Practice Lines (10/17)

[JoshInFenton]

To be fair to joseph, he single handed on the road generated two goals by making the right play regardless of the punishment he'd take for it. This is the kind of move we've been lacking a lot of in the offensive zone, and it probably would open up a chance or two for Kyrou to score thanks to his work. I'd rather suter be on that line in between them, but it is what it is.

We eventually could benefit from an additional forward for depth if we have two injured guys not able to slide into the lineup. Hard to do much other than shuffle lines if we are essentially as 12 active forwards on the NHL roster.

[rezero]

Any line a Buch is on will struggle offensively and defensively. I wish we would have sent him to the Habs instead of Bolduc. His contract is an embarrassment,

[a smell of green grass]

Any line a Buch is on will struggle offensively and defensively. I wish we would have sent him to the Habs instead of Bolduc. His contract is an embarrassment,

Mailloux deserved no more than Buch.
Unfortunately,the Canadiens would rather take a pack of ugly wolves than Buch.

Thanks. Army.

Now we have the ugly wolves for another 5 years

[Bluesfan1978]

I like Buch with Suter and Snuggy. I also think Holloway with Jake and Thomas will be a handful for teams to handle.

[keithinwr]

Suter as 2C? Ouch....

LM needs at least one night in the pressbox to reset for sure. Dallas would eat him alive anyways.

On the plus side, if DAL keeps with their season average and scores five goals, that'd be a three-goal improvement for the Blues' D...

I'll see myself out.

That's the spirit.

[kimzey59]

Holloway-Thomas-Neighbours
Buchnevich-Suter-Snuggerud
Joseph-Schenn-Kyrou
Texier-Bjugsrad-Walker

Fowler-Parayko
Broberg-Faulk
Tucker-Kessel
Mailloux

Binnington
Hofer

* Sundqvist (LBI) and Toropchenko (LBI/UBI) not skating again.

Neighbours to the right side, Buch down to line 2, Snuggy up to line 2, Kyrou down to line 3. The lines are all jumbled.

Unsurprisingly, Kessel being given a chance. Probably likely to slot in for Mailloux for the next game.

A game or two from the high seats for Logan with Chopper and likely Prongs will do the young fella some good.

We are moving Kyrou to the 3rd line? Not sure how I feel about that one.

Kessel and Tucker will also very likely be a disaster.

I agree...Kyrou on the 3rd line is a very questionable move but it might open up the ice some for him.
More likely this will be very temporary.

Don't know if I'd really call it the 3rd line.
He's still got Schenn as his center so it's not line that line is without skill.
IMO it's more like evening out the skill level on the middle lines. Tonight's TOI will tell us which one is the 2nd line and which is the 3rd.

[Harry York 37]

Suter as 2C? Ouch....

LM needs at least one night in the pressbox to reset for sure. Dallas would eat him alive anyways.

On the plus side, if DAL keeps with their season average and scores five goals, that'd be a three-goal improvement for the Blues' D...

I'll see myself out.

That's the spirit.

The Spirit of St. Louis?

I hope so. Losing at all, much less losing badly again tonight. makes for an 0-3 home record. We have the Kings and John Kelley returning this Tuesday and the orphan/vagabond team from Utah shows up Thursday to try and keep us below them in the division.

The boys need a SPARK. It can come from our Goalies- they have been victims of awful bounces and questionable (overconfident) decisions in half of our games, but it would be so wonderful if all the forward lines play well. That has not happened yet.
Will Holloway continue his rise from the grave on the top line?
Will Buch benefit from not facing the Stars No.1 checking line?
Will Kyrou stop hesitating and THINKING alongside Joseph and Schenner and start using his legendary speed?
Will Texier, with his top-notch puck possession instincts and skills, continue to compliment Walker and Bjugstad and justify their trio being the only one not-juggled?

