Would the Blues be legit candidates for the 1st pick in the draft?

I mean if that happens, then factor in other possible injuries during season and maybe Allen not performing at a high level, then I'd think you'd have to say.............YES

BillP wrote:... I mean if that happens, then factor in other possible injuries during season and maybe Allen not performing at a high level.............YES

And if Coach Yeo gets season-long laryngitis, and if Larry Robinson gets a better offer from the KHL's HC Kunlun Red Star, and if Tom Stillman decides to invest all of his liquid assets in a London Uber franchise, and if Kim Jong-Un targets the Scottrade Center with his last ICBM.............

JMC-STL wrote:

BillP wrote:... I mean if that happens, then factor in other possible injuries during season and maybe Allen not performing at a high level.............YES

And if Coach Yeo gets season-long laryngitis, and if Larry Robinson gets a better offer from the KHL's HC Kunlun Red Star, and if Tom Stillman decides to invest all of his liquid assets in a London Uber franchise, and if Kim Jong-Un targets the Scottrade Center with his last ICBM.............

I don't think there's any doubt that there will be more injuries during the season. That's a given. And there's no doubt in my mind if Tank got hurt and missed most of the season that this team would be a lottery pick.

No.

If so, Tarasenko should win the league MVP every year if he's the difference between playoff team and worst team in hockey.

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote:No.

If so, Tarasenko should win the league MVP every year if he's the difference between playoff team and worst team in hockey.

Without Tarasenko last year, the Blues Goals Per Game Avg would of been 1.77........just sayin

BillP wrote:

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote:No.

If so, Tarasenko should win the league MVP every year if he's the difference between playoff team and worst team in hockey.

Without Tarasenko last year, the Blues Goals Per Game Avg would of been 1.77........just sayin

But, that's on the assumption that his replacement would not have scored any goals. No doubt he would be missed, big time, but I have to agree with Dread Pirate, Tarasenko is not Bobby Orr or Crosby level. We would probably miss the playoffs, but I don't see his loss by itself dropping the Blues below Colorado.

BillP wrote:

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote:No.

If so, Tarasenko should win the league MVP every year if he's the difference between playoff team and worst team in hockey.

Without Tarasenko last year, the Blues Goals Per Game Avg would of been 1.77........just sayin

How do you figure that? According to Hockeydb the Blues scored 235 goals last season. If you take away Tank's 39 that leaves 196 which amounts to 2.39 goals per game. NHL stats say 233 goals scored which amounts to 2.37 goals per game without Tank's contribution.

If #91 missed significant time, yeah the Blues would be screwed. Maybe not 1st overall pick bad but bottom five in the league? Oh yeah.

blueslifer wrote:

BillP wrote:

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote:No.

If so, Tarasenko should win the league MVP every year if he's the difference between playoff team and worst team in hockey.

Without Tarasenko last year, the Blues Goals Per Game Avg would of been 1.77........just sayin

How do you figure that? According to Hockeydb the Blues scored 235 goals last season. If you take away Tank's 39 that leaves 196 which amounts to 2.39 goals per game. NHL stats say 233 goals scored which amounts to 2.37 goals per game without Tank's contribution.

That stat was said during the playoffs. I agree with you, I was surprised it made that much of a difference, but I assume they factored in Tarasenko's assists as well.

The season is about to start, and this is the talks we're having??

We're the epitome of blues fans lol

BillP wrote:

blueslifer wrote:

BillP wrote:
Without Tarasenko last year, the Blues Goals Per Game Avg would of been 1.77........just sayin

How do you figure that? According to Hockeydb the Blues scored 235 goals last season. If you take away Tank's 39 that leaves 196 which amounts to 2.39 goals per game. NHL stats say 233 goals scored which amounts to 2.37 goals per game without Tank's contribution.

That stat was said during the playoffs. I agree with you, I was surprised it made that much of a difference, but I assume they factored in Tarasenko's assists as well.

