Tank-a-thon 2026

[TampaBlues78]

Watch this team. The problems all begin with our blueline

Marek and the boys (and me) agree with you.

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/ZEyjjIKpZQM

It's painfully obvious. Going from the best D corps in the league to this mess. I just don't understand how people are missing it. I know not everyone watches around the league that much, but the difference between teams that have elite blueliners and those that don't is stark. It was the backbone of this team's most successful decade, you'd think it would be obvious anyway.

You can’t blame the D for the PP sucking, or the PK sucking… 2 of our Dmen made their olympic teams… Broberg and Parayko… the Mail-man has been playing way better… Faulk os having a strong year… out of our D fowler hasn’t provided much…. So who on the D is bad please elaborate

[82birds]

It is time for the yard sale to commence and sell anything worth value… get the young guys up that you can that have a future with this team.

same with the Cardinals.

[HighStick]

Even though their defense isn't a strength its not their biggest weakness either. The D is soft and barely structured but the forwards are way worse. Almost every top 6 player is underperforming. And not just by a little. Most of them are having horrible seasons. Thomas, Buch, Kyrou, Schenn and Neighbours. The top 6 and the goalies are their biggest problems. Binny and Hofer have been awful this year.

[ratonmono2]

You can’t blame the D for the PP sucking, or the PK sucking… 2 of our Dmen made their olympic teams… Broberg and Parayko… the Mail-man has been playing way better… Faulk os having a strong year… out of our D fowler hasn’t provided much…. So who on the D is bad please elaborate

Why can't we blame the D for these things? Broberg is playing big minutes and is our best d-man but that's not exactly saying much. Compare Broberg's game to #1's around the league. He gets smoked in game impact at both ends, offensive impact especially by the top tier d-men. Parayko is still Parayko. If you think Faulk Fowler and the rest are up to the task of the better teams in the league on the blueline, I really don't know what to tell you. If Broberg is playing left side to a stud RD then we are looking at an entirely different situation. Faulk and Parayko are not those players. Fowler's really fantastic play last season was clearly an anomaly and look how it positively impacted the team. The bottom pair guys here are not even worth talking about as none of them are NHL quality on a contender.

I'm not suggesting the forwards aren't a problem. There isn't enough skill overall and the top six especially are super soft and prone to shying away when things get tough. But the Blueline has been crippled for years now without an anchor. Broberg is a step in the right direction, but they need more and Broberg himself still needs to really assert himself as a force and not just a minute muncher.

[TampaBlues78]

You can’t blame the D for the PP sucking, or the PK sucking… 2 of our Dmen made their olympic teams… Broberg and Parayko… the Mail-man has been playing way better… Faulk os having a strong year… out of our D fowler hasn’t provided much…. So who on the D is bad please elaborate

Why can't we blame the D for these things? Broberg is playing big minutes and is our best d-man but that's not exactly saying much. Compare Broberg's game to #1's around the league. He gets smoked in game impact at both ends, offensive impact especially by the top tier d-men. Parayko is still Parayko. If you think Faulk Fowler and the rest are up to the task of the better teams in the league on the blueline, I really don't know what to tell you. If Broberg is playing left side to a stud RD then we are looking at an entirely different situation. Faulk and Parayko are not those players. Fowler's really fantastic play last season was clearly an anomaly and look how it positively impacted the team. The bottom pair guys here are not even worth talking about as none of them are NHL quality on a contender.

I'm not suggesting the forwards aren't a problem. There isn't enough skill overall and the top six especially are super soft and prone to shying away when things get tough. But the Blueline has been crippled for years now without an anchor. Broberg is a step in the right direction, but they need more and Broberg himself still needs to really assert himself as a force and not just a minute muncher.

In my opinion… and believe me it’s just an opinion. Because we aren’t good anywhere… just my thoughts is our D wan’t that horrible last year and it’s the same D… our offense and lack there of an alpha dogg we have no one that can drive play consistently and yes Stenberg and McKenna can and will make a big difference better than any Dman in this draft… we haven’t had a horse since Vladi and he’s been gone like 10 years

[theograce]

Watch this team. The problems all begin with our blueline

Marek and the boys (and me) agree with you.

