As a FTP-training, i put a FOP (from our perspective) of the thread (title in this thread title) together from the Blues part of the HFBoards forum:
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Now it's pretty settled Tarasenko won't be traded (yet). How team looks currently let's re-evaluate what you see on team.
Please keep talk in topic. No off-topic.
It's a pretty easy yes. You really have to ask is it a playoff team and the answer is yes. Time and time and time and time and time and time again we've seen a team can gel after making the playoffs and contend for the Cup.
not a stanley cup contending defense on paper
I went on record as saying Tank wouldn't be traded back when the news first broke. My outlook at the time was that we were post season competitive, and that was without Tank having been a factor for the last two years. If he's back and healthy, we are absolutely a cup contender.
They are a playoff team, whether it's as a wild card team or somewhere in the division. Every year the Stanley Cup playoffs show that if you can get into the playoffs, then anything can happen. So, yes.
I think you guys have understood question wrong.
It's not do we win a Cup or no. Ofc it's possible. Even Buffalo has chance to win a Cup, but it's not most realistic outcome. They are team which is re-building.
It's about are we real Stanley Cup Contenders? Teams who will most likely win a Cup.
I view us a wild card/bubble team. Who can go playoffs, but not pass 1st round.
Voted no, its one of those teams where EVERYTHING will have to go right and no serious injuries ....
The forward group is just as good as the cup squad with multiple upgrades from that team. 1-4, we're one of the deepest teams in the league, and we get to keep our star sniper.
The goaltending is also the same. Don't forget that Husso got our only shutout last year, and I think he'll be a capable backup who plays solid minutes without the gaffes of Jake Allen. Binnington is still the man, let the haters hate.
This brings us to our defense....I think we're going to surprise people with how good our defense will perform. Krug gets a whole year to get comfortable, Faulk improves, Parayko takes the next step forward, Bortuzzo and Scandella need only play solidly, and I think we'll get major contributions from the likes of Mikkola, Walman and (maybe) Perunovich.
All this to say, yes. I think we're a legitimate cup contender.
Agree. Also, I think Kyrou, Thomas and Kostin are going to play huge roles this year. And Buchnevich is going to instantly be a force and a fan favorite. And Saad will add in the secondary scoring that's so vital. Just need to get Sunny back healthy and being Sunny. This is a deep and talented team.
Hard to say though with Parayko's injury last year. Could it be better? Certainly, but people need to stop acting like its a below average D core...it's clearly not. Look around the league. There's only maybe 5 D cores in the NHL that make me envious. And you don't necessarily need a perfect team to gel at the right time and win a cup.
One more thing"¦ A healthy and motivated Tarasenko is the wild card. He could score 40g with this roster.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again....
We're a loooong way from the Backes and Oshie days. I remember we used to dream of lineups like the ones that we're capable of putting out now.
No reason this team can't content for another cup as long as everyone steps up and stays healthy, but what else is new, right?
You do realize that he is only here bc nobody wanted him? If he starts off hot he will be gone.
This team has 25 goal scorers on all 3 lines
ROR, Perron, Buch, Schenn, Kyrou, Saad, Tarasenko are all 25g scorers in the top 9. Thomas and Kostin are plenty capable too. That's a loaded top 9.
Man I don't know. Army will not just give him away. If somebody makes an offer and it improves the team, then maybe. If Tarasenko is healthy, playing hard, not being a distraction and scoring goals, why even trade him? 35g scores don't grow on trees.
below average and not a stanley cup contender aren't the same thing at all. i haven't indicated i believe them to be subpar as you framed, but if i'm being asked if i think this defense can compete for a cup by winning multiple playoff rounds, i don't think so. happy to be wrong. actually would be very happy to be wrong. i expect it to be better than last year's results, but that's not saying all that much.
i'd rank the defense as decent overall. likely a playoff team, but likely bounced in an early round from my perspective. so not a stanley cup contender. i do acknowledge any team that makes the playoffs can win, but a contender is someone expected to win.
How does Boston get to game 7 of the cup finals with washed-up Chara, McAvoy, Krug, Carlo, Moore and Clifton?
Our current D is much better that that one
Krug was 2nd on that D in total TOI/G in the playoffs for them (not far behind McAvoy) that year and 1st among their D in points and just about every advanced stat category you can imagine. He was sheltered in OZ starts big time, but you still have to put up the results and he did.
