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Thread: St Louis Blues

  1. #61
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    I got to watch the game but the oilers played at the same time so i wasnt entirely focused on it. It looks like Sobotka gets the early look on the top line in replace of McDonald. I feel that Steen will probably get a better look up there sometime soon if McDonald misses significant time. D'Agostini was probably the most noticeable player IMO and was flying all over the ice. Somehow Elliot made a couple of huge saves to help preserve the win. I didnt think the blues deserved to win tonight. Every time the Sharks top line was on the ice I thought they were dominating the Blues down low. The Blues defense looked very suspect and were getting over worked in the corners. I guess that is expected though with a defense as young as the Blues.
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  2. #62
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    The Blues struggled once again to keep up with one of the better teams in the western conference. They kept it close until the 3rd when the wheels of the Ducks first line really got going and changed the entire game. Some notes about the game.

    The Blues powerplay has struggled to put up pts and gain good possession in the offensive zone. They might need to swap some bodies around to give other guys looks on the top 2 units

    Steen was maybe the best player on the Blues and was solid in every end of the ice. He has been the most consistent player thus far on the Blues and can do everything right.

    Berglund looks like he is really developing into what many have hoped. This guy is gonna have a long and bright future with this team and can turn on his offensive skills at the drop of a dime.

    Backes/Stewart/Oshie all of these players IMO have been struggling and need to pick up their game if the Blues are gonna win games. They arent playing horrible but their not chipping in when the Blues are in a tight game and need a change of momentum.

    Halak another good game for Halak but he still came up short and ended up letting a couple goals in. You cant blame this guy. He kept the game fairly close all night and other than the last goal couldnt really be blamed on any goal.

    The Blues Defense- To me is the most noticeable thing over the past 3 games. Shatty and Pieter both look good in the offensive zone, but in their own end the Blues defense looks like a lost dog at times. Teams have been able to control the play in large chunks in the Blues zone.
    10 Team Yahoo Semi Keeper H2H Daily lineups (Keep 5 Vets & 5 Rookies), Play 3C, 3RW, 3LW, 4D, 2G daily

    C-Giroux, Matthews (R), Petterson, Barzal (R)
    LW-Rakell
    RW-Tarasenko, Aho (R), Boser (R)
    D-Subban, Werenski (R)
    G-

    Stats Counted:

    G, A, PPG, PPA, SHG, SHA, +/-, GWG, SOG, Hits, Blocks, PIM
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    Rookies Eligible till 170 GP

  3. #63
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    The Blues have officially put McDonald on the IR. The bad thing is as everyone knows there is no timetable for his return with this injury as we all witnessed with Perron. Lets hope for the best because the Blues are in dire need of his offence.

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    LW-Rakell
    RW-Tarasenko, Aho (R), Boser (R)
    D-Subban, Werenski (R)
    G-

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  4. #64
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    Things that stood out for me in tonight's game was

    Halak looked kind of bad early but was amazing for the second half of the game. He gave his team hope all night to maybe mount a comeback and stopped a few for sure goals.

    Backes was the best looking forward for the Blues IMO. He was strong on the puck all night and was crushing guys every opportunity he got. He had a beauty goal that he some how fit the puck in the top of the net with hardly any space.

    Pietrangelo is carrying the team on the back end but he cant do it on his own. He is everything a team could want from a top pairing dman. I think his main problem is they dont really have anybody else to put with him.

    Again I thought the Blues defense had a lot of troubles tonight with the Oilers forwards. The shots were fairly even, but the quality scoring chances were strongly in favor of the Oilers. They easily should of had 7 goals tonight. The Blues forwards were just not generating enough chances. This could be a long season for a Blues fan.
    10 Team Yahoo Semi Keeper H2H Daily lineups (Keep 5 Vets & 5 Rookies), Play 3C, 3RW, 3LW, 4D, 2G daily

    C-Giroux, Matthews (R), Petterson, Barzal (R)
    LW-Rakell
    RW-Tarasenko, Aho (R), Boser (R)
    D-Subban, Werenski (R)
    G-

    Stats Counted:

    G, A, PPG, PPA, SHG, SHA, +/-, GWG, SOG, Hits, Blocks, PIM
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  5. #65
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    Thanks for the thoughts on Halak, I only watched the game tonight for like five minutes, and it was within that period that he made the five-hole stop on Hall's breakaway. Glad to hear that he wasn't as bad as the numbers were .