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/ZEyjjIKpZQM

It's painfully obvious. Going from the best D corps in the league to this mess. I just don't understand how people are missing it. I know not everyone watches around the league that much, but the difference between teams that have elite blueliners and those that don't is stark. It was the backbone of this team's most successful decade, you'd think it would be obvious anyway.

You can’t blame the D for the PP sucking, or the PK sucking… 2 of our Dmen made their olympic teams… Broberg and Parayko… the Mail-man has been playing way better… Faulk os having a strong year… out of our D fowler hasn’t provided much…. So who on the D is bad please elaborate

Broberg and Parayko have 2 goals this year

Broberg has been average at best this year. They’ve been forcing him on the PP and he looks brutal there. He wouldn’t be getting these minutes on a great team. The Blues are forcing it with him a bit. He’s also very, very soft thus far

[ratonmono2]

You can’t blame the D for the PP sucking, or the PK sucking… 2 of our Dmen made their olympic teams… Broberg and Parayko… the Mail-man has been playing way better… Faulk os having a strong year… out of our D fowler hasn’t provided much…. So who on the D is bad please elaborate

Why can't we blame the D for these things? Broberg is playing big minutes and is our best d-man but that's not exactly saying much. Compare Broberg's game to #1's around the league. He gets smoked in game impact at both ends, offensive impact especially by the top tier d-men. Parayko is still Parayko. If you think Faulk Fowler and the rest are up to the task of the better teams in the league on the blueline, I really don't know what to tell you. If Broberg is playing left side to a stud RD then we are looking at an entirely different situation. Faulk and Parayko are not those players. Fowler's really fantastic play last season was clearly an anomaly and look how it positively impacted the team. The bottom pair guys here are not even worth talking about as none of them are NHL quality on a contender.

I'm not suggesting the forwards aren't a problem. There isn't enough skill overall and the top six especially are super soft and prone to shying away when things get tough. But the Blueline has been crippled for years now without an anchor. Broberg is a step in the right direction, but they need more and Broberg himself still needs to really assert himself as a force and not just a minute muncher.

In my opinion… and believe me it’s just an opinion. Because we aren’t good anywhere… just my thoughts is our D wan’t that horrible last year and it’s the same D… our offense and lack there of an alpha dogg we have no one that can drive play consistently and yes Stenberg and McKenna can and will make a big difference better than any Dman in this draft… we haven’t had a horse since Vladi and he’s been gone like 10 years

He wasn't really a horse though. He had an incredible shot, in his younger days had a knack for big moment goals and could occasionally impose his will with speed and physicality. O'Reilly, Schwartz, Steen, Backes, Perron, Oshie, Schenn, Thomas, Kyrou, have all had as big an impact on this team as Tarasenko did at times and I was one of his biggest fans when he was in his prime.

The struggles begin with the patchwork D corps. Everything starts there from breakouts to PK. Essentially everybody on the Blues D corps is playing at LEAST a position too high. Broberg as a #2 is fine, Parayko as a #3 the same. Faulk as a #4 isn't so bad. Fowler is barely top 4 quality this year and the others as I mentioned are really not NHL quality players. They would all be in the press box nightly on a contender or in the AHL. This effects every facet of the ice and the other players on it adversely. Remember the D corps before we had Petro and Bouw? It was ugly and arguably our forwards now are more talented than the Backes/Oshie/Steen/Perron core that needed that Petro/Bouw emergence to become playoff contenders.

[TampaBlues78]

I mean team D as a whole hasn’t been good… but to me our Dmen are far from the problem.. this team has a lot of holes and are definitely getting exposed… Hofer/Binny I guess really carried a lot of this teams weaknesses and plus the offense is meh… we do have quite a bit younger team, which will give a team headaches and I figure that into the equation… but I believe our D cupboard is more filled than our fwd cupboard but we will see… I think a stud forward draft and this team will be fun to watch next year… with probably Carbo coming and hopefully our 1st rounder ie McKenna or Stenberg with Holloway coming back 100% I can see this team being dynamic

[TampaBlues78]

You can’t blame the D for the PP sucking, or the PK sucking… 2 of our Dmen made their olympic teams… Broberg and Parayko… the Mail-man has been playing way better… Faulk os having a strong year… out of our D fowler hasn’t provided much…. So who on the D is bad please elaborate

Why can't we blame the D for these things? Broberg is playing big minutes and is our best d-man but that's not exactly saying much. Compare Broberg's game to #1's around the league. He gets smoked in game impact at both ends, offensive impact especially by the top tier d-men. Parayko is still Parayko. If you think Faulk Fowler and the rest are up to the task of the better teams in the league on the blueline, I really don't know what to tell you. If Broberg is playing left side to a stud RD then we are looking at an entirely different situation. Faulk and Parayko are not those players. Fowler's really fantastic play last season was clearly an anomaly and look how it positively impacted the team. The bottom pair guys here are not even worth talking about as none of them are NHL quality on a contender.

