Hooking wrote: ↑17 Apr 2025 18:33 pm
I do not think they are better than the 2019 team.
Bouwmeester and Pietranenglo alone are better than any D the Blues have now.
Coaching and Goalie are equal to me.
Offense I think is better with this team though.
2019 team had more swagger though with Maroon and Steen. This team does have some good chemistry though.
Should have some really fun games coming up.
You might be right about Pietrangelo, but I disagree on Bouwmeester.
There are 3-4 Dmen on the current team that have better numbers than Bouwmeester.
Numbers? Like goals, assists and points? Bouw was a defensive d-man. A one man breakout machine with excellent skating. No, he didn’t contribute much of anything offensively but that’s not how you grade d-men IMO.
To me, the 2025 team isn’t very close to the 2019 team. Offensive firepower is probably about even but the 2019 team had more depth. Schenn was the 2C and is also the 2C now. The 2019 version of Schenn was much better. 2019 Sunny was also much better than 2025 Sunny. Holloway is a big loss. That’d be like removing Schwartz from the 2019 run.
I like the depth of this D group a little better than what we had in 2019 but simply put, we just don’t have a Pietrangelo. I’d argue 2025 Parayko is about on par with 2019 Bouwmeester. The 2019 team had a big 3 of Petro, Bouw and Parayko and then a cobbled together group of Gunnarsson, Dunn, Edmundson and Borts. The 2025 D is deeper but they’ll have to play way over their heads to match what Petro, Bouw and Parayko contributed in 2019.
I give 2019 Binner a slight edge over 2025 Binner but it’s pretty much a wash there.
I consider Monty a slightly better coach than Berube but again, it’s close.
In the end, this is a team that I think will put up a fight but just doesn’t have the horses yet to make a big playoff push yet. But the experience will be good for the young guys for them to grow and hopefully they’ll improve a bit for next season.
I agree with you that Bouwmeester was a great defenseman. My comment was really in answer to the original poster saying “ Bouwmeester and Pietranenglo alone are better than any D the Blues have now”.
IMO, there are a couple current Blues D-men as good or better than Bouwmeester. I would take the 2025 Parayko and Broberg over the 2019 Bouwmeester.
As folks can tell by the different answers and comments in this thread. It depends on which area of the two teams you compare or guess about. About the best way I can say it is that in 2019 I said I couldn't see any other team beating us in a best of seven games. With this Blues team I feel even stronger about no one taking the best of seven from us. Now wait....because I have a big "if" here. If the 12 game winning streak Blues show up. It'll be even easier for us to knock every body off. Have fun everyone. I'm going to.
Last edited by Blues Dave on 18 Apr 2025 12:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I think Parayko 2025 and Pietrangelo 2019 are more similar than most think. Parayko only had 5 fewer points despite playing less games and not playing as many powerplay minutes. At 5 on 5 Parayko simply had better numbers this year than Pietrangelo in 2019. Fowler is also having a better offensive season than Pietrangelo in 2019.
The 2019 team still had better advanced stats, a much better PK unit, and better depth forwards. Their style was much more about physical grinding puck possession down low and less on transitional offense. The 2025 version does seem to play much faster pace with more rush scoring. The core of the 2019 team probably had more playoff experience too. I will be interested to see how the young players respond to the increased intensity of the postseason.
My immediate thought is/was not even close but really upon further review it is closer than I thought but still those big 3 on d were pretty special.
I think a lot of 2019 was catching lightning in a bottle though, that team just clicked at the right time and I reckon this one could to...obiously after setting a franchise record in consecutive wins and consecutive home wins.
Kind of got the same vibe with Gloria and Joboo going on, not quite the same swagger but you can kind of see it in the making.
HighStick wrote: ↑18 Apr 2025 09:30 am
19 was a fluke. Army made some great moves over the summer, I think there were 9 personnel changes that summer and it all came together beautifully but it was a fluke. As proof of that within 2 years the team was mostly disbanded and struggling to keep their head above water. Job went down. Maroon left, Bozak retired, Petro went to Vegas, ROR and Perron left. The leadership was all gone within 2 seasons.
This team is set up for success going into the future more than the '19 team was. I don't think they are Cup contenders right now today but over the next 2/3 years they easily could be. They should be a strong team that has a chance for years to come. It's only going to get better once Krug is off the books too.
I vehemently disagree with the term "fluke". The proof in the pudding was the way the team started the 19-20 season, they and I believe Boston were the top teams in the league, and the Blues were keeping it going after Tarasenko went down.
It all came apart beginning with JBo going down then in a crash with covid. The Blues got even better results in the 109 point 21-22 season but the team was driven by offense with a far leakier team defense. As all this played out the Blues accumulated playoff disappointments while Cup team players retired, moved on, or headed for free agency to cash in. And there was the Tarasenko drama.
So, the Cup team window really extended through the 21-22 season, a span of four seasons, which isn't bad for a team largely cobbled together with key players from other organizations.
The Cup run certainly was sustained by a series of heroic performances and plays, and fortunate puck bounces. The Dallas Stars can legitimately make a case they came within an inch of being in the Cup Finals. The Bruins could point to the puck bounce that shelved Chara and the Bozak play where he stripped Acciari. Does that constitute "fluke"? No, every Cup winner plays themselves into position to benefit from a fortuitous play or bounce. The Blues grind out three overtimes vs Dallas, overcome a hand-pass non-call loss to the Sharks, and grind out road victories in games 5 and 7 in Boston. There is NOTHING "fluke" about what that team accomplished, they were a team of superior persistence, willpower, discipline, and timely skill.
Yeah, I've heard many, MANY NHL analysts and former players say the Blues were screwed by Covid more than any other team in the NHL. That squad's window had just opened in 2019 and Covid essentially put the kibash on it.
Snuggyfresh wrote: ↑17 Apr 2025 18:15 pm
I think this blues team is better than 2019
What do u think
I just think the fact that this question and comparison are being taken into consideration is a beautiful thing.
I'm looking forward to a long wait to get the final answer.
I'm super happy to have some Blues playoff hockey to watch. But Holloway is likely out for the first round and Thomas may be a question mark. If both of those 2 are out then this is likely going to be a short series. I just hope they manage to win a couple and keep it close in the losses. But this team has been resilient and the new kids on the block could surprise the Jets. And then there's the X factor, Binny. If he shows up focused then the sky is the limit.
As for the comparison to 2019, I thought the Blues were done for heading to Winnipeg in 2019 too.
This team has the ability to be better as a whole offensively than the 2019 team. They as a team are much better in terms of speed without sacrificing much in the way of physicality, if they'd commit to funneling pucks to the net they'd be a problem as eventually something will bounce in.
Defensively, the forwards are not as strong, the top end defensemen aren't quite at the level as the 2019, the depth is better though and i'd rate 2nd and 3rd pairs to be about even, which i would not have done in 2019.
Goalie wise Binnington is Binnington. Will win you more games in the postseason than he will lose you.
Coaching wise i'd call it mostly a wash. Both coaches had the right answers to turn their team around in the 2nd half of the season. one is a better motivator probably than the other, but the other is better in X's and O's.
Experience wise, 2019 had better coverage than 2025. Both are about the same in games played it feels like, but the 2025 version is loaded on the backend and not so much on the forwards, whereas 2019 had it on both sides.
