The lineup just feels so much more stable now. It seemed like last year you had so many players playing out of position. So many left wingers playing right wing. Everything kind of falls into place much better now.

With regard to goaltending, I'm not a fan of Chad Johnson at all, BUT, Carter Hutton wasn't Carter Hutton when he got to St Louis. Brian Elliott wasn't Brian Elliott when get got to St Louis. Maybe the Blues can turn another below average backup into a quality goaltender. I don't expect it, but I've been fooled before.

Let's drop the puck!

Let's also not ignore the fact that O'Reilly was the #2 in The NHL in faceoff % among regulars, with 58.3%. He should be out there for most of the key faceoffs. That means that our #1 Line will be on the ice more often, instead of our #3 Line, when we were using Sobotka for that purpose. That will make a big difference in offensive chances over the season. It also means that non-scoring a 3rd liner won't be on the ice during The Power Play. With Bozak and Perron added, Fabbri returning, and room for Thomas, and a tryout for Kyrou, The Blues' offence should be quite a bit better this season. Lots of upgrade on both PP units. We just have to hope they implement a better PP strategy.

Robb_K wrote:Let's also not ignore the fact that O'Reilly was the #2 in The NHL in faceoff % among regulars, with 58.3%. He should be out there for most of the key faceoffs. That means that our #1 Line will be on the ice more often, instead of our #3 Line, when we were using Sobotka for that purpose. That will make a big difference in offensive chances over the season. It also means that non-scoring a 3rd liner won't be on the ice during The Power Play. With Bozak and Perron added, Fabbri returning, and room for Thomas, and a tryout for Kyrou, The Blues' offence should be quite a bit better this season. Lots of upgrade on both PP units. We just have to hope they implement a better PP strategy.

We'll actually be able to field 2 respectable PP units now.

PP1:
Schwartz-O'Reilly-Schenn
Tarasenko-Pietrangelo

PP2:
Perron-Bozak-Fabbri/Thomas/Steen
Dunn-Parayko

I remember last year our PP2 had Sobotka, Berglund, Jaskin, even Sundqvist on it at one point. Huge personnel upgrade here for us.

UMSLBlues12 wrote:

Robb_K wrote:Let's also not ignore the fact that O'Reilly was the #2 in The NHL in faceoff % among regulars, with 58.3%. He should be out there for most of the key faceoffs. That means that our #1 Line will be on the ice more often, instead of our #3 Line, when we were using Sobotka for that purpose. That will make a big difference in offensive chances over the season. It also means that non-scoring a 3rd liner won't be on the ice during The Power Play. With Bozak and Perron added, Fabbri returning, and room for Thomas, and a tryout for Kyrou, The Blues' offence should be quite a bit better this season. Lots of upgrade on both PP units. We just have to hope they implement a better PP strategy.

We'll actually be able to field 2 respectable PP units now.

PP1:
Schwartz-O'Reilly-Schenn
Tarasenko-Pietrangelo

PP2:
Perron-Bozak-Fabbri/Thomas/Steen
Dunn-Parayko

I remember last year our PP2 had Sobotka, Berglund, Jaskin, even Sundqvist on it at one point. Huge personnel upgrade here for us.

Looks strong. Hoping Dunn can take the next step and be the #1 PP QB. Would like to get Tarasenko off the point.

https://www.stltoday.com/sports/hockey/ ... e59d8.html

Some comments in here from Botterill to get the Sabres side of things. Interesting is he says he likes Thompson's speed. I'm probably higher on Thompson than some in here, but his speed is not something I was impressed with. Size, ability to protect the puck in traffic, good hands, good shot are all things to like, but speed?

Robb_K wrote:Let's also not ignore the fact that O'Reilly was the #2 in The NHL in faceoff % among regulars, with 58.3%. He should be out there for most of the key faceoffs. That means that our #1 Line will be on the ice more often, instead of our #3 Line, when we were using Sobotka for that purpose. That will make a big difference in offensive chances over the season. It also means that non-scoring a 3rd liner won't be on the ice during The Power Play. With Bozak and Perron added, Fabbri returning, and room for Thomas, and a tryout for Kyrou, The Blues' offence should be quite a bit better this season. Lots of upgrade on both PP units. We just have to hope they implement a better PP strategy.