I'm not suggesting the forwards aren't a problem. There isn't enough skill overall and the top six especially are super soft and prone to shying away when things get tough. But the Blueline has been crippled for years now without an anchor. Broberg is a step in the right direction, but they need more and Broberg himself still needs to really assert himself as a force and not just a minute muncher.

In my opinion… and believe me it’s just an opinion. Because we aren’t good anywhere… just my thoughts is our D wan’t that horrible last year and it’s the same D… our offense and lack there of an alpha dogg we have no one that can drive play consistently and yes Stenberg and McKenna can and will make a big difference better than any Dman in this draft… we haven’t had a horse since Vladi and he’s been gone like 10 years

He wasn't really a horse though. He had an incredible shot, in his younger days had a knack for big moment goals and could occasionally impose his will with speed and physicality. O'Reilly, Schwartz, Steen, Backes, Perron, Oshie, Schenn, Thomas, Kyrou, have all had as big an impact on this team as Tarasenko did at times and I was one of his biggest fans when he was in his prime.

The struggles begin with the patchwork D corps. Everything starts there from breakouts to PK. Essentially everybody on the Blues D corps is playing at LEAST a position too high. Broberg as a #2 is fine, Parayko as a #3 the same. Faulk as a #4 isn't so bad. Fowler is barely top 4 quality this year and the others as I mentioned are really not NHL quality players. They would all be in the press box nightly on a contender or in the AHL. This effects every facet of the ice and the other players on it adversely. Remember the D corps before we had Petro and Bouw? It was ugly and arguably our forwards now are more talented than the Backes/Oshie/Steen/Perron core that needed that Petro/Bouw emergence to become playoff contenders.

I seriously doubt that… CP55 has finally started to impress me… he has finally coming into his own defensively… he’s been horrible offensively this year… Broberg is a stud and is proving it. Faulk has been pretty consistent since he became a blue and has a great year offensively… Tucker/Mail man are young D and they’re getting better… So that leaves Fowler he hasn’t been good this year… nothing Def/Off but again our D has been far from the #1 issue this year… to me it’s our forwards all day… there has been a lot of injuries and maybe that has caused a lot of these issues maybe not…when your team barely avg’s 2 goal for a game you’re not going to win many games there isn’t a goalie alive that can stop 100% of the shots.. CP55 leads the league in blocks …

[swatski]

Are Blues in 2nd draft slot after tonight?

[seattleblue]

You can’t blame the D for the PP sucking, or the PK sucking… 2 of our Dmen made their olympic teams… Broberg and Parayko… the Mail-man has been playing way better… Faulk os having a strong year… out of our D fowler hasn’t provided much…. So who on the D is bad please elaborate

Why can't we blame the D for these things? Broberg is playing big minutes and is our best d-man but that's not exactly saying much. Compare Broberg's game to #1's around the league. He gets smoked in game impact at both ends, offensive impact especially by the top tier d-men. Parayko is still Parayko. If you think Faulk Fowler and the rest are up to the task of the better teams in the league on the blueline, I really don't know what to tell you. If Broberg is playing left side to a stud RD then we are looking at an entirely different situation. Faulk and Parayko are not those players. Fowler's really fantastic play last season was clearly an anomaly and look how it positively impacted the team. The bottom pair guys here are not even worth talking about as none of them are NHL quality on a contender.

I'm not suggesting the forwards aren't a problem. There isn't enough skill overall and the top six especially are super soft and prone to shying away when things get tough. But the Blueline has been crippled for years now without an anchor. Broberg is a step in the right direction, but they need more and Broberg himself still needs to really assert himself as a force and not just a minute muncher.

