Majorityof1
Registered User
St. Louis Blues
Strengths:
- Forward depth out the wazoo; rolling 4 scoring lines
- Strong defense
- Lots of youth being injected into lineup
Weaknesses:
- The powerplay coaching was a disaster last year; has to improve
- Allen a question mark as starting goalie
- We don't have a traditional 4th line, it's just a bunch of kids; this may or may not become a weakness, we'll have to see
Good list. I don't think the lack of a 4th line is a weakness unless the kids don't perform. I do think it will be troublesome when we try to inject 4th line scrubs in as injury call-ups. I'd say the youth is a potential double edged sword so it fits both positives and negatives. I'll just add a couple more to the above.
Negatives (going here first because I am a pessimist):
- Rookie mistakes/fatigue - 4 rookies (Schmaltz, Thomas, Kyrou, Blais) + Barbashev and Dunn with < 100 games.
- No Elite level talent - 80+ points or award consideration, although Pietrangelo and Tarasenko are close but need to take over games more consistently
Positives:
- Don't need to play match-ups, solid face-offs and defensive skill with all Cs