This team is a bubble team. The roster is basically a wash from last year's team that barely made the playoffs in the worst division in the league. This is a better division with teams that improved much more than we did. We'll likely end up in the 4-6 range battling with Minnesota and Chicago. We're dreaming if we think this team is competing for the cup unless Armstrong pulls another rabbit from his hat the like Buch trade.
tampa gets unexpectedly knocked out by columbus
i'll say it again, since you're soapboxing off my post and being rather dramatic about it, happy to be wrong, but if the question is: are the blues one of the teams in the league expected to win a cup? it's a no from me dawg. that's what a stanley cup contender is and the exact question posed. even says "real" cup contender to further delineate the most expected teams to win. now, is it possible this team could end up winning the cup (which seems to be everyone's preferred interpretation of the question)? anything's possible and i think they at least get a small chance to dance. i am not saying this defense can't win a cup, just that i don't expect it. i'm ranking them a 4/5 instead of a 5/5 and somehow you've devolved that into being upset about some subpar perception you've clearly been chewing on elsewhere.
So he could do it then and he can't do it now? He's not even considered our 2nd best defensemen...
Not yet, but we're one top 4 LD and a reworked PK away from being back imo.
This is about where I stand, except I believe the defense will be fine. The PK alone should be enough.
I'll get straight to the point.
Without a #1 defensemen we are not true contenders. If Army paid that one player what he was worth I would be signing a different tune right now.
With that said I expect the Blues to be better by not getting swept.
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Now that Parayko is healthy again if he can play like one of the best shutdown defenseman in the league like he has before, we might have a chance to contend. If Army were to trade Vladdy+ for a legit top 4 defenseman than I would absolutely consider the team legit Cup contenders.
As it stands now they should be able to make the playoffs and honestly anything can happen. Our defense isn't perfect but might be good enough to make a run if Parayko can stay healthy.
Are they Cup contenders? On paper the offense is but the defense isn't, but you never know. Let's see how the team looks heading into the playoffs.
Krug and Scandella should be upgrade if we want contend.
"¦.que?
obviously not now with Sanford traded
(do I really need to put this in blue font?)
We haven't won a Cup without him
touche my friend... touche
Are we contenders? No. This team was swept by the Avs, and the games weren' t even close.
We could be an interesting team if a couple of guys come through, guys like Kostin, Kyrou, Walman, Mikkola
That is exactly my thoughts.
And we would need to upgrade Krug to real top2 LHD. Scandella much better version of him. We would totally different in defensively. Now we have too many one dimensional dmen.
"This team."
Perron led the Blues in scoring last year and missed the playoffs with COVID.
Buch would have been 3rd on the Blues in scoring last season and is a monstrously better 5 on 5 player than the guy who was actually 3rd on the team in scoring (Hoffman).
Saad would have been 8th in Blues scoring last season (he would have been 6th among Blues forwards). I view him as a lateral move to the player Schwartz was last season.
Sunny missed the playoffs last season.
The forward group has been changed pretty substantially from last year's playoff team. We're talking about 40% of the top 10 forwards from this year's roster that weren't helping us in that series. We'll see how the lines shake out, but there is a very real chance that you are talking about adding a difference maker to each of the 4 lines. Saad actually scored 3 goals against us in that sweep, which I find highly unlikely this year. There are plenty of things to be skeptical about with this team, but it is just crazy to pretend that the only potential differences between last year's playoff team and this year's group are potential improvements from Kostin, Kyrou, Walman and Mikkola.
No. Vegas, Colorado, Tampa, Boston, Carolina, and Washington are all clearly better, and then there are a ton of teams that have an argument for being better. I think we'll make the playoffs more than likely, but that's going to be the height of our success this year IMO. Don't think we have the defense nor the goaltending to truly compete with the top teams.
I am not convinced that outside of Colorado or Tampa any of those teams should be ranked ahead of us. All have real questions and suffered big losses (as did Colorado and Tampa).
I would throw Florida in there too. They have improved their roster heavily this off-season.
If they get 2019 goaltending, yes
I think we can be if a LD steps up or is brought in as a stabilizing presence on the defensive side
forward group is deeper than the cup team, but need everyone to buy in again
shoot even the islanders and panthers are more likely to be contenders than the blues on paper
blues were 15th in the league last year, with health and some roster improvements, might be able to push into the top ten if things go well
Is Tarasenko going to have the same impact he did when he was healthy?
Can Krug make a Faulk like jump after his first year here?
Can Kyrou take the next step? What version of Thomas will we get?
And finally, the question that makes or breaks every team every year, will we get good goal tending?
Those are the big factors in determining if we are contenders. I'm optimistic overall.
I think if he can stay healthy Parayko can be that #1 defensemen.
This roster is easily good enough to make the playoffs unless MASSIVE injuries happen again. The only real "weak spot" on the roster is a top 4 LHD to help balance out Krug-Parayko and ????-Faulk. There will be plenty of options for a TDL move to shore up that spot and hopefully springboard us deep into the playoffs. If Nashville falters (Which could easily happen) look for Ekholm to become one of our top targets.
Disagree on a couple of those, especially Boston and Washington.