In my opinion… and believe me it’s just an opinion. Because we aren’t good anywhere… just my thoughts is our D wan’t that horrible last year and it’s the same D… our offense and lack there of an alpha dogg we have no one that can drive play consistently and yes Stenberg and McKenna can and will make a big difference better than any Dman in this draft… we haven’t had a horse since Vladi and he’s been gone like 10 years

He wasn't really a horse though. He had an incredible shot, in his younger days had a knack for big moment goals and could occasionally impose his will with speed and physicality. O'Reilly, Schwartz, Steen, Backes, Perron, Oshie, Schenn, Thomas, Kyrou, have all had as big an impact on this team as Tarasenko did at times and I was one of his biggest fans when he was in his prime.

The struggles begin with the patchwork D corps. Everything starts there from breakouts to PK. Essentially everybody on the Blues D corps is playing at LEAST a position too high. Broberg as a #2 is fine, Parayko as a #3 the same. Faulk as a #4 isn't so bad. Fowler is barely top 4 quality this year and the others as I mentioned are really not NHL quality players. They would all be in the press box nightly on a contender or in the AHL. This effects every facet of the ice and the other players on it adversely. Remember the D corps before we had Petro and Bouw? It was ugly and arguably our forwards now are more talented than the Backes/Oshie/Steen/Perron core that needed that Petro/Bouw emergence to become playoff contenders.

I seriously doubt that… CP55 has finally started to impress me… he has finally coming into his own defensively… he’s been horrible offensively this year… Broberg is a stud and is proving it. Faulk has been pretty consistent since he became a blue and has a great year offensively… Tucker/Mail man are young D and they’re getting better… So that leaves Fowler he hasn’t been good this year… nothing Def/Off but again our D has been far from the #1 issue this year… to me it’s our forwards all day… there has been a lot of injuries and maybe that has caused a lot of these issues maybe not…when your team barely avg’s 2 goal for a game you’re not going to win many games there isn’t a goalie alive that can stop 100% of the shots.. CP55 leads the league in blocks …

your understanding of the defense lacks honest self-criticism or a grasp of the basic traits of the characters involved, those are two fatal flaws here.

Parayko this year has finally – that was your word – "finally" begun to show defensive maturity ... after a decade of being known as a defensive stopper? the top four has been healthy all year and they have been awful relative to the rest of the league.

[TampaBlues78]

You can’t blame the D for the PP sucking, or the PK sucking… 2 of our Dmen made their olympic teams… Broberg and Parayko… the Mail-man has been playing way better… Faulk os having a strong year… out of our D fowler hasn’t provided much…. So who on the D is bad please elaborate

Why can't we blame the D for these things? Broberg is playing big minutes and is our best d-man but that's not exactly saying much. Compare Broberg's game to #1's around the league. He gets smoked in game impact at both ends, offensive impact especially by the top tier d-men. Parayko is still Parayko. If you think Faulk Fowler and the rest are up to the task of the better teams in the league on the blueline, I really don't know what to tell you. If Broberg is playing left side to a stud RD then we are looking at an entirely different situation. Faulk and Parayko are not those players. Fowler's really fantastic play last season was clearly an anomaly and look how it positively impacted the team. The bottom pair guys here are not even worth talking about as none of them are NHL quality on a contender.

I'm not suggesting the forwards aren't a problem. There isn't enough skill overall and the top six especially are super soft and prone to shying away when things get tough. But the Blueline has been crippled for years now without an anchor. Broberg is a step in the right direction, but they need more and Broberg himself still needs to really assert himself as a force and not just a minute muncher.

In my opinion… and believe me it’s just an opinion. Because we aren’t good anywhere… just my thoughts is our D wan’t that horrible last year and it’s the same D… our offense and lack there of an alpha dogg we have no one that can drive play consistently and yes Stenberg and McKenna can and will make a big difference better than any Dman in this draft… we haven’t had a horse since Vladi and he’s been gone like 10 years

He wasn't really a horse though. He had an incredible shot, in his younger days had a knack for big moment goals and could occasionally impose his will with speed and physicality. O'Reilly, Schwartz, Steen, Backes, Perron, Oshie, Schenn, Thomas, Kyrou, have all had as big an impact on this team as Tarasenko did at times and I was one of his biggest fans when he was in his prime.

