The Hockey Guys Blues 2025-26 Season Preview

[TAFKAP]

At times sarcasm isn't apparent in posts. My comment above is flippant, off-the-cuff. As for how we deal with trolls and external agendas, well, that's really up to the individual. MN lost his patience in another thread; it happens. My position, which the moderators might not fully support, is we should have as much right to respond to them directly as they do to use this forum to push personal agendas or bait posters. Otherwise, they effectively have special privileges.

The mods are here because this website, with all it's forums, was unmoderated for decades. It was a total [censored] where you came for a dopamine hit for screaming abuses at someone, and dogpile. The Current Affairs forum was it's own animal where people hung out all day just to scream at someone. There was really no mods. There was open discussions about murder, war, genocide, it was all on the table. This is not an exaggeration, when a gunman opened fire on the Congressional Baseball Game and Steve Scalise was shot, they announced the gunman was from the Metro East. There was an actual conversation over who was missing, we pretty much agreed someone there had finally snapped. It took a concerted effort for me to walk away from it and was really glad when it got [shirt]canned, along with another gift, NFL Talk. I can tell you, most of those people are still here, some of them have wandered over occasionally, ASOGG is the only one who stays, but they have no real opinion, they act like they do, but if you wait long enough, it'll change. They want the argument, they want your anger. It's like this every offseason. I love the "Foe" button because I do have the tendency to anger react, and find myself wasting energy on a days long back and forth with someone who has changed the subject and their argument 3 times. They just live for the responses. That's Bleedr, to a lesser degree Bomac as well (Cahokanut). Bomac usually posts when he's smoking and you can tell, but who gets angry when smoking? Really?!?! I just hate seeing good discussions get sideways by someone who came in with the intent of destroying the discussion, it's maddening. They do it on purpose and you can't get them to see reason and join the conversation civilly. Chaos is the goal to them.

[DawgDad]

Interesting history lesson. I've only been posting here since I retired a few years ago.

Great time to be a Blues fan, in my opinion. Anxiously awaiting the new season.

[Mr.Snuggleupagus]

he's hard to watch

This has not been my experience.

I agree, The Hockey Guy is great to watch (plus he helps me get sleepy on the long videos); an enthusiastic, knowledgeable hockey fan. Much better than Top Shelf hockey (who we call Armstrong's son).

[Stlcardsblues]

he's hard to watch

Why? I find his stuff some of the best out there.

[Old_Goat]

I'm amazed that he is concerned that Fowler may fall back a bit. I look for Fowler to repeat his magic or improve. The only thing that would stop him is injury.

He is more down on Mailloux than most, which is also surprising.

He sees the Bolduc trade as surprising, which is not surprising.

I'm more concerned about Holloway repeating and/or improving his season...that was a stellar season he had, lofty goals to be 30+ goals, 70+ points. Proper concern to worry about Fowler, he could morph into Leddy; no D, no offense, but I don't see it...he's just light years better than Leddy was.

Holloway is a key, for sure. Anxiously waiting to see if he's fully healed and flying around the ice again.

I'm not concerned about Fowler.

I am actually not really concerned about Holloway's recovery from injury. He did not keep playing and trying to push through, which can often times make it worse or develop other problems in other parts of anatomy. Plus he's young & he'll have about six months to have a complete recovery program, with world class therapies. And I imagine (hope) the training regimen may help to strengthen the other non-affected areas to mitigate some future potential similar hit for him.

[moose-and-squirrel]

I'm amazed that he is concerned that Fowler may fall back a bit. I look for Fowler to repeat his magic or improve. The only thing that would stop him is injury.

He is more down on Mailloux than most, which is also surprising.

He sees the Bolduc trade as surprising, which is not surprising.

I'm more concerned about Holloway repeating and/or improving his season...that was a stellar season he had, lofty goals to be 30+ goals, 70+ points. Proper concern to worry about Fowler, he could morph into Leddy; no D, no offense, but I don't see it...he's just light years better than Leddy was.

Holloway is a key, for sure. Anxiously waiting to see if he's fully healed and flying around the ice again.

I'm not concerned about Fowler.

