A couple of thoughts and rhetorical questions about the Blues

[hockey jedi]

Last night was a tough night. Losing against a team that has a worse record than us is bitter. However, I realize we dressed an AHL team last night with a few usually good NHL players. I pray the Blues don't fire Monty to spark the team, but I don't know what the answer is. Do you just write off this year looking ahead to next year and give our future prospects occasional exposure to the NHL so they are more NHL ready next year?

I was in favor of the Blues trading ROR a couple of years ago, but he has 10 goals, 13 assists for 23 points, and is a +2 . This would be tops for goals, points, +/- on this Blues team, and second in assists. I suspect he might not have the same success on this year's version of the Blues.

Last night's game reminded me of the December 16th game in 2018 against the Calgary Flames where we lost by the same 7-2 score. We looked terrible that night. Lots of turnovers, poor passes and overall sloppy play. Shortly thereafter, the Blues turned it around and won the Cup. Maybe last night was a good omen.

I can't figure out why the Blues look so bad. We even look out of sorts when we win. I totally believe the players are playing hard individually, but it's not translating into team play. I can't tell if the game is changing or if the Blues system doesn't fit the personnel. Are Binner, Thomas and Parayko looking ahead to the Olympics, or are they trying to showcase their individual play? I look at the breakouts from our own zone and it looks like a squadron of air flyers. It makes me wonder if our spacing is too narrow making us easy to be contained by the opposing defense, which exposes us to turnovers. Why aren't we weaving and overlapping? Has the game changed where that is not effective anymore? I respect that injuries have hurt the team, but we weren't playing well before the injuries. Is this just a cursed year? I really liked how Army built this year's team and thought we were in great position to win a couple of playoff rounds.

The Blues seem to playing for the perfect shot. When they get it, it takes too long to release it giving the opponent's goalies time to square to the shooter. Also, our passing down to the low posts puts our shooters at bad angles. They end up taking low percentage shots and we don't have players that are effective in the slot. Many times, I see us right on top the goalie with the puck right outside the crease. The players don't have time or the quickness to shoot. Are the issues our system? Did the Blues tweak the system from last Spring? We look so out of rhythm and awkward. This goes for usually reliable players like Thomas, Buch, Kyrou. I just can't believe all the Blue's core players are having a down year at the same time. All of these dink and no look passes are pretty to see and sometimes create highlight goals but are leading a ton of turnovers in all three zones. We play so loose and irresponsible in our own zone.

Are the Blues mentally fragile? Do the Blues lack that killer instinct when they get off to a good start in a game? Are we telegraphing our passes and shots? Have we become too predictable in our strategy? Are other teams just packing it in around their goalie and we are too impatient to make something happen? Should we tweak our system to do more cycling wearing out the opponent's defense? Am I overestimating our collective team talent? Are the Blues players still trying to figure out their roles? Something is not right, and I can't figure it out. All is not lost. We are a hot streak away from being in the playoff mix.

[11WSChamps]

I think you answered a lot of your own questions.

There definitely is a disconnect with this group and I say group because the term "team" doesn't fit the bill.

The Tucker scrap last night was a microcosm of the season.

Trying to scrap with a much bigger opponent and literally hanging on for dear life.

Count how many times during a game we have a prime shot between the dots and wind up passing the puck.

A goal tender in Binnington who loses his angles. High salary vets who shy away from leading.

And finally a team that wants to dump and chase and can't win board battles to have any kind of consistent forecheck.

[Kilokaai]

So there is a lot of ideas there and I believe many are part of the problem. I think the early goaltending struggles forced the team to adopt a much more defensive system than intended. This leads to too much space between forwards/dmen when we need offense since everyone can't stay back and go 190' every single time. Then if the forward do fully commit to the D zone schema for the night the other team has all 5 defenders on top of the breakout and the neutral zone gets cluttered up and poor passes result in turnovers. Making good decisions with the puck is really where we have been generally pretty poor. How many times have we failed to clear the puck over the blueline when we 5-10 ft from the line is wild, even when we do it is almost also just a reload for the other team because all 5 Blues are down low in the middle defending.

Since we are not activating the D as much, we become too predictable in the O zone. Last year during our run at the end of the season the O zone was blender for the other team to defend but the shot/pass funneling were reliant on the "fluidity" of the zone it created. In the D zone, last night we seemed dead set on bringing the puck out through the strong side of the ice (sometimes that would take 2-3 attempts) rather than reversing it but when did finally reverse we already had 4 blues at the blueline basically so Nashville was able to get back into challenge the puck quicker since their feet were already going north since they were waiting on the Blues to exit the zone at the blueline by then.

Edit: I wanted to clarify that specifically the decisions with the puck look unnatural because we are so defensively postured at the moment that finding the open guy past the Blue line is almost impossible since the neutal zone is going to have essentially all 10 players in it by the time we get it out. I think Hofer's aggressiveness helps at times because the puck gets back out so fast we can reload and apply pressure again without all 5 defenders being able to be on top of the breakout.