Our top Four, kept intact, are danged good.
Sitting Mailloux is the best decision Monty could make and he handled it well. Hearing about Mailloux staying so long , alone, after practice working on improvement , consistency, and confiidence keeps me smiling about his future. He may never be an all-star, but any teenager, whose signing was condemned by several of the highest ranking members of his country's Parliament... is no stranger to overcoming awful situations.

Kessel can flat out HIT opponents. That third pairing will be an adventure, but neither of them lack for guts.

Let's go Blues!

[dhsux]

Holloway-Thomas-Neighbours
Buchnevich-Suter-Snuggerud
Joseph-Schenn-Kyrou
Texier-Bjugsrad-Walker

Fowler-Parayko
Broberg-Faulk
Tucker-Kessel
Mailloux

Binnington
Hofer

* Sundqvist (LBI) and Toropchenko (LBI/UBI) not skating again.

Neighbours to the right side, Buch down to line 2, Snuggy up to line 2, Kyrou down to line 3. The lines are all jumbled.

Unsurprisingly, Kessel being given a chance. Probably likely to slot in for Mailloux for the next game.

A game or two from the high seats for Logan with Chopper and likely Prongs will do the young fella some good.

We are moving Kyrou to the 3rd line? Not sure how I feel about that one.

Kessel and Tucker will also very likely be a disaster.

I’ve seen comments like this for years and I don’t get it. In all the years MacInnis has been employed by the Blues, I’ve heard of zero times of him working with a player directly. I’m not even sure he works for the Blues fulltime. He’s an advisor to Army. Likely just someone Army gets an opinion from from time to time.

And Pronger? He now with the FanDual broadcast so wouldn’t he be busy with that? And not like he’s been around a ton over the years. That said, has he even been on a FanDual broadcast yet? I saw where he was on Hockey Night in Canada the other night so I guess the FanDual thing isn’t every game. But either way, not like he’s just in the pressbox ready to give advice to whatever d-man is scratched that night.

Fwiw I think pronger mentioned on his interview on the fast lane yesterday the Dallas game would be his first blues broadcast. So wouldn't surprise me if he is in mailloux ear tomorrow. Wish the kid ALL the best think the pr comparison to the pronger trade was dumb at best.

If he does have a chat it will be big picture and positive, pretty much what he said he would tell him during his interview.

Be yourself, first do what you do best and then learn from the rest.

[rezero]

Really probably need to find a way to go out and find Mailloux a solid veteran partner. Last years Suter would have been perfect.

You mean someone like Nick Leddy?

+1. I didn't understand the need to move him when they could have moved a depth forward to make the cap work.

Yeah, imagine if we had Leddy and Bolduc instead of Mailloux. Rough offseason by Army.

[stlblue06]

Really probably need to find a way to go out and find Mailloux a solid veteran partner. Last years Suter would have been perfect.

You mean someone like Nick Leddy?

+1. I didn't understand the need to move him when they could have moved a depth forward to make the cap work.

Yeah, imagine if we had Leddy and Bolduc instead of Mailloux. Rough offseason by Army.

Leddy is playing 20 minutes a night and is a -3 in 4 games and only 2 assists with the Sharks scoring 3/4 a night.

[Blues Dave]

All I remember Doc....is that all the other teams we play will have different line-up's of players who are expected to do the same thing we want our Blues to do. Concidering teams don't change their line-up that much differently for every game, Monty isn't either. Just a decission after 4 games.

Switch, poke, press, and move around players isn't as big of a thing as simply trying to put the best of what you believe your team should be on the ice every game. The entire team has to want to beat the other guys really, really bad. I don't believe line numbers mean that much either. JMO

[TruBlueFan_1970]

Any line a Buch is on will struggle offensively and defensively. I wish we would have sent him to the Habs instead of Bolduc. His contract is an embarrassment,

Yes sir. Worst extension decision in a long time.

[b-a-a-a-rclay]

Really probably need to find a way to go out and find Mailloux a solid veteran partner. Last years Suter would have been perfect.

