So it's done, and to moving on.

1
Petro staying is a low probability, man our D is going to look rough, freaking Faulk, hopefully CP55 can turn it around soon.

Wow, we have two head case goalies now. ;) I feel bad for Binnington, he'll have to overcome the adversity, and yet his play after the break really proved a 2 year bridge was wort it. Binnington's PO this year really reminded me of Joseph's last PO with us, just never getting any confidence (at least Joseph won some games) and up against a Kirk Mclean that played his butt off.

I'm ready to see what free agency brings us. I'm ready to see Kostin and Kyrou with the big club all season. I'm ready to see if some of our AHL Defense is ready to come up and learn on the job.

What say all of you?

Re: So it's done, and to moving on.

4
My take away from this goat screw of a year is, hockey players feed off the fans. Lackadaisical effort by most of the team doomed them from the start. You can pipe in crowd noise but its just not the same as having some asshole pound on the glass when you fuck up or not. And we can't forget the guy or gal whose son played peewee hockey for a year screaming shoot every time your in the zone. Take a look at whose left all haven’t won a cup in years and have an axe to grind, they all fell short last year and clearly didn't sit well with them. I think that if the Blues played the whole year and it was business as usual we'd still be there. Other teams are no doubt faster, but giving that every team came in healthy with no injuries like would have undoubtedly have been the case, depth didn't play a major role this year. I also think its easier to get your offensive stars up to speed than it is defense. Our defensemen aren't bad they were out of sync, I didn't think we'd miss JBo like we did but damn we sure could have used a solid stay at home and lock the door dman. End of rant. PS August hockey sucks.

Re: So it's done, and to moving on.

5
BlueinNy wrote: Sat Aug 22, 2020 5:32 am My take away from this goat screw of a year is, hockey players feed off the fans. Lackadaisical effort by most of the team doomed them from the start. You can pipe in crowd noise but its just not the same as having some asshole pound on the glass when you fuck up or not. And we can't forget the guy or gal whose son played peewee hockey for a year screaming shoot every time your in the zone. Take a look at whose left all haven’t won a cup in years and have an axe to grind, they all fell short last year and clearly didn't sit well with them. I think that if the Blues played the whole year and it was business as usual we'd still be there. Other teams are no doubt faster, but giving that every team came in healthy with no injuries like would have undoubtedly have been the case, depth didn't play a major role this year. I also think its easier to get your offensive stars up to speed than it is defense. Our defensemen aren't bad they were out of sync, I didn't think we'd miss JBo like we did but damn we sure could have used a solid stay at home and lock the door dman. End of rant. PS August hockey sucks.
Hear hear, you hit the nail on the head on all counts!

Re: So it's done, and to moving on.

6
I'm not drawing any major conclusions based on bubble hockey in August. Its not as if these guys don't kniw what it takes to win. They never really got on track in Edmonton. Bummer. Binnington might not be the long term answer and Petro might have played his last game in the note. Also a bummer. Changes are inevitable, but I'll be excited to see what the team looks like when they lace em up next...whenever that is.
...but whatever, the Blues won the Cup!!!!!

Re: So it's done, and to moving on.

8
On a different but related note to moving on, I’m jumping on the Flyers bandwagon for the rest of the playoffs. Fun to watch young team, a win against them last season jump started our turnaround and gave us Gloria, and the Schenn trade was one that benefited both teams, so it’ll almost be like the Blues are helping them.

Re: So it's done, and to moving on.

10
Cotton McKnight wrote: Fri Aug 21, 2020 11:30 pm Petro staying is a low probability, man our D is going to look rough, freaking Faulk, hopefully CP55 can turn it around soon.

Wow, we have two head case goalies now. ;) I feel bad for Binnington, he'll have to overcome the adversity, and yet his play after the break really proved a 2 year bridge was wort it. Binnington's PO this year really reminded me of Joseph's last PO with us, just never getting any confidence (at least Joseph won some games) and up against a Kirk Mclean that played his butt off.

I'm ready to see what free agency brings us. I'm ready to see Kostin and Kyrou with the big club all season. I'm ready to see if some of our AHL Defense is ready to come up and learn on the job.

What say all of you?
If we lose Petro, it’s not the end of the world. That frees up a lot of cap and gives Army a lot of flexibility. And if Tarasenko is done and goes on LTIR that’s even more flexibility. There’s a lot to like here.

Allen isn’t the death sentence everyone makes him out to be. The guy had a great season and he still gets no respect. I always compared Allen to a Crawford type and I still feel that way. Allen has proven he can overcome a confidence issue. Now we have to see if Binner can.

Re: So it's done, and to moving on.

12
bradleygt89 wrote: Fri Aug 21, 2020 11:49 pm It's going to be a much different team next season. Hopefully DA and Berube are on the same page for what kind of team to build around and with.
I wouldn’t mind Army getting cap space and retooling the team. Thomas is ready to make great strides and Kyrou and Kostin will add a new dimension. We need this. It’ll be great to see how Army decides how to play all this.