[skeezix]

It's obvious that the solution isn't in Springfield, as the recalled players are totally outclassed by real NHL players. And that won't change, regardless of experience.

[Pierre McGuire]

We need to move on from some of the core….its just long overdue. I love Army but his biggest flaw has been loyalty to certain guys and holding onto them. This team isn’t going anywhere. It’s time to change it up and find some kids in other organizations that have the fire in their eyes and are hungry. Not a lot of guys on this team are hungry and that is never a good thing. We have got to find some kids that are hungry for a future contract or their next contract.
Schenn, Parayko, Faulk, Binner…these guys aren’t a fit for the future here so it makes no sense to continue to keep them while their value just declines. They should all be moved by the deadline.

[Frank Underwood]

We need to move on from some of the core….its just long overdue. I love Army but his biggest flaw has been loyalty to certain guys and holding onto them. This team isn’t going anywhere. It’s time to change it up and find some kids in other organizations that have the fire in their eyes and are hungry. Not a lot of guys on this team are hungry and that is never a good thing. We have got to find some kids that are hungry for a future contract or their next contract.
Schenn, Parayko, Faulk, Binner…these guys aren’t a fit for the future here so it makes no sense to continue to keep them while their value just declines. They should all be moved by the deadline.

That’s where I’m at now. This isn’t the 2018-2019 team that is magically going to turn it around. The good news is that Faulk is having a good season, much better than the last couple of years, and he should bring solid value. Schenn will have value to a few specific teams, but he looks bad. Parayko has been extremely disappointing to me this season, but his reputation would bring a big return and we can hope he steps it up in a big way during the playoffs to kick off a bidding war.

[Pierre McGuire]

One other thing…these guys, Specifically Schenn and Faulk know they are likely going to be moved. That’s probably been on their mind all season and probably has weighed heavily on them, especially Schenn. Binner probably also has that on his mind, along with the Team Canada situation so that could be an issue as well.
Best case scenario is that Binner and Parayko play very well for Team Canada and increase their value and we capitalize on that. That is what we need to take advantage of and we should all be hoping for.

[John Cocktoastin]

Lot of "talk" with this team.

We have to do this, blah, blah, blah.

Our coach is no longer the problem, we have to rise up as players and as the GM, blah, blah, blah.

A lot of talk and (bleep) team construction + even worse contracts.

Clean house and get these young guys proper development is what should happen next.

[mph6689new]

I'll add that there is a lot of concern about our youth and how they look so far (Mailloux, Dvorsky, Kaskimaki, ...) I am a bit concerned as well.
But, I do believe circumstances are a big part of the problem, and not necessarily indicitive of what these players will become. The overall team play definitely has an affect on how these players integrate, their confidence level, etc. I mean, Fabbri looked like our best forward last night, and there's no way that is reality. He is just the furthest removed from being affected by the current team psyche.

I like that Dvorsky is so conscientious to learning the 200' game, and that has not been deterred. Also, he is getting center experience & fairing well for a rookie on faceoffs.

Mailloux, I don't think he is getting much chance to show his best asset due to team factors (defensive units, power play allocation, structure changes) He is greener than I hoped.

[Ziggy3]

Lot of good points. Hard to say exactly what's going on from my living room couch, but what I consistently see, even when they win, is this:

-Opponents transition out of their own zone FAR easier than the Blues. Pretty much every opponent. And though their forecheck is definitely lacking compared to other teams as well, I think the disparity is really on the team D. When two clean touches are made to get a rush going the other way, I nearly jump out of my seat because it's just so rare. Other teams do it with regularity.

-Opponents get clean looks and/or shots through from the perimeter at an embarrassingly higher rate than the Blues do. Is that on our D-men in the O-zone? Or poor coverage in our end? Both? Idk, but it is consistent, every game, bank on the other team generating at least double the dangerous chances from perimeter shots and screens.

-The 2nd period. I don't have to say any more. It is utterly baffling.

-The top players for most opponents have noticeably more impact throughout any given game. I know that sounds like, "well, duh," but even the worst teams can usually trot out a line that forces some particular strategic response from the opponent. I truly wonder if other coaches bother to gameplan for our top 6 at all. I feel like it's part of what's made home-ice advantage nonexistent this year - no such thing as a bad matchup for the opponent. I know this team is more built to spread the skill than be top-heavy, but that usually means there's at least one line or another that's hot at any given time and needs to be accounted for. Zero of that, all year so far.

This stuff largely wouldn't surprise me just looking at this team on paper, to be honest. But what I can't come to grips with is this compared to the second half of last season. Is it really possible that was all just an extended, extreme new coach bump?