Serious question from a non-hockey player: is it really the strategy or was it the personnel? Is there really that many different strategies to use? Not being sarcastic, but my understanding is that you have a few basic strategies (umbrella, overload, 1-3-1, etc), but if the players don't have good hockey sense to know where and how to move the puck effectively, it don't matter.

Just curious as I hear this a lot about needing a new PP coach and/or strategy, and to me, it seems like it was the players we were using just didn't have that smarts.

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote:

UMSLBlues12 wrote:

Robb_K wrote:Let's also not ignore the fact that O'Reilly was the #2 in The NHL in faceoff % among regulars, with 58.3%. He should be out there for most of the key faceoffs. That means that our #1 Line will be on the ice more often, instead of our #3 Line, when we were using Sobotka for that purpose. That will make a big difference in offensive chances over the season. It also means that non-scoring a 3rd liner won't be on the ice during The Power Play. With Bozak and Perron added, Fabbri returning, and room for Thomas, and a tryout for Kyrou, The Blues' offence should be quite a bit better this season. Lots of upgrade on both PP units. We just have to hope they implement a better PP strategy.

We'll actually be able to field 2 respectable PP units now.

PP1:
Schwartz-O'Reilly-Schenn
Tarasenko-Pietrangelo

PP2:
Perron-Bozak-Fabbri/Thomas/Steen
Dunn-Parayko

I remember last year our PP2 had Sobotka, Berglund, Jaskin, even Sundqvist on it at one point. Huge personnel upgrade here for us.

Looks strong. Hoping Dunn can take the next step and be the #1 PP QB. Would like to get Tarasenko off the point.

I'm hoping they play a 1-3-1, so Tarasenko won't exactly be on the point. Ideally he's as much on the point as Ovechkin is on the Caps PP. He can sit in the circle with Dunn or Petro at the blue line in the center of the ice. Both of those guys are mobile enough that they should be able to play that role on the PP.

UMSLBlues12 wrote:https://www.stltoday.com/sports/hockey/ ... e59d8.html

Some comments in here from Botterill to get the Sabres side of things. Interesting is he says he likes Thompson's speed. I'm probably higher on Thompson than some in here, but his speed is not something I was impressed with. Size, ability to protect the puck in traffic, good hands, good shot are all things to like, but speed?

I liked Thompson, but yeah, he reminds me too much of Berglund to be honest. Just didn't seem to have a good awareness of what to do with the puck when he had it and didn't have a clear shot or pass. Sure a lot of it is just Rookie stuff and learning, and while I'm sure he will be a 15-20 goal scorer and put up 40+ points here and there, I just don't see him as being a true top 6 forward. Of the top 4 prospects we had, glad it was him that got traded TBH.

Here's some more articles from the BUF perspective, if anyone is interested:

https://buffalonews.com/2018/07/01/sabr ... -to-blues/

https://buffalonews.com/2018/07/01/tage ... s-to-know/

UMSLBlues12 wrote:Somehow, in some strange way, Perron becomes the sole survivor of the “Kid line”

yeah i thought that too.

really fantastic move by DA here. i kind of panicked initially when i read it, thinking it said thomas not thompson and thought we overpaid, but i still liked it. now that i know, i like it even more. this team now looks completely different next year AND has room for some kids to earn spots. it's probably as close to what i hoped would happen i can get without ripping up contracts. now i have something to be excited about next season, we don't really have any idea how this team will play. i love it.

as far as goaltending, hasn't this team been saying for a long time that husso is our future? i don't know why it's a given that johnson is allen's backup - they could have gotten him to replace husso, and bring husso up here. either way, shrug - at some point, i'm sure we'll see husso.

Listening to NHL radio on the way to work today and they were glowing about the deal Botterill made. They were like, "look at that return!".

Props to Timmy for saying DA should school Botterill on this deal because he did.

bradleygt89 wrote:I liked Thompson, but yeah, he reminds me too much of Berglund to be honest. Just didn't seem to have a good awareness of what to do with the puck when he had it and didn't have a clear shot or pass. Sure a lot of it is just Rookie stuff and learning, and while I'm sure he will be a 15-20 goal scorer and put up 40+ points here and there, I just don't see him as being a true top 6 forward. Of the top 4 prospects we had, glad it was him that got traded TBH.