    I'm really disappointed in Berglund so far this year. I had high hopes for him. I thought Stewart was overhyped a bit but I thought that Berglund could crack at least 55. He still could but its looking dim.
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    From the games ive watched this year, the whole team has been disappointing thus far. The goalies arent stopping pucks, the dmen arent doing anything and the forwards arent scoring on a regular basis. Steen and Pieter have been the most consistent players so far. Ive been very disappointed with Berglund, Oshie, Backes, Shatty, Stewart and Halak. I thought all of those players were going be primed for a huge year. Its still really early and there is a lot of hockey left so there is time, but if the Blues are going to continue to progress through this rebuilding process their gonna have find some ways to score and stop the puck. I think were really starting to see the impact the EJ trade had on this team. IMO their really missing that #1 2 way dman that can do everything
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    C-Giroux, Matthews (R), Petterson, Barzal (R)
    LW-Rakell
    RW-Tarasenko, Aho (R), Boser (R)
    D-Subban, Werenski (R)
    G-

    Stats Counted:

    G, A, PPG, PPA, SHG, SHA, +/-, GWG, SOG, Hits, Blocks, PIM
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  7. #67
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    This is my take on the Blues - they are missing that #1 2-way D, but had to give him up to get Stewart and Shattenkirk. But what's worse is how that roster is being managed game-to-game by Payne. There are no defined roles on the team, and that's how the players are playing out there.

    Pick a top scoring line, keep them together, and give them top PP time even when they struggle - show faith in them. Identify Backes as a top-6 C or elite checking line C. Decide if Oshie is a C or a W. Quit giving Langenbrunner PP time, then playing your leading goal-scorer (D'Agostini) 3rd line minutes.

    Its so frustrating to watch that team play so poorly with all the talent they have, purely IMO because Payne is doing a horrible job managing the roster.
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    Gotta echo slufoots thoughts here. I really think Payne is the problem on this team. They've got several phenomenal players and have been one of the best drafting teams in the league but Payne just isn't handling the players the right way.

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    Also it's ridiculous what this team could look like in a few years.

    Schwartz - Tarasenko - Stewart
    McDonald - Berglund - Oshie
    Steen - Backes - Perron

    Then Pietrangelo, Cole, Shattenkirk, etc on d.

    Wow.

    EDIT: or does Tarasenko play RW? Either way, it's stil sick.
    Last edited by dyzfunctioned; October 31, 2011 at 3:34 PM.

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    I totally agree that Payne is the problem there.When he was first brought in,I liked it alot because he had the perceived rep of being a young players coach,but he has failed miserably in leading a loaded team.They need to get rid of him before Tarasenko.Scwartz et al play for this team or he will turn them into 60 pt players with 90 pt talent.I just dont see Payne being what they need.
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    Greatnthoughts re Payne. I hadn't considered the negative impact he could be having on the team and their confidence with his wishy-washy approach to lines and roles. I definitely think some of the forwards would benefit from being given clearly defined roles within team.

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    Quote Originally Posted by dyzfunctioned View Post
    Also it's ridiculous what this team could look like in a few years.

    Schwartz - Tarasenko - Stewart
    McDonald - Berglund - Oshie
    Steen - Backes - Perron

    Then Pietrangelo, Cole, Shattenkirk, etc on d.

    Wow.

    EDIT: or does Tarasenko play RW? Either way, it's stil sick.
    Tarasenko was playing center at the World Juniors. That's the only real exposure I've had to him but my feeling has been that he is in line to be their top line center whenever he comes over. You could of course swap him and Berglund with little drop off.