The struggles begin with the patchwork D corps. Everything starts there from breakouts to PK. Essentially everybody on the Blues D corps is playing at LEAST a position too high. Broberg as a #2 is fine, Parayko as a #3 the same. Faulk as a #4 isn't so bad. Fowler is barely top 4 quality this year and the others as I mentioned are really not NHL quality players. They would all be in the press box nightly on a contender or in the AHL. This effects every facet of the ice and the other players on it adversely. Remember the D corps before we had Petro and Bouw? It was ugly and arguably our forwards now are more talented than the Backes/Oshie/Steen/Perron core that needed that Petro/Bouw emergence to become playoff contenders.

I seriously doubt that… CP55 has finally started to impress me… he has finally coming into his own defensively… he’s been horrible offensively this year… Broberg is a stud and is proving it. Faulk has been pretty consistent since he became a blue and has a great year offensively… Tucker/Mail man are young D and they’re getting better… So that leaves Fowler he hasn’t been good this year… nothing Def/Off but again our D has been far from the #1 issue this year… to me it’s our forwards all day… there has been a lot of injuries and maybe that has caused a lot of these issues maybe not…when your team barely avg’s 2 goal for a game you’re not going to win many games there isn’t a goalie alive that can stop 100% of the shots.. CP55 leads the league in blocks …

your understanding of the defense lacks honest self-criticism or a grasp of the basic traits of the characters involved, those are two fatal flaws here.

Parayko this year has finally – that was your word – "finally" begun to show defensive maturity ... after a decade of being known as a defensive stopper? the top four has been healthy all year and they have been awful relative to the rest of the league.

Oh i criticize the D all the time.. but they’re far from this years problems

[TampaBlues78]

You can’t blame the D for the PP sucking, or the PK sucking… 2 of our Dmen made their olympic teams… Broberg and Parayko… the Mail-man has been playing way better… Faulk os having a strong year… out of our D fowler hasn’t provided much…. So who on the D is bad please elaborate

Why can't we blame the D for these things? Broberg is playing big minutes and is our best d-man but that's not exactly saying much. Compare Broberg's game to #1's around the league. He gets smoked in game impact at both ends, offensive impact especially by the top tier d-men. Parayko is still Parayko. If you think Faulk Fowler and the rest are up to the task of the better teams in the league on the blueline, I really don't know what to tell you. If Broberg is playing left side to a stud RD then we are looking at an entirely different situation. Faulk and Parayko are not those players. Fowler's really fantastic play last season was clearly an anomaly and look how it positively impacted the team. The bottom pair guys here are not even worth talking about as none of them are NHL quality on a contender.

I'm not suggesting the forwards aren't a problem. There isn't enough skill overall and the top six especially are super soft and prone to shying away when things get tough. But the Blueline has been crippled for years now without an anchor. Broberg is a step in the right direction, but they need more and Broberg himself still needs to really assert himself as a force and not just a minute muncher.

In my opinion… and believe me it’s just an opinion. Because we aren’t good anywhere… just my thoughts is our D wan’t that horrible last year and it’s the same D… our offense and lack there of an alpha dogg we have no one that can drive play consistently and yes Stenberg and McKenna can and will make a big difference better than any Dman in this draft… we haven’t had a horse since Vladi and he’s been gone like 10 years

He wasn't really a horse though. He had an incredible shot, in his younger days had a knack for big moment goals and could occasionally impose his will with speed and physicality. O'Reilly, Schwartz, Steen, Backes, Perron, Oshie, Schenn, Thomas, Kyrou, have all had as big an impact on this team as Tarasenko did at times and I was one of his biggest fans when he was in his prime.

The struggles begin with the patchwork D corps. Everything starts there from breakouts to PK. Essentially everybody on the Blues D corps is playing at LEAST a position too high. Broberg as a #2 is fine, Parayko as a #3 the same. Faulk as a #4 isn't so bad. Fowler is barely top 4 quality this year and the others as I mentioned are really not NHL quality players. They would all be in the press box nightly on a contender or in the AHL. This effects every facet of the ice and the other players on it adversely. Remember the D corps before we had Petro and Bouw? It was ugly and arguably our forwards now are more talented than the Backes/Oshie/Steen/Perron core that needed that Petro/Bouw emergence to become playoff contenders.

