BlueinNy wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 9:31 pm My daughter and I are flying in yo go to the Jan.3 Vancouver game, im not even looking forward to it. It's her 16th birthday present and it's gonna suck.

Hey, Vancouver's a great team, with some bona-fide superstar players. It should be fun to watch!

RAFritchey wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 9:27 pm Is Mrazek playing out of his mind again (he made 37 stops for a shutout against Anaheim the other night), or are our 35+ shots just weak, 'low-danger' shots?

I don't think it was a tough night for Mrazek even facing 40+ shots.

This was a horrible effort. Changes must happen.

Our reclamation projects aren't projects at all, they're empty sweaters.sit Vrana until he fucking retires. Kapanen is useless as tits on a bull. Perunivich needs to play defense instead of trying to be a forward. And for the love of everything holy would somebody check.

Our reclamation projects aren't projects at all, they're empty sweaters.sit Vrana until he fucking retires. Kapanen is useless as tits on a bull. Perunivich needs to play defense instead of trying to be a forward. And for the love of everything holy would somebody check.

RAFritchey wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 9:27 pm Is Mrazek playing out of his mind again (he made 37 stops for a shutout against Anaheim the other night), or are our 35+ shots just weak, 'low-danger' shots?

A mix of both. The Blues this year, and last, seem to make goalies look better than they are.

RAFritchey wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 9:33 pm

BlueinNy wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 9:31 pm My daughter and I are flying in yo go to the Jan.3 Vancouver game, im not even looking forward to it. It's her 16th birthday present and it's gonna suck.

Hey, Vancouver's a great team, with some bona-fide superstar players. It should be fun to watch!

Watched demko cut his teeth in utica, he's a great goaler, just didn't want to spend the Jing to see them lose. My girl and I have been to alot of Blues games ,but she wants to dance like nobody's watching so to speak. She wants to cheer for her team as loud as she can.

BlueinNy wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 9:36 pm Our reclamation projects aren't projects at all, they're empty sweaters.sit Vrana until he fucking retires. Kapanen is useless as tits on a bull. Perunivich needs to play defense instead of trying to be a forward. And for the love of everything holy would somebody check.

I'm going to cut Perunovich some slack sinces he's essentially a rookie but these other guys. No excuses.

Kapanen had a good start to the season bit he has really tailed off. Vrana has been more than just a disappointment. He's been a detriment.

There are other guys too. Saad.. He plays well enough to avoid being called out. I didn't hear Toropchenko's name all night.

You're absolutely right about checking. There is no physicality at all. No commitment, just paycheck cashing.

I don't know what's going on with this coaching. I said it last game. Berube was an abrasive player but he trots out a team of pussies and he's totally ok with it. I don't get it at all.

BlueinNy wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 9:47 pm

RAFritchey wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 9:33 pm

BlueinNy wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 9:31 pm My daughter and I are flying in yo go to the Jan.3 Vancouver game, im not even looking forward to it. It's her 16th birthday present and it's gonna suck.

Hey, Vancouver's a great team, with some bona-fide superstar players. It should be fun to watch!

Watched demko cut his teeth in utica, he's a great goaler, just didn't want to spend the Jing to see them lose. My girl and I have been to alot of Blues games ,but she wants to dance like nobody's watching so to speak. She wants to cheer for her team as loud as she can.

That's great that she enjoys it. Congrats to you.

My daughter and her mom tolerate my fandom but they can't get into it. So I'm kinda envious you have a daughter who's a fan.

Are you sure we don't want to pay $375 a ticket for suite night?

BluesSK wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 9:51 pm

BlueinNy wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 9:36 pm Our reclamation projects aren't projects at all, they're empty sweaters.sit Vrana until he fucking retires. Kapanen is useless as tits on a bull. Perunivich needs to play defense instead of trying to be a forward. And for the love of everything holy would somebody check.

I'm going to cut Perunovich some slack sinces he's essentially a rookie but these other guys. No excuses.

Kapanen had a good start to the season bit he has really tailed off. Vrana has been more than just a disappointment. He's been a detriment.

There are other guys too. Saad.. He plays well enough to avoid being called out. I didn't hear Toropchenko's name all night.

You're absolutely right about checking. There is no physicality at all. No commitment, just paycheck cashing.

I don't know what's going on with this coaching. I said it last game. Berube was an abrasive player but he trots out a team of pussies and he's totally ok with it. I don't get it at all.

I don't berube is ok with it.

I think he's stuck with it and will be mis-management scape-goated.

He can threaten their ice time, threaten to murder their dogs, i just think this is the best he can get outta this team.

This is who we are. Ok with being mediocre and having a laughing stock of a powerplay.

Im surprised our stars don't get run more bc the worst that'll happen is we let up a shorty or kill 2 min of their lead time...

Just for context, we now have as many shorthanded goals as power play goals. Maybe we're putting too many skaters on the ice. Just a thought.

Pretty decent read. I disagree about one point. I think we should keep playing the young guys. It's a growing process. It's the high priced veterans on this team that are the issue.

The issue with taking these salary dumps and hope and prayer waiver claims, Kap, Hayes, Vrana, is it's taking away ice time from the youth and finding out what you really have with some of them. Thankfully Neighbours has played his way out of it and above them after Kap was getting top line minutes earlier this season to produce nothing. But you have others that I'd like to see be giving a shot of consistent ice time.

Army has convinced himself the Blues are possibly a cup contender and picked these guys up to fill out the roster but it's been much to the detriment of the team as a whole.

I don't think anyone thought before the season that we'd be anything other than a borderline wild-card team, which, frankly, is exactly where we're at.

SHOULD we be better? Sure. If we even just had an average power play, say around 20.0% (instead of 8.8%), we'd have at least 9-10 more goals. That would lift us from 26th in goals per game up to around 17th. Even if we still sat around 19th in goals allowed per game, that's still probably a couple of points in the standings, which puts us easily in the first wild-card spot.

That's honestly about the best I expected from this season from the start.

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote: Sun Dec 10, 2023 11:17 am The issue with taking these salary dumps and hope and prayer waiver claims, Kap, Hayes, Vrana, is it's taking away ice time from the youth and finding out what you really have with some of them. Thankfully Neighbours has played his way out of it and above them after Kap was getting top line minutes earlier this season to produce nothing. But you have others that I'd like to see be giving a shot of consistent ice time.

Army has convinced himself the Blues are possibly a cup contender and picked these guys up to fill out the roster but it's been much to the detriment of the team as a whole.

I think it's gotta be a balance. I'm not sure any of the young kids in the organization are being blocked at the moment. Perunovich definitely had to wait, but I think that was more a matter of Army not being able to find a taker for one of the other defensemen. We know he tried to move out Krug. Neighbours has definitely earned his promotion to the top 6 the last few weeks, but it doesn't seem like the forward prospects in Springfield are ready to be exposed to the show just yet. Dean only has 3 points this year, and Bolduc is up to 10 in 24 games after a slow start.

I'm all for giving the kids a shot this year given that it looks like it's going nowhere, but I'd rather err on the side of letting them incubate too long in Springfield than rushing them to St. Louis. If Bolduc, Dean or anyone else heats up for a prolonged time, let's get them up here. I gather that the organization certainly isn't going to let Vrana in particular block anyone. I think we'll probably see Bolduc before the end of the season.