Even if it accounted for assists, it doesn't factor in that someone would be taking up his ice time and scoring something during that time. Even still, if you take away his scoring and leave everything else the same, we're still not the worst team in the league last year. No we wouldn't make the playoffs, but we wouldn't have the best chance of winning the lottery pick.

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote:No.

If so, Tarasenko should win the league MVP every year if he's the difference between playoff team and worst team in hockey.

Tarasenko wouldn't be the difference... Tarasenko, Fabbri, Steen, J-BO, and Berglund would be the difference. (Assuming those guys miss time in the regular season)

Although I don't think they would get the 1st pick, they definitely would be closer to the bottom of the league than to the top and I think that is the point. If any of these other guys miss significant time, they could be in trouble. Injuries can really ruin a well constructed roster.

I don't want to find out who's right and who's wrong.

Ozzies09tc wrote:The season is about to start, and this is the talks we're having??

We're the epitome of blues fans lol

True. Conditioned by one disaster after another.

This subject just sucks.

BlueinNy wrote:This subject just sucks.

I think people romanticize having the first overall pick and getting the next McDavid. The Blues would just get the next Erik Johnson.

Speaking of Tarasenko, here's an up close look at his first pitch last night at the Cards game...

https://www.nhl.com/video/tarasenko-thr ... c-53050203

Dude looks huge this year. Reminds me of a shorter Matt Holliday since he's in a baseball jersey. For sure looks like he worked this offseason.

I'm also surprised him and Wainwright said "nice to meet you." I would have thought they would have met already, two of the biggest sports stars in the city. I believe Wainwright and Petro do a charity fantasy football league together.

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote:I think people romanticize having the first overall pick and getting the next McDavid. The Blues would just get the next Erik Johnson.

The Blues picked Wayne Babych & Perry Turnbull at #3 and #2 overall in consecutive draft years (1978 & 1979). So maybe the secret to BillP's fantasy is for the Blues to finish just a point or two above the worst teams in the League (*cough* *Colorado* *cough* *Vancouver*). OR maybe BillP could buy the Blues a time machine, so they can return to the late 70's. That would eliminate Tarasenko without playing the nasty injury card.

With Fabbri out for the whole season, Steen, Sanford, Bouwmeester and Berglund possibly out for significant chunks, AND assuming Tarasenko gets injured part way through the season, I still don't think we finish below (ahead of?) Vancouver, Colorado, Las Vegas, or New Jersey, and possibly Arizona, Buffalo, and Detroit, maybe even Florida.

Goal: If Allen/Husso play even close to how they did after Brodeur stepped in and helped them out last season, that helps a LOT. Good goaltending can make up for a LOT. I think we'd still be well above league average here.

Defense: Bouwmeester, for all his flaws, soaked up a lot of minutes at D, and Shattenkirk provided a lot of offense, but needed protection defensively. However, we've got young, talented players we can bring up there to join Pietrangelo (IMHO, still VERY underrated on this board!), Parayko, and Edmundson (Both still improving) in the top 4, so we still won't have to use Gunnarson or Bortuzzo much above the 3rd pairing. Again, I think we're above the league average on the blue line, too.

Forwards: Even with all of the losses postulated above, and having lost Lehtera and Perron over the Summer, we'd still have a top 3 of Schenn, Stastny, and Schwartz (Also IMHO frequently underrated/forgotten on this board). We'd probably look to shore up our 4-9 forwards the most, depending on how the younger players do. Paajarvi's 8 goals in 32 games is a 20 goal pace for a full season, Barbashev's pace was 14 goals, and he'll hopefully improve a bit. Jaskin either puts it all together quickly this season, or loses his spot to someone like Blais, Thompson, Megan, Bennett, Sobotka, or even Kostin (If they like how he's adapting in the AHL), Thomas, or Kyrou (I think they'd prefer to keep those latter 3 developing in the system before throwing them into the NHL right away, but they're certainly options). Then we have a 4th line of Sundqvist, Thorburn, Upshall, and/or Brodziak. Overall, I think we're the worst off here, but still not bottom-5.