I am actually not really concerned about Holloway's recovery from injury. He did not keep playing and trying to push through, which can often times make it worse or develop other problems in other parts of anatomy. Plus he's young & he'll have about six months to have a complete recovery program, with world class therapies. And I imagine (hope) the training regimen may help to strengthen the other non-affected areas to mitigate some future potential similar hit for him.

does anybody know exactly what his injury was? hard to tell if it's concerning or not, without knowing what the issue was/is

[Old_Goat]

I'm amazed that he is concerned that Fowler may fall back a bit. I look for Fowler to repeat his magic or improve. The only thing that would stop him is injury.

He is more down on Mailloux than most, which is also surprising.

He sees the Bolduc trade as surprising, which is not surprising.

I'm more concerned about Holloway repeating and/or improving his season...that was a stellar season he had, lofty goals to be 30+ goals, 70+ points. Proper concern to worry about Fowler, he could morph into Leddy; no D, no offense, but I don't see it...he's just light years better than Leddy was.

Holloway is a key, for sure. Anxiously waiting to see if he's fully healed and flying around the ice again.

I'm not concerned about Fowler.

I am actually not really concerned about Holloway's recovery from injury. He did not keep playing and trying to push through, which can often times make it worse or develop other problems in other parts of anatomy. Plus he's young & he'll have about six months to have a complete recovery program, with world class therapies. And I imagine (hope) the training regimen may help to strengthen the other non-affected areas to mitigate some future potential similar hit for him.

does anybody know exactly what his injury was? hard to tell if it's concerning or not, without knowing what the issue was/is

That's a fair question. I do not know. But from what I hear it is not concussion related, nor have I heard that it is related to a potential congenital condition, which is something we hear about shoulders, Tommy John surgery injuries, even sometimes knees. I'm just optimistic that catching it early with long recovery mitigates my concern.

[moose-and-squirrel]

I'm amazed that he is concerned that Fowler may fall back a bit. I look for Fowler to repeat his magic or improve. The only thing that would stop him is injury.

He is more down on Mailloux than most, which is also surprising.

He sees the Bolduc trade as surprising, which is not surprising.

I'm more concerned about Holloway repeating and/or improving his season...that was a stellar season he had, lofty goals to be 30+ goals, 70+ points. Proper concern to worry about Fowler, he could morph into Leddy; no D, no offense, but I don't see it...he's just light years better than Leddy was.

Holloway is a key, for sure. Anxiously waiting to see if he's fully healed and flying around the ice again.

I'm not concerned about Fowler.

I am actually not really concerned about Holloway's recovery from injury. He did not keep playing and trying to push through, which can often times make it worse or develop other problems in other parts of anatomy. Plus he's young & he'll have about six months to have a complete recovery program, with world class therapies. And I imagine (hope) the training regimen may help to strengthen the other non-affected areas to mitigate some future potential similar hit for him.

does anybody know exactly what his injury was? hard to tell if it's concerning or not, without knowing what the issue was/is

That's a fair question. I do not know. But from what I hear it is not concussion related, nor have I heard that it is related to a potential congenital condition, which is something we hear about shoulders, Tommy John surgery injuries, even sometimes knees. I'm just optimistic that catching it early with long recovery mitigates my concern.

yeah, I don't recall hearing anything specific either. someone speculated it was hip related? or am I mis-remembering that?

[a smell of green grass]

At times sarcasm isn't apparent in posts. My comment above is flippant, off-the-cuff. As for how we deal with trolls and external agendas, well, that's really up to the individual. MN lost his patience in another thread; it happens. My position, which the moderators might not fully support, is we should have as much right to respond to them directly as they do to use this forum to push personal agendas or bait posters. Otherwise, they effectively have special privileges.

The mods are here because this website, with all it's forums, was unmoderated for decades. It was a total [censored] where you came for a dopamine hit for screaming abuses at someone, and dogpile. The Current Affairs forum was it's own animal where people hung out all day just to scream at someone. There was really no mods. There was open discussions about murder, war, genocide, it was all on the table. This is not an exaggeration, when a gunman opened fire on the Congressional Baseball Game and Steve Scalise was shot, they announced the gunman was from the Metro East. There was an actual conversation over who was missing, we pretty much agreed someone there had finally snapped. It took a concerted effort for me to walk away from it and was really glad when it got [shirt]canned, along with another gift, NFL Talk. I can tell you, most of those people are still here, some of them have wandered over occasionally, ASOGG is the only one who stays, but they have no real opinion, they act like they do, but if you wait long enough, it'll change. They want the argument, they want your anger. It's like this every offseason. I love the "Foe" button because I do have the tendency to anger react, and find myself wasting energy on a days long back and forth with someone who has changed the subject and their argument 3 times. They just live for the responses. That's Bleedr, to a lesser degree Bomac as well (Cahokanut). Bomac usually posts when he's smoking and you can tell, but who gets angry when smoking? Really?!?! I just hate seeing good discussions get sideways by someone who came in with the intent of destroying the discussion, it's maddening. They do it on purpose and you can't get them to see reason and join the conversation civilly. Chaos is the goal to them.