I have been saying the same thing. He looks like a Berglund clone with a better shot. Neither guy plays with any intensity. I could be wrong, but I am glad that he was the prospect that we lost and not Thomas, Kyrou, or Kostin.

I have a weird feeling that a guy like Lundqvist could be had later on in the year - the Rags seem like a total rebuild right now and have like $25M in cap space (with a few key RFA's like Spooner, Hayes, Skjei and Vesey to sign) - If Thomas and Kyrou earn spots and/or Fabbri shows he's ready, I could see moving a guy like Steen (if he's willing) to NYR to offset some of the money and getting the King in return. Totally out of left field, but this team still has one glaring weakness...... I'm not a huge Allen hater, but all this is for naught if he goes through his same disappearing act this year.

Reading JR's piece in The Athletic this morning, one line really jumped out.

"Consider this: the Blues’ four centers in their 2017-18 regular-season finale in Colorado on April 7 were Brayden Schenn, Kyle Brodziak, Sobotka and Oskar Sundqvist. When they open the 2018-19 season against Winnipeg on Oct. 4, they could be trotting out O’Reilly, Schenn, Bozak and rookie Robert Thomas. "


When's the last time the Blues had center depth like this? Even when they had Staz and Backes, that was followed up by guys like Lehtera, Lindstrom, Marcel Goc, Steve Ott, the ghost of Scott Gomez.

The other line was, "The one thing is in today’s NHL, you could never have too many centermen. Centermen can go to the wing with great ease. I see them all as center icemen now, but it gives (Blues head coach) Mike Yeo a lot of different options moving forward.”

Which I think is basically a direct quote to what someone said in the draft thread about always drafting centers. Apologies for not remembering who, to give credit.

Thoughts after all of this:

1. We're set at forward. If anything, we might still have too many bodies. You can mix and match the top-9 all you want, but now your 4th line is probably something like Jaskin-Barbashev-Thorburn. Blech. (Especially given talk about Thomas centering ROR - and let's be honest, does anyone want Thomas playing 4C to start?) For all the talent Barbashev allegedly has, that's just wasting him there. The key here is that ROR and Bozak actually bring their talent to the team; Schenn showed up last year, but he's been the exception. Typically, highly skilled guys the Blues have brought to the organization checked some of their talent at the door; if that happens, cue up the screaming about guys not earning their paychecks - and it will be loud and constant.

2. Goal is ... well, Allen's gonna Allen. Johnson is a clear downgrade, even if you point back and say "Hutton didn't do that before" (he was at least more consistent, and slightly above average) and "Elliott didn't do that before" (which is accurate - and Elliott was also 26 at the time). Johnson is 32; he looked great on a loaded Boston team that could have made anyone here look great, but has otherwise been mediocre to terrible. We may long for days of past crappy Blues backups before this season is over. Let's pretend Allen will play better with more goal support, ignoring that last year he had the best goal support of his career and still found ways to gak up goals at truly inopportune times that broke the spirit of this team, and say this position is better. (Unstated in all of this: it probably shuts the door on Jordan Binnington, who is set to walk as a Group VI free agent after this season.)

3. Defense is ... still paper thin. No, adding Wotherspoon (who never could crack Calgary's lineup) is not an upgrade; it's a younger version of Chris Butler (who we'll have for another year as a fill-in if/when Schmaltz still can't hack it in the NHL). Speaking of, Schmaltz will almost certainly start the season with the Blues for no other reason than he's not waiver-exempt, which means he'll have to develop from the press box unless injuries hit. Speaking of injuries? Your "depth" for this season is Gunnarsson/Bouwmeester (whichever is sitting out), Schmaltz, Butler, Wotherspoon and Lindbohm and then it utterly falls off a cliff. This could be a major problem this year - and 2 (possibly 3, depending on getting Bortuzzo signed) of the top-7 will have to be replaced, with at least one of those spots coming from our "depth" in the organization.