I seriously doubt that… CP55 has finally started to impress me… he has finally coming into his own defensively… he’s been horrible offensively this year… Broberg is a stud and is proving it. Faulk has been pretty consistent since he became a blue and has a great year offensively… Tucker/Mail man are young D and they’re getting better… So that leaves Fowler he hasn’t been good this year… nothing Def/Off but again our D has been far from the #1 issue this year… to me it’s our forwards all day… there has been a lot of injuries and maybe that has caused a lot of these issues maybe not…when your team barely avg’s 2 goal for a game you’re not going to win many games there isn’t a goalie alive that can stop 100% of the shots.. CP55 leads the league in blocks …

your understanding of the defense lacks honest self-criticism or a grasp of the basic traits of the characters involved, those are two fatal flaws here.

Parayko this year has finally – that was your word – "finally" begun to show defensive maturity ... after a decade of being known as a defensive stopper? the top four has been healthy all year and they have been awful relative to the rest of the league.

The blues also suck in OT and the shootout and they used to be good during these times

[seattleblue]

You can’t blame the D for the PP sucking, or the PK sucking… 2 of our Dmen made their olympic teams… Broberg and Parayko… the Mail-man has been playing way better… Faulk os having a strong year… out of our D fowler hasn’t provided much…. So who on the D is bad please elaborate

Why can't we blame the D for these things? Broberg is playing big minutes and is our best d-man but that's not exactly saying much. Compare Broberg's game to #1's around the league. He gets smoked in game impact at both ends, offensive impact especially by the top tier d-men. Parayko is still Parayko. If you think Faulk Fowler and the rest are up to the task of the better teams in the league on the blueline, I really don't know what to tell you. If Broberg is playing left side to a stud RD then we are looking at an entirely different situation. Faulk and Parayko are not those players. Fowler's really fantastic play last season was clearly an anomaly and look how it positively impacted the team. The bottom pair guys here are not even worth talking about as none of them are NHL quality on a contender.

I'm not suggesting the forwards aren't a problem. There isn't enough skill overall and the top six especially are super soft and prone to shying away when things get tough. But the Blueline has been crippled for years now without an anchor. Broberg is a step in the right direction, but they need more and Broberg himself still needs to really assert himself as a force and not just a minute muncher.

In my opinion… and believe me it’s just an opinion. Because we aren’t good anywhere… just my thoughts is our D wan’t that horrible last year and it’s the same D… our offense and lack there of an alpha dogg we have no one that can drive play consistently and yes Stenberg and McKenna can and will make a big difference better than any Dman in this draft… we haven’t had a horse since Vladi and he’s been gone like 10 years

He wasn't really a horse though. He had an incredible shot, in his younger days had a knack for big moment goals and could occasionally impose his will with speed and physicality. O'Reilly, Schwartz, Steen, Backes, Perron, Oshie, Schenn, Thomas, Kyrou, have all had as big an impact on this team as Tarasenko did at times and I was one of his biggest fans when he was in his prime.

The struggles begin with the patchwork D corps. Everything starts there from breakouts to PK. Essentially everybody on the Blues D corps is playing at LEAST a position too high. Broberg as a #2 is fine, Parayko as a #3 the same. Faulk as a #4 isn't so bad. Fowler is barely top 4 quality this year and the others as I mentioned are really not NHL quality players. They would all be in the press box nightly on a contender or in the AHL. This effects every facet of the ice and the other players on it adversely. Remember the D corps before we had Petro and Bouw? It was ugly and arguably our forwards now are more talented than the Backes/Oshie/Steen/Perron core that needed that Petro/Bouw emergence to become playoff contenders.

I seriously doubt that… CP55 has finally started to impress me… he has finally coming into his own defensively… he’s been horrible offensively this year… Broberg is a stud and is proving it. Faulk has been pretty consistent since he became a blue and has a great year offensively… Tucker/Mail man are young D and they’re getting better… So that leaves Fowler he hasn’t been good this year… nothing Def/Off but again our D has been far from the #1 issue this year… to me it’s our forwards all day… there has been a lot of injuries and maybe that has caused a lot of these issues maybe not…when your team barely avg’s 2 goal for a game you’re not going to win many games there isn’t a goalie alive that can stop 100% of the shots.. CP55 leads the league in blocks …

your understanding of the defense lacks honest self-criticism or a grasp of the basic traits of the characters involved, those are two fatal flaws here.

Parayko this year has finally – that was your word – "finally" begun to show defensive maturity ... after a decade of being known as a defensive stopper? the top four has been healthy all year and they have been awful relative to the rest of the league.