    Also worth noting that McDonald is already 34. In a few years he will be on the wrong side of 35. You could easily slide Perron or Steen up of course and also throw in a different veteran winger in his stead.

    I'm really jazzed about what the future holds for the Blues but as of yet they don't have that franchise player you need. Year after year the talk is about how stacked their system is and how close they are to breaking out. This is kinda like the Jays, Pirates, Orioles, Mariners of the baseball world. When are they going to stop having the most loaded system and start being the most loaded team? They need to make that leap the Rays made a few years ago because that team was stuck in the wash cycle for what seemed like forever as well.

    I love the future of the Blues but you can't help but wonder if they'll keep winding up in mediocrity instead. Look at how loaded they are supposed to be but what is their track record with developing talent?

    EJ isn't what he was supposed to be. Oshie and Berglund are yet to come through on their potential. Backes has given us flashes of being a beast but they still haven't found the proper position or usage of him. Perron has been derailed by injuries but I'm convinced he was never as good as everyone said he was. They ditched Lars Eller who isn't looking like much. Ian Cole is still a minor leaguer. Schwartz and Tarasenko are still "a few" years from making the league. Alex Pietrangelo is so far the only guy I'd say they've done a good job with by giving him a few tastes of the league before bringing him up full time. But even Pietrangelo they aren't doing right by because they are giving him the John Carlson treatment by using him as more of a shutdown guy than by putting him in the best offensive situations. Maybe that's what this team needs to do because they simply aren't as loaded as we thought.

    Sorry that this turned into a rant. I only meant to comment on McDonald and then everything just spiralled out of control. Suffice to say I think that the Blues are the most overrated franchise in fantasy hockey.
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  13. #73
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    I've always looked at how great their drafting has been but have never really looked at how well their prospects were developed. That's an interesting thought.

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    I think I'm going to disagree with you here, MD.

    EJ is what he was supposed to be: a big physical franchise-type defenseman who would control the game physically, contribute offensively, and take several years to put it all together. That was always the view on him... I think St Louis was just waaay impatient. Wasn't he always viewed as likely to have a Pronger-like development curve (ie mediocre stats for like 4 years then the lightbulb goes on)?

    Interesting point about Tarasenko at C, actually -- he certainly plays RW on Sibir and has lined up that way for a while. Playing him at C speaks to his coachs' confidence in his 2-way play, which has also earned him an A in the KHL this year.

    And about the franchise-type players... I have yet to see any evidence that both Schwartz and Tarasenko are not on franchise player -type development paths. They both have the upside, get major responsibility with their respective national teams, and are leaders both in terms of offense and actual leadership on their "season" teams. In my (oft repeated) view, these guys are two of the best prospects in the entire NHL.

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    Yeah I mean look at their six year run from the '05 draft to the '10 draft. They have 10 first round picks over that six year span. My guess is that's more than any other team so of course they are going to look loaded.

    Guess how many quality prospects they've churned out from beyond the first round over that same time. The argument could be made that the answer is zero. The most NHL games played by a player selected by the Blues outside of the first round between '05 and '10 is 32. That player is scrapper Ryan Reaves who is going nowhere.

    You could argue that Ben Bishop is a quality prospect but he got beat out by Brian Elliott. I'm sure you can guess how I feel about that. They also have Jake Allen another goalie who has shown upside but isn't he the same no glove bum that sucked total ass for Canada at the World Juniors. Did someone finaly teach him that leather trapper on his left hand is for catching?

    Then there's Jonas Junland. Remember when he was a good prospect? Yeah, KHL. Goodnight to that dream.

    How about Brett Sonne who once had 80 point upside in the Dobber Prospects guide. Looks like a career minor leaguer to me, and I'm related to the freaking guy!

    They traded Aaron Palushaj who for as good as he's looked at the AHL level probably doesn't project to be more than a third liner when he makes it to the league in three years.

    How about Simon Hjalmarsson and Kristofer Berglund who were hyped as much for their name value as any tangible skills. Still rocking out in Sweden I see.

    I'm definitely overblowing this but even then it's still staggering how overhyped the Blues have been.
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