In total: we should score more goals, but I don't know that there's a 35-50-85 kind of line on this team. If Tarasenko finds his shot again, it's more plausible - but I'm not banking on him going off for 40+ goals this season. That said, if the defense holds and Allen doesn't Allen, we're probably a 6-8 team in the West; not winning the Central, not terrible enough to surely miss. If the defense doesn't hold, we could be last year's Islanders (great offense, terrible defense) with the same record as last year's Blues or slightly worse.

Longer-term: we might well be in win-now mode, whether people want to admit it or not. Schenn and Pietrangelo need new contracts in 2 years, and based on their value to the team and expected contributions (especially from Schenn) neither one will be be cheap. Schwartz needs a new contract the year after, and we know what he means to this team - and so does everyone else around the league. Fully 1/3rd of this team is "in its prime" for the next 2-3 years; by the time you get kids up to speed and contributing, that core will be fading off (even if you can bring it all back) and Bozak/Perron will be steps away from retirement. It's easy to say "we have the depth to replace" which is more true at forward, but still it's not like you can drop a kid in and have him cranking like a veteran. There's going to be a ramp-up period needed. The defense has gaping holes that we don't have pieces from within, and you're out the 1st (and 4th) next year that you could have used to help replenish.

As I keep repeating, this is a delicate time for the franchise. It could pan out well and be fantastic, or we could get mired in mediocrity rolling the roster to get everything to finally gel together, and I think the latter of the two is more plausible than some want to believe.

MattyIce wrote:

bradleygt89 wrote:I liked Thompson, but yeah, he reminds me too much of Berglund to be honest. Just didn't seem to have a good awareness of what to do with the puck when he had it and didn't have a clear shot or pass. Sure a lot of it is just Rookie stuff and learning, and while I'm sure he will be a 15-20 goal scorer and put up 40+ points here and there, I just don't see him as being a true top 6 forward. Of the top 4 prospects we had, glad it was him that got traded TBH.

I have been saying the same thing. He looks like a Berglund clone with a better shot. Neither guy plays with any intensity. I could be wrong, but I am glad that he was the prospect that we lost and not Thomas, Kyrou, or Kostin.

Thompson will be a stud once he grows into his body, is a lot stronger, and gains the confidence that comes with that. He's going to be 6ft 5, 215-220 lb. He'll play a lot bigger, and have an even harder shot. He'll crash the net. He will be a good 2nd Liner. Wait and see. Even so, I'm betting that both Thomas and Kyrou will be much better on offence, and a lot more valuable. And, with luck, both Kostin and Bokk will also be better. So, I'm very happy with the trade.

Mud wrote:Thoughts after all of this:

1. ...For all the talent Barbashev allegedly has, that's just wasting him there...

...If Tarasenko finds his shot again, it's more plausible - but I'm not banking on him going off for 40+ goals this season...

Just wanted to comment on a couple of your points. I actually like the idea of having Barbashev on the 4th line. He's played better at center than he has on the wing, and he clearly doesn't have a center spot in the top 9. While Barbashev has talent, his ceiling is probably a bottom 9 center. A lot of teams have moved to having younger players breaking in on their 4th lines rather than playing grizzled vets there, and I think it will work out for us. The more I've thought about it, I think Thomas will probably break in playing RW with Bozak at C on the third line.

As far as Tarasenko goes, he had the worst possible year he could have, I think we can all agree, and he still scored 33 goals even though he had some days where is effort and compete was...questionable. His shooting percentage the three seasons before was 14, 13.7, 13.6. Last year it was 10.8. Assuming his shooting percentage gets back to around 13.5%, which isn't much of leap considering thats where he's been most of his career, he will be fine and probably score close to 40.

This is what Pronman says with regard to Tage Thompson

“Tage, listen, I think he’s got potential,” said Corey Pronman, The Athletic’s prospect guru. “I think he might be a second-line forward one day. He’s 6-foot-5, he’s got high-end puck skills, a high-end shot, makes plays. But he doesn’t play with pace, he takes shifts off here and there, and he’s got some room to develop. I think with Buffalo, he’ll be a potential second-line, third-line guy, play some power play, that’s what I see him topping out as. You didn’t want to lose Thomas and you didn’t want to lose Kyrou. Those are the two big pieces, and you couldn’t lose either two of those guys, particularly Thomas. I did not see any way they could have included him.”