You mean someone like Nick Leddy?

+1. I didn't understand the need to move him when they could have moved a depth forward to make the cap work.

Yeah, imagine if we had Leddy and Bolduc instead of Mailloux. Rough offseason by Army.

Leddy is playing 20 minutes a night and is a -3 in 4 games and only 2 assists with the Sharks scoring 3/4 a night.

Leddy needed to go. Is he part of the next truly contending Blues team? Nah. And Tucker replaced Suter in the playoffs. I understand the vet idea with this group, but Fowler, Colt, Faulk are vets. Leddy is 34 yo and was healthy enough to play 31 games last year. Is that the guy we are wishing for? I'm not.

[skilles]

Really probably need to find a way to go out and find Mailloux a solid veteran partner. Last years Suter would have been perfect.

You mean someone like Nick Leddy?

+1. I didn't understand the need to move him when they could have moved a depth forward to make the cap work.

Yeah, imagine if we had Leddy and Bolduc instead of Mailloux. Rough offseason by Army.

Leddy is playing 20 minutes a night and is a -3 in 4 games and only 2 assists with the Sharks scoring 3/4 a night.

Leddy needed to go. Is he part of the next truly contending Blues team? Nah. And Tucker replaced Suter in the playoffs. I understand the vet idea with this group, but Fowler, Colt, Faulk are vets. Leddy is 34 yo and was healthy enough to play 31 games last year. Is that the guy we are wishing for? I'm not.

I mean actually yeah we could use a guy like that playing 13 minutes/night with Mailloux with favorable match ups....we sure could.

[b-a-a-a-rclay]

Really probably need to find a way to go out and find Mailloux a solid veteran partner. Last years Suter would have been perfect.

You mean someone like Nick Leddy?

+1. I didn't understand the need to move him when they could have moved a depth forward to make the cap work.

Yeah, imagine if we had Leddy and Bolduc instead of Mailloux. Rough offseason by Army.

Leddy is playing 20 minutes a night and is a -3 in 4 games and only 2 assists with the Sharks scoring 3/4 a night.

Leddy needed to go. Is he part of the next truly contending Blues team? Nah. And Tucker replaced Suter in the playoffs. I understand the vet idea with this group, but Fowler, Colt, Faulk are vets. Leddy is 34 yo and was healthy enough to play 31 games last year. Is that the guy we are wishing for? I'm not.

I mean actually yeah we could use a guy like that playing 13 minutes/night with Mailloux with favorable match ups....we sure could.

I understand the thought process. I just disagree with going in that specific direction. A guy like that ... maybe. Leddy or Suter .. to me, no.
Similarly, a physical presence who can skate and hit ... sure. Lucic? No. He's not the guy people wish he was ... nor the guy that they remember.

[skilles]

Really probably need to find a way to go out and find Mailloux a solid veteran partner. Last years Suter would have been perfect.

You mean someone like Nick Leddy?

+1. I didn't understand the need to move him when they could have moved a depth forward to make the cap work.

Yeah, imagine if we had Leddy and Bolduc instead of Mailloux. Rough offseason by Army.

Leddy is playing 20 minutes a night and is a -3 in 4 games and only 2 assists with the Sharks scoring 3/4 a night.

Leddy needed to go. Is he part of the next truly contending Blues team? Nah. And Tucker replaced Suter in the playoffs. I understand the vet idea with this group, but Fowler, Colt, Faulk are vets. Leddy is 34 yo and was healthy enough to play 31 games last year. Is that the guy we are wishing for? I'm not.

I mean actually yeah we could use a guy like that playing 13 minutes/night with Mailloux with favorable match ups....we sure could.

I understand the thought process. I just disagree with going in that specific direction. A guy like that ... maybe. Leddy or Suter .. to me, no.
Similarly, a physical presence who can skate and hit ... sure. Lucic? No. He's not the guy people wish he was ... nor the guy that they remember.

I go back and forth on whether Leddy would be great in that role