I'd like to be perfectly clear about this.

I don't need responses. I don't care if I get responses. In fact, I'd prefer not to get any responses that cloud or muddy my thoughts. 9 times out of 10 the replies do not even address my thoughts.

[Aesa]

At times sarcasm isn't apparent in posts. My comment above is flippant, off-the-cuff. As for how we deal with trolls and external agendas, well, that's really up to the individual. MN lost his patience in another thread; it happens. My position, which the moderators might not fully support, is we should have as much right to respond to them directly as they do to use this forum to push personal agendas or bait posters. Otherwise, they effectively have special privileges.

The mods are here because this website, with all it's forums, was unmoderated for decades. It was a total [censored] where you came for a dopamine hit for screaming abuses at someone, and dogpile. The Current Affairs forum was it's own animal where people hung out all day just to scream at someone. There was really no mods. There was open discussions about murder, war, genocide, it was all on the table. This is not an exaggeration, when a gunman opened fire on the Congressional Baseball Game and Steve Scalise was shot, they announced the gunman was from the Metro East. There was an actual conversation over who was missing, we pretty much agreed someone there had finally snapped. It took a concerted effort for me to walk away from it and was really glad when it got [shirt]canned, along with another gift, NFL Talk. I can tell you, most of those people are still here, some of them have wandered over occasionally, ASOGG is the only one who stays, but they have no real opinion, they act like they do, but if you wait long enough, it'll change. They want the argument, they want your anger. It's like this every offseason. I love the "Foe" button because I do have the tendency to anger react, and find myself wasting energy on a days long back and forth with someone who has changed the subject and their argument 3 times. They just live for the responses. That's Bleedr, to a lesser degree Bomac as well (Cahokanut). Bomac usually posts when he's smoking and you can tell, but who gets angry when smoking? Really?!?! I just hate seeing good discussions get sideways by someone who came in with the intent of destroying the discussion, it's maddening. They do it on purpose and you can't get them to see reason and join the conversation civilly. Chaos is the goal to them.

I'd like to be perfectly clear about this.

I don't need responses. I don't care if I get responses. In fact, I'd prefer not to get any responses that cloud or muddy my thoughts. 9 times out of 10 the replies do not even address my thoughts.

You have no relevant thoughts, only delusions.

[Old_Goat]

I'm amazed that he is concerned that Fowler may fall back a bit. I look for Fowler to repeat his magic or improve. The only thing that would stop him is injury.

He is more down on Mailloux than most, which is also surprising.

He sees the Bolduc trade as surprising, which is not surprising.

I'm more concerned about Holloway repeating and/or improving his season...that was a stellar season he had, lofty goals to be 30+ goals, 70+ points. Proper concern to worry about Fowler, he could morph into Leddy; no D, no offense, but I don't see it...he's just light years better than Leddy was.

Holloway is a key, for sure. Anxiously waiting to see if he's fully healed and flying around the ice again.

I'm not concerned about Fowler.

I am actually not really concerned about Holloway's recovery from injury. He did not keep playing and trying to push through, which can often times make it worse or develop other problems in other parts of anatomy. Plus he's young & he'll have about six months to have a complete recovery program, with world class therapies. And I imagine (hope) the training regimen may help to strengthen the other non-affected areas to mitigate some future potential similar hit for him.

does anybody know exactly what his injury was? hard to tell if it's concerning or not, without knowing what the issue was/is

That's a fair question. I do not know. But from what I hear it is not concussion related, nor have I heard that it is related to a potential congenital condition, which is something we hear about shoulders, Tommy John surgery injuries, even sometimes knees. I'm just optimistic that catching it early with long recovery mitigates my concern.

yeah, I don't recall hearing anything specific either. someone speculated it was hip related? or am I mis-remembering that?

I believe you are remembering correctly the hip was a thought, and also possibly an oblique? Anyway, in that general area of the body.