Boston lost Krejci and are replacing him with Charlie Coyle. Their new #3C is Eric Haula. That's two guys who have been 35 point players over the last 3 seasons as their middle 6 center group. Neither has managed 17 minutes a night for any of those 3 seasons and Haula is on team #5 in his last 3 years. I'm not sure that the Bergeron is better than ROR at this point in their careers, but even if he is it certainly isn't by a big enough margin to even come close to erasing the gap between the 2C and 3C groups. The top line is stupid good, but I'm not completely convinced that Pasta, Marchand, Hall, Foligno, Debrusk and Smith is a better top 9 wing group overall than Buch, Perron, Tarasenko, Saad, Kyrou and whoever wins that other 3rd line wing spot. I'll absolutely give them the nod defensively, but let's see how they look in net without Rask. I'm not sold that UIlmark/Swayman is anything close to the tandem that Rask/Halak (or Rask/Swayman) was. I won't be shocked if Boston is a contender, but I think it is pretty far from clear. And our contender status is judged in part because we have to go through Colorado, well they have to go through Tampa.
Washington is replacing their #4 and #5 D men with two warm bodies (some combo of Kempny, TVR, McIlrath, Irwin or prospects). Jensen likely goes from #6D to #4 or #5, but I'm not sold that will be an upgrade over Dillon/Chara. The forward group stays the same, but you have 6 guys on the wrong side of 30 who just got another year older. I like their forward group and I don't think that this is the year age causes their core to crash. But I'd take our D group over theirs and Samsonov wasn't the NHL-ready young stud they were hoping for last year. I'm not confident I know which goalie will be in net for game 1 of the playoffs for them. They haven't won a playoff round since winning the Cup (and letting their coach walk) and they have won the same number of playoff games as us in the last 2 seasons. They were definitely a better team than us last year, but they got slightly worse in the summer while we got noticeably better. I don't think they have any fewer questions than we do and I'm unaware of any prospects that are knocking on the door to potentially answer those questions in a positive way. I can't say that Carlson/Orlov/Schultz is notably better than Parayko/Faulk/Krug as a top 3 D group and their bottom 3 D have as many or more question marks than ours.
I like Carolina a lot and put them ahead of the Blues. But I am interested to see what the loss of Hamilton does to their D group, how Tony Deangelo fits in the locker room and most importantly what the Freddy/Raanta tandem in net looks like. They could be right up their with Tampa/Colorado if things break right but I could also see their goaltending being an injury-riddled bottom 10 tandem that pisses away their season. Freddy has been a middling goalie the last 2 years and has had numerous injuries that suggest the stupid-hard workload in Toronto wore all the tread of the tires. Raanta has always had injury issues and has started 12 or fewer games in 2 of his last 3 years. These guys could absolutely be fully washed.
Vegas belongs ahead of us in the rankings, but I'm starting to agree with Marek's assessment that they are too weak down the middle to win 4 rounds. I also think there is reason to worry in net. Fleury/Lehner was a top 5 tandem in the NHL and Fleury dramatically outplayed Lehner. Lehner is a good goalie, but he wasn't great last year and he hasn't started more than 43 games since he was in Buffalo. Can he be a top 5 starter with a 50+ start workload? Can Brossoit continue to be an above-average backup starting twice as many games as he did behind Hellebyuck? I see a pretty significant downgrade in net by swapping the reigning Vezina winner and replacing him with a clear backup. Using those savings to sign a one dimensional winger in Dadonov doesn't do much for me. They've hit scoring issues in the playoffs the last couple years and now I feel like the margin for error is smaller without 2 starting caliber goalies to turn to. I expect them to easily make the playoffs in a bad division, but I'm not sold that they can get over the hump.
Double post for my current tiers in no particular order within each tier:
Favorites: Tampa and Colorado
Tier 2: Islanders, Hurricanes, Knights, Panthers (Spencer Knight is your game 1 playoff starter)
Tier 3: Blues, Bruins, Caps, Pens, Leafs, Jets
Tier 4: Oilers, Wild, Preds, Hawks, Rangers, Flyers, Devils, Stars
Booker's must be way off their heads when Blues is 21th spot to win a Cup coming season.
Books are based on the amount of people betting, not the actual predictive accuracy of the line. The entire purpose of a futures line is to minimize total payout while maximizing total wagers. They consistently overvalue big markets and undervalue small markets. They have massively overvalued Toronto almost every year I have been old enough to gamble and started following lines.
Also have you checked the lines lately? I got them at +6000 on the BetMGM app when I was in Colorado over the weekend (why on Earth has Missouri not legalized online sports gambling?). They are currently at +3500 on BetMGM. Seems like hey were getting a lot of action having them as that big of a long shot and have started moving the line up to get more money on other teams. Or they just really loved the Sanford trade and Army extension.
I guess Blues were overvalued before season started 2018-19. We were top 5 if I'm not mistaken, it might had been top3 favourite to win a Cup.
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Debated doing a long post but that would take all my lunch break. So I'll be brief: I don't think you can win a cup with this defense unless your forwards are elite. I think our forwards are clearly good, but not "œtop 3 in the league" great either. Too much has to go perfectly for me to buy us as legitimate cup contenders, and the "œanybody can win the cup!" Narrative people push isn't based on reality when only 7 teams have won a cup in the last 12 years, and none of them were considered underdogs on talent at the time.
I love Dom's modeling and betting along with him is a good way to make money. But I routinely think that his analysis of his modeling is quite extreme. While most of his analysis here could be accurate, I think that most the written narrative is more of a worst-case-scenario than it is the most likely.
The most egregious example of this comes from his analysis on ROR who he appears to believe is washed as a Selke caliber player. After discussing his great offensive numbers last year, he digs in to possession stats to reach the conclusion that "what remains feels like a shade of his former self." That is resoundingly different than what my eye test told me and I think the lack of a competent LW on his line was the overwhelmingly biggest cause of that line's poor expected metrics. If ROR is suddenly a below average defensive center, then this article is 100% correct. His model has ROR as a 25 goal, 46 assist player who no longer provides top end defense. I will be stunned if that's how this season goes. I just don't see an 8 point offensive regression and similar defensive metrics now that he isn't being asked to drag around a 3rd liner all season.
All in all, he has forward group ranked 15th in the NHL with each individual line ranked as follows:
1st: 13th
2nd: 18th best
3rd: 6th best
4th: 8th best
I think that the 1st line is top 10 based on my view that ROR isn't facing major regression and we are going to have him consistently between two legit 1st line talents for the first time in at least 2 years. Even if we see the middling performance out of Schenn and Tarasenko that he expects and the 2nd line is slightly below average, I think that the offense is still top 10 overall if the 1st line is top 10. I have a hard time saying that a top 10 1st line, average 2nd line and incredible bottom 6 translates to simply an average offense.
It is hard to parse out his view of the defense. He has Krug/Parayko as our top pair and Scandella/Faulk as the 2nd pair. Based on that, he views the top pair as an average top pair and then the 2nd pair as near-league-worst because of expected regression from Faulk (agreed) and because Scandella "looked like he had returned to form in 2019-20 only to see a significant drop back to reality in 2020-21. He's only as good as his partner, and that's probably not worthy of a top-four role." I think that is extremely fair, but if Scandella/Faulk is the 2nd pair and turns out to be a disaster, you can bet your salary that Berube will revert back to Scandella/Parayko. I think it is reasonable to expect that Scandella can be serviceable if he is with a healthy Parayko. I'm not sure if our 3rd pair will be Mikkola/Walman like he suggests, but I'm confident that they won't remain together if they are the 2nd worst pairing in the league as he predicts. With Bortz and Perunovich in the organization, I think there is enough depth there to make an adequate 3rd pairing.
I don't think the pessimism is unwarranted, but I also think there is a lot of reason to believe that the expected regression his model puts on most our roster doesn't come to fruition. But if ROR, Schenn, Tarasenko, Faulk and Binner are all noticeably worse than last year then this team is for sure going to struggle.
I said yes, but they are missing a #1 LHD. If they can acquire one without greatly affecting the forward group, I think they are right there.
I like Walman and Mikkola but they don't belong on a top pairing and having to use Scandella there is playing him above where he should be as well, which I see as a very solid #5 dman. He's probably a #4 on a number of teams still. Either he anchors your 3rd pairing or he'd be a logical salary move in a the trade for that 1st pairing d.
We are a top 6 team this year. If Binner plays the way i think he will play, and our defense holds up injury wise, we will compete for the cup / make the conference finals at least.
So if the criteria is just Vegas odds then why even make a poll? Sounds like you have your answer on the DraftKings website or wherever you go to place bets.
I think the write up was a bit exaggerated compared to what the actual model said. It rates him as a borderline elite player instead of solidly elite, which matches his play from last season and isn't a particularly outlandish guess. It's possible that he bounces back, but I don't think we're going to see something that matches his 2019-2020 season, which the model rated as just .5 wins above its projection for this season. That's not really worst case scenario. There's a number of worse cases than what's projected there and I think the general assumption around here has leaned far more on the side of the best case scenarios in which we continue to get the best out of Faulk, Kyrou, and Perron while Tarasenko (who isn't traded or traded for quality talent), Schenn, Parayko, and Krug bounce back, and Thomas takes the next step.
It was open question for everyone.
I just gave point of view how booker's have evaluate where we are at. It's pretty legit when there is money involved who most likely will win a Cup or those booker's don't have job anymore.
Blues won't be top of mix booker's odds and some left down if some