Re: So it's done, and to moving on.

14
So, they had a longer layoff than they would in a normal off-season, the players could not partake in their normal off-season programs and they essentially started the next season with the Stanley Cup tournament.

The hockey season is ordinarlly a long battle of attrition and the Blues are built for that battle. They were playing well in March (Faulk included) and hopefully crescendoing into the final stages of that battle. My only takeaway was that the formula for success changed drastically and the blues didn't have the new formula.

Good riddance to this f'd up season.

Re: So it's done, and to moving on.

15
Here's how I see it. This Blues team is sort of like a fully loaded, 80,000 semi at a stop light. This team takes a bit to get going, but once that get that truck moving at full speed, it's hard as hell to stop. This team just didn't have the time to get going full speed.

The team that starts in December will be very different than the one that got eliminated last night. It was rare that a Cup champion had so few changes after winning. Usually, there are multiple changes. Looks like this off season will be the big change off season.

When you take into account the fact that due to COVID the salary cap will basically be stagnant for a few seasons and the fact that the Blues as a whole did not look impressive, could mean maybe we don't see as many changes as we are expecting at this point. Someone could, and probably will throw stupid money at Petro, but maybe not as stupid as we thought.
2018-2019 Stanley Cup Champion St. Louis Blues. And I was alive to see it happen!

Re: So it's done, and to moving on.

16
stlblues1226 wrote: Sat Aug 22, 2020 12:03 pm Here's how I see it. This Blues team is sort of like a fully loaded, 80,000 semi at a stop light. This team takes a bit to get going, but once that get that truck moving at full speed, it's hard as hell to stop. This team just didn't have the time to get going full speed.

The team that starts in December will be very different than the one that got eliminated last night. It was rare that a Cup champion had so few changes after winning. Usually, there are multiple changes. Looks like this off season will be the big change off season.

When you take into account the fact that due to COVID the salary cap will basically be stagnant for a few seasons and the fact that the Blues as a whole did not look impressive, could mean maybe we don't see as many changes as we are expecting at this point. Someone could, and probably will throw stupid money at Petro, but maybe not as stupid as we thought.
I agree. I don't think we will see as many changes, at least to start the season anyways. I expect to see a lot more Kostin and Kyrou up front and hopefully a lot more minutes from Thomas.

I expect to see a lot of Perunovich and Mikkola on defense but other than that I don't see a lot else happening.

Re: So it's done, and to moving on.

19
Still think he was better than Quinn Hughes at the WJC’s a couple of years ago. Props to Big Walt and J. Niemic for sticking to their guns and telling Bill Armstrong to get out and see Perunovich.
Official "Bitch Ass" Fan and proud of it"

"Suck a dick Johansen"

"Official Sponsor of the Legend....Jeremy Roenick"

Re: So it's done, and to moving on.

23
barnburner wrote: Mon Aug 24, 2020 12:47 pm I've got to believe that if we had been able to play without the interruption, that Berube would have been able to keep the guys sharp and hungry. We might, or might not, have won the Cup again, but I have to believe the Blues would have battled their ass off.
barnburner, I agree, I think we would have seen a much better effort. On the other hand, after playing until mid-June last year (and partying up until the start of training camp!), I think they would have run out of gas. Bottom line for me, if we don’t win it all, it pretty much doesn’t matter to me if we lose in round 1 or round 3. As Ricky Bobby said......”If you aren’t first, you’re last!”

Re: So it's done, and to moving on.

25
CaptSMRT wrote: Mon Aug 24, 2020 9:06 pm The players probably are not really keen on risking an injury in the bubble for a trophy they won a year ago....they are humans.
Honestly I think that's a huge part of the crappy showing. Players motivation and preparation levels were all over the map for a variety of reasons. Guys like ROR and Perron clearly were at their typical high compete level. Others may or may not have been, but their training was impacted by a Covid diagnosis (Dunn, and others I can't recall). Others clearly just didn't have it for whatever reason, be it not wanting to be in the bubble, or just not properly handling the time off (Binnington jumps of the charts here for me).

That's why I'm not drawing huge conclusions from this playoff. Hopefully Binnington's performance was bubble related, not something larger. We'll find out next season. Hopefully Faulk's improved play is a sign that he's gotten over the hurdle of having to adjust to a new team for the first time in his pro career. We'll find out next season. Hopefully Dunn/Parayko/whoever just had their game impacted by not being able to train as hard or work with their teammates as much as everyone else due to Covid. Again, we'll find out next season.

Even if they'd gone on to win the Cup again, this team was going to look fairly different next season due to the cap crunch. Hopefully whoever is on board next season has a fire lit under their ass and doesn't want to be embarrassed again.
...but whatever, the Blues won the Cup!!!!!