[Ziggy3]

I'll add that there is a lot of concern about our youth and how they look so far (Mailloux, Dvorsky, Kaskimaki, ...) I am a bit concerned as well.
But, I do believe circumstances are a big part of the problem, and not necessarily indicitive of what these players will become. The overall team play definitely has an affect on how these players integrate, their confidence level, etc. I mean, Fabbri looked like our best forward last night, and there's no way that is reality. He is just the furthest removed from being affected by the current team psyche.

I like that Dvorsky is so conscientious to learning the 200' game, and that has not been deterred. Also, he is getting center experience & fairing well for a rookie on faceoffs.

Mailloux, I don't think he is getting much chance to show his best asset due to team factors (defensive units, power play allocation, structure changes) He is greener than I hoped.

Yeah, I put really close to zero blame on any of the youngsters.

Dvorsky didn't make the team out of camp. A successful, healthy season so far would have him in Springfield still. He's on the team now due to desperation, and he's at least shown, imo, a sense of responsibility and awareness beyond his years. It's not on him that he's not an impact player yet; he wasn't really supposed to be, and the team around him sucks.

Mailloux was set up to fail, full-stop. Worst decision made coming out of the offseason was hoping he and another borderline NHLer could lock down the 3rd pairing. He's an older rookie, yeah, but he's still a rookie playing a difficult position. Gotta do better than put him in that kind of spot.

Snuggs hasn't really looked any worse than any of our top guys, if you ask me, and now he's hurt. No real reason to think he won't still be a good player.

Tough to be a rookie on a rudderless team. They don't even have the perk of a bunch of other young, core guys to grow with, it's largely a group of veterans.

[Kilokaai]

I'll add that there is a lot of concern about our youth and how they look so far (Mailloux, Dvorsky, Kaskimaki, ...) I am a bit concerned as well.
But, I do believe circumstances are a big part of the problem, and not necessarily indicitive of what these players will become. The overall team play definitely has an affect on how these players integrate, their confidence level, etc. I mean, Fabbri looked like our best forward last night, and there's no way that is reality. He is just the furthest removed from being affected by the current team psyche.

I like that Dvorsky is so conscientious to learning the 200' game, and that has not been deterred. Also, he is getting center experience & fairing well for a rookie on faceoffs.

Mailloux, I don't think he is getting much chance to show his best asset due to team factors (defensive units, power play allocation, structure changes) He is greener than I hoped.

Yeah, I put really close to zero blame on any of the youngsters.

Dvorsky didn't make the team out of camp. A successful, healthy season so far would have him in Springfield still. He's on the team now due to desperation, and he's at least shown, imo, a sense of responsibility and awareness beyond his years. It's not on him that he's not an impact player yet; he wasn't really supposed to be, and the team around him sucks.

Mailloux was set up to fail, full-stop. Worst decision made coming out of the offseason was hoping he and another borderline NHLer could lock down the 3rd pairing. He's an older rookie, yeah, but he's still a rookie playing a difficult position. Gotta do better than put him in that kind of spot.

Snuggs hasn't really looked any worse than any of our top guys, if you ask me, and now he's hurt. No real reason to think he won't still be a good player.

Tough to be a rookie on a rudderless team. They don't even have the perk of a bunch of other young, core guys to grow with, it's largely a group of veterans.

We have seen a better version of Mailloux recently, I think pairing him with Tucker basically asking for a few goals against every game. Tucker takes a lot of risk on breakouts that end up hurting because skating it out isn't an option for him. Pairing him with a consistent veteran presence would have been a much better path this year. Tucker playing well for 4 weeks at the end of last season might have been the worst luck we truly had, I think everyone thought he had turned the corner to being a reliable NHLer. He is still just a 7th defenseman, so we have 4 NHL defenders and 4 7th defensemen.

I would like to see Dvorsky add a little speed to his game, but fine being patient there and agree with your summary.

[TruBlueFan_1970]

I'll add that there is a lot of concern about our youth and how they look so far (Mailloux, Dvorsky, Kaskimaki, ...) I am a bit concerned as well.

I like that Dvorsky is so conscientious to learning the 200' game, and that has not been deterred. Also, he is getting center experience & fairing well for a rookie on faceoffs.

Mailloux, I don't think he is getting much chance to show his best asset due to team factors (defensive units, power play allocation, structure changes) He is greener than I hoped.

Dvo needs a better motor. He’s too tentative and then passes too quickly. Great example of a 3 on 2 last night and he had an open winger on the right, but instead passed to Kaski on the left who was covered. He tried to cut to the middle, lost the puck and it went the other way for a goal. He needed the patience to see the play. His skating is poor though and will keep him from ever being higher than a middle 6 center unless it improves.

Mailloux is the current whipping boy, but has looked better since his AHL stint. With all the bashing in the GDT last night, him and Tucker were both -1 where Parayko and Fowler were a combined -5. I’m not saying LM is playing well yet, as he’s green, but he’s not the sole issue with this team’s problems or prospects.