Oh i criticize the D all the time.. but they’re far from this years problems

that's the thing - there's a huge disconnect in your standards for what an NHL defense should be and the standards people have who know what a Cup defense looks like. it's an issue of how willing a person is to admit the truth to themselves. I don't think you can get it so I'm not going to work hard at convincing you.

[TampaBlues78]

You can’t blame the D for the PP sucking, or the PK sucking… 2 of our Dmen made their olympic teams… Broberg and Parayko… the Mail-man has been playing way better… Faulk os having a strong year… out of our D fowler hasn’t provided much…. So who on the D is bad please elaborate

Why can't we blame the D for these things? Broberg is playing big minutes and is our best d-man but that's not exactly saying much. Compare Broberg's game to #1's around the league. He gets smoked in game impact at both ends, offensive impact especially by the top tier d-men. Parayko is still Parayko. If you think Faulk Fowler and the rest are up to the task of the better teams in the league on the blueline, I really don't know what to tell you. If Broberg is playing left side to a stud RD then we are looking at an entirely different situation. Faulk and Parayko are not those players. Fowler's really fantastic play last season was clearly an anomaly and look how it positively impacted the team. The bottom pair guys here are not even worth talking about as none of them are NHL quality on a contender.

I'm not suggesting the forwards aren't a problem. There isn't enough skill overall and the top six especially are super soft and prone to shying away when things get tough. But the Blueline has been crippled for years now without an anchor. Broberg is a step in the right direction, but they need more and Broberg himself still needs to really assert himself as a force and not just a minute muncher.

In my opinion… and believe me it’s just an opinion. Because we aren’t good anywhere… just my thoughts is our D wan’t that horrible last year and it’s the same D… our offense and lack there of an alpha dogg we have no one that can drive play consistently and yes Stenberg and McKenna can and will make a big difference better than any Dman in this draft… we haven’t had a horse since Vladi and he’s been gone like 10 years

He wasn't really a horse though. He had an incredible shot, in his younger days had a knack for big moment goals and could occasionally impose his will with speed and physicality. O'Reilly, Schwartz, Steen, Backes, Perron, Oshie, Schenn, Thomas, Kyrou, have all had as big an impact on this team as Tarasenko did at times and I was one of his biggest fans when he was in his prime.

The struggles begin with the patchwork D corps. Everything starts there from breakouts to PK. Essentially everybody on the Blues D corps is playing at LEAST a position too high. Broberg as a #2 is fine, Parayko as a #3 the same. Faulk as a #4 isn't so bad. Fowler is barely top 4 quality this year and the others as I mentioned are really not NHL quality players. They would all be in the press box nightly on a contender or in the AHL. This effects every facet of the ice and the other players on it adversely. Remember the D corps before we had Petro and Bouw? It was ugly and arguably our forwards now are more talented than the Backes/Oshie/Steen/Perron core that needed that Petro/Bouw emergence to become playoff contenders.

I seriously doubt that… CP55 has finally started to impress me… he has finally coming into his own defensively… he’s been horrible offensively this year… Broberg is a stud and is proving it. Faulk has been pretty consistent since he became a blue and has a great year offensively… Tucker/Mail man are young D and they’re getting better… So that leaves Fowler he hasn’t been good this year… nothing Def/Off but again our D has been far from the #1 issue this year… to me it’s our forwards all day… there has been a lot of injuries and maybe that has caused a lot of these issues maybe not…when your team barely avg’s 2 goal for a game you’re not going to win many games there isn’t a goalie alive that can stop 100% of the shots.. CP55 leads the league in blocks …

your understanding of the defense lacks honest self-criticism or a grasp of the basic traits of the characters involved, those are two fatal flaws here.

Parayko this year has finally – that was your word – "finally" begun to show defensive maturity ... after a decade of being known as a defensive stopper? the top four has been healthy all year and they have been awful relative to the rest of the league.

Oh i criticize the D all the time.. but they’re far from this years problems

that's the thing - there's a huge disconnect in your standards for what an NHL defense should be and the standards people have who know what a Cup defense looks like. it's an issue of how willing a person is to admit the truth to themselves. I don't think you can get it so I'm not going to work hard at convincing you.