UMSLBlues12 wrote:

Mud wrote:Thoughts after all of this:

1. ...For all the talent Barbashev allegedly has, that's just wasting him there...

...If Tarasenko finds his shot again, it's more plausible - but I'm not banking on him going off for 40+ goals this season...

Just wanted to comment on a couple of your points. I actually like the idea of having Barbashev on the 4th line. He's played better at center than he has on the wing, and he clearly doesn't have a center spot in the top 9. While Barbashev has talent, his ceiling is probably a bottom 9 center. A lot of teams have moved to having younger players breaking in on their 4th lines rather than playing grizzled vets there, and I think it will work out for us. The more I've thought about it, I think Thomas will probably break in playing RW with Bozak at C on the third line.

As far as Tarasenko goes, he had the worst possible year he could have, I think we can all agree, and he still scored 33 goals even though he had some days where is effort and compete was...questionable. His shooting percentage the three seasons before was 14, 13.7, 13.6. Last year it was 10.8. Assuming his shooting percentage gets back to around 13.5%, which isn't much of leap considering thats where he's been most of his career, he will be fine and probably score close to 40.

Agree with the sentiment on Barbs. I don't think you can have "too much depth" because guys are going to get hurt and it's better to have a guy like him that can move up in the lineup than being forced to try and make Brodz a 2nd line center.

Same on Tarasenko. With the expected improvement on the PP and his shot % getting back to his career norms, 40 goals should be well within range. Especially having either Schenn or O'Reilly with him all year.

Good write up though, Mud. Mostly spot on, imo.

The more I think about it Thomas starting the season at 4C is hardly a bad thing. Much like Schwartz as a rookie his two-way play is perfect for that kind of duty and he can add some offensive pop to that unit. Thomas will be up the lineup soon enough A guy like Kyrou will need to be getting top 9 minutes to maximize his impact offensively so with that said to start the season I can see:

Schwartz Schenn Perron
Fabbri O'Reilly Tarasenko
Steen Bozak Kyrou
Barbashev Thomas Soshnikov/Jaskin/Sanford

I like it.

What's nice about this group of forwards right now is you can slot guys into the roles they're really meant for. Steen as a middle 6 winger, Jaskin holding down 4RW, Thorburn under "break in case of emergency" glass. Kyrou can either hop in on a middle six line or get his feet wet in San Antonio. The roles make sense, but there are still enough bodies to have some competition for roster spots.

ratonmono wrote:The more I think about it Thomas starting the season at 4C is hardly a bad thing. Much like Schwartz as a rookie his two-way play is perfect for that kind of duty and he can add some offensive pop to that unit. Thomas will be up the lineup soon enough A guy like Kyrou will need to be getting top 9 minutes to maximize his impact offensively so with that said to start the season I can see:

Schwartz Schenn Perron
Fabbri O'Reilly Tarasenko
Steen Bozak Kyrou
Barbashev Thomas Soshnikov/Jaskin/Sanford

I like it.

Bozak makes that 3rd line look great now. Wonder if Yeo modifies the style some given the added deep skill we have now. Do Blues strive to up the tempo this year?

The Blues can roll four lines that can score now. The defense will be fine. Allen... we'll see. I still have faith in him.

My biggest concern is behind the bench and especially the coaching on the PP.

Edit: Lesson learned. You can never have enough centers.

BillP wrote:

ratonmono wrote:The more I think about it Thomas starting the season at 4C is hardly a bad thing. Much like Schwartz as a rookie his two-way play is perfect for that kind of duty and he can add some offensive pop to that unit. Thomas will be up the lineup soon enough A guy like Kyrou will need to be getting top 9 minutes to maximize his impact offensively so with that said to start the season I can see:

Schwartz Schenn Perron
Fabbri O'Reilly Tarasenko
Steen Bozak Kyrou
Barbashev Thomas Soshnikov/Jaskin/Sanford

I like it.

Bozak makes that 3rd line look great now. Wonder if Yeo modifies the style some given the added deep skill we have now. Do Blues strive to up the tempo this year?

With this new line-up, they should do that.

Love the oh so knowledgeable and smug Buffalo fans on twitter thinking the Blues got fleeced.