contribute there. If he has success something like this looks pretty nice:

Fabbri-ROR-Tarasenko
Schwartz-Schenn-Perron
X-Bozak-X
X-X-X

X is some combo of Steen, Thomas, Maroon, Barby, Sunny, MacMac, Blais, and Sanford.

It's far from a guarantee that Fabbri continues to round out his game and finds success with 90 and 91, but I think it is worth a try because I absolutely love what it does to the rest of lineup. If it doesn't work out, I'm also completely comfortable with the top 6 you laid out.
 
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Bluesguru

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Aug 10, 2014
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I was excited we got him but he’s not as impactful as I thought he would be. But he is great on face offs so that has a ton of value. Probably a little over paid but O’Reilly was out of the picture when we signed him so it’s understandable.
 
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simon IC

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Totally agree. That works for next year as well.

Bozak'a value isn't strictly in the numbers. His defensive play is outstanding and he doesn't make mistakes. Good value for the money because of his veteran leadership on the ice.

Looks like Berube will use Bozak going forward on the 1st PP unit instead of Thomas.
The bolded ...What? I will give you that he has improved defensively. The whole team has. But I wouldn't call his defensive play "outstanding". Not even remotely.
 

Robb_K

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Apr 26, 2007
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Looks great. I think he'll be fine in the #2C role come playoff time.

Healthy top six:

Schenn-O'Reilly-Tarasenko
Schwartz-Bozak-Perron

As good as any, and gives him good wingers, finally.
I agree. Thomas is definitely not ready for top-6 play or minutes. I'd rather see Bozak there than Sundqvist, even though I'm very happy with the latter's play.
 

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