Ok, I don’t need convincing… I know what I see, I know what and who the blues have… this team has multiple issues, not saying the D is the worst of the bunch… it’s basically the same D as last year… with Logan Mailloux added and minus Nick Leddy

[seattleblue]

You can’t blame the D for the PP sucking, or the PK sucking… 2 of our Dmen made their olympic teams… Broberg and Parayko… the Mail-man has been playing way better… Faulk os having a strong year… out of our D fowler hasn’t provided much…. So who on the D is bad please elaborate

Why can't we blame the D for these things? Broberg is playing big minutes and is our best d-man but that's not exactly saying much. Compare Broberg's game to #1's around the league. He gets smoked in game impact at both ends, offensive impact especially by the top tier d-men. Parayko is still Parayko. If you think Faulk Fowler and the rest are up to the task of the better teams in the league on the blueline, I really don't know what to tell you. If Broberg is playing left side to a stud RD then we are looking at an entirely different situation. Faulk and Parayko are not those players. Fowler's really fantastic play last season was clearly an anomaly and look how it positively impacted the team. The bottom pair guys here are not even worth talking about as none of them are NHL quality on a contender.

I'm not suggesting the forwards aren't a problem. There isn't enough skill overall and the top six especially are super soft and prone to shying away when things get tough. But the Blueline has been crippled for years now without an anchor. Broberg is a step in the right direction, but they need more and Broberg himself still needs to really assert himself as a force and not just a minute muncher.

In my opinion… and believe me it’s just an opinion. Because we aren’t good anywhere… just my thoughts is our D wan’t that horrible last year and it’s the same D… our offense and lack there of an alpha dogg we have no one that can drive play consistently and yes Stenberg and McKenna can and will make a big difference better than any Dman in this draft… we haven’t had a horse since Vladi and he’s been gone like 10 years

He wasn't really a horse though. He had an incredible shot, in his younger days had a knack for big moment goals and could occasionally impose his will with speed and physicality. O'Reilly, Schwartz, Steen, Backes, Perron, Oshie, Schenn, Thomas, Kyrou, have all had as big an impact on this team as Tarasenko did at times and I was one of his biggest fans when he was in his prime.

The struggles begin with the patchwork D corps. Everything starts there from breakouts to PK. Essentially everybody on the Blues D corps is playing at LEAST a position too high. Broberg as a #2 is fine, Parayko as a #3 the same. Faulk as a #4 isn't so bad. Fowler is barely top 4 quality this year and the others as I mentioned are really not NHL quality players. They would all be in the press box nightly on a contender or in the AHL. This effects every facet of the ice and the other players on it adversely. Remember the D corps before we had Petro and Bouw? It was ugly and arguably our forwards now are more talented than the Backes/Oshie/Steen/Perron core that needed that Petro/Bouw emergence to become playoff contenders.

I seriously doubt that… CP55 has finally started to impress me… he has finally coming into his own defensively… he’s been horrible offensively this year… Broberg is a stud and is proving it. Faulk has been pretty consistent since he became a blue and has a great year offensively… Tucker/Mail man are young D and they’re getting better… So that leaves Fowler he hasn’t been good this year… nothing Def/Off but again our D has been far from the #1 issue this year… to me it’s our forwards all day… there has been a lot of injuries and maybe that has caused a lot of these issues maybe not…when your team barely avg’s 2 goal for a game you’re not going to win many games there isn’t a goalie alive that can stop 100% of the shots.. CP55 leads the league in blocks …

your understanding of the defense lacks honest self-criticism or a grasp of the basic traits of the characters involved, those are two fatal flaws here.

Parayko this year has finally – that was your word – "finally" begun to show defensive maturity ... after a decade of being known as a defensive stopper? the top four has been healthy all year and they have been awful relative to the rest of the league.

Oh i criticize the D all the time.. but they’re far from this years problems

that's the thing - there's a huge disconnect in your standards for what an NHL defense should be and the standards people have who know what a Cup defense looks like. it's an issue of how willing a person is to admit the truth to themselves. I don't think you can get it so I'm not going to work hard at convincing you.

Ok, I don’t need convincing… I know what I see, I know what and who the blues have… this team has multiple issues, not saying the D is the worst of the bunch… it’s basically the same D as last year… with Logan Mailloux added and minus Nick Leddy

last year ... the defense was about NHL average. nothing to write home about last year. even with two vets having big years

it's a super mediocre defense at its apogee