Certainly not a 'top of the West' roster, but I don't think we'd be bottom 5 overall in the league, either. And that's assuming no mid-season acquisitions, injured players returning, etc.

RAFritchey wrote: I still don't think we finish below (ahead of?) Vancouver, Colorado, Las Vegas, or New Jersey, and possibly Arizona, Buffalo, and Detroit, maybe even Florida.

Jersey isn't a bottom feeder anymore. They'll be in Wild Card race in the East.

Arizona & Buffalo are improving but it remains to be seen how much.

Florida had injuries last year, they should be better this year.

Detroit could plummet this year, and Colorado is a mess.

I kinda like Vancouver to surprise some people this year but they have no goaltending so they should hit hard times too.

BillP wrote:

RAFritchey wrote: I still don't think we finish below (ahead of?) Vancouver, Colorado, Las Vegas, or New Jersey, and possibly Arizona, Buffalo, and Detroit, maybe even Florida.

Jersey isn't a bottom feeder anymore. They'll be in Wild Card race in the East.

Arizona & Buffalo are improving but it remains to be seen how much.

Florida had injuries last year, they should be better this year.

Detroit could plummet this year, and Colorado is a mess.

I kinda like Vancouver to surprise some people this year but they have no goaltending so they should hit hard times too.

Arizona does have a lot of talented young forwards that surely will be good in the future (Max Domi and Anthony Duclair are both better than they showed last season), but I think they still need time to develop and put things together, and their goalie situation is TERRIFYING (Neither of them has played more than 39 games in an NHL season!). As for their defense, I've been a BIG fan of Oliver Ekman-Larsson for a while now, and Niklas Hjalmarsson is solid, but it remains to be seen how Jacob Chychrun recovers from his knee surgery. I'm also interested to see how/if Derek Stepan fits in there. He COULD be the guy that helps tie everything together and gets the youth on the right track. (But even so, their goaltending... Hold your breath!)

Vancouver has a couple of good players (Bo Horvat, Brock Boeser), and some potential surprises, but as long as the Sedins and Loui Eriksson continue to decline (in all probability), and continue to comprise half of their top-6, I don't see them climbing in the standings much.

I'm not sold on New Jersey. Hischier is no Connor McDavid, or even Auston Matthews, by all accounts, and their defense and goaltending don't seem that impressive. Maybe I'm wrong and both Hischier and Taylor Hall end up point-per-game players setting up a lot of goals for other people, too.

Florida SHOULD be better, but they just always seem to find a way to shoot themselves in the foot. Will Luongo hold up? Will Reimer be able to step into a truly starting role if he doesn't?

I think Buffalo has the best chance to move up, actually. IIRC, it's a contract year for Evander Kane, so with Ryan O'Reilly and a hopefully still improving Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart and a hopefully healthy Kyle Okposo (Who am I kidding, he's going to miss 10-20 games) they should have the makings of a VERY solid top-6. One of their keys (IMHO, of course) is getting their defense to play up to its potential. I was surprised they weren't better than they were LAST year, they just seem to find a way to not-quite put everything together.

Anyway, those are just some late-night thoughts. Main takeaway, losing Tarasenko would certainly drop the Blues from potential division leader to mediocre, but I still don't think we'd be bottom-5 league-wide.

If Tank was unable to play I hope the Blues wouldn't need to resort to topless ice girls to bring the fans in!

FederkoSutterHunter wrote:If Tank was unable to play I hope the Blues wouldn't need to resort to topless ice girls to bring the fans in!

Now let's not dismiss that option without some serious consideration & study ...

JMC-STL wrote:

FederkoSutterHunter wrote:If Tank was unable to play I hope the Blues wouldn't need to resort to topless ice girls to bring the fans in!

Now let's not dismiss that option without some serious consideration & study ...

Let's at least have a 2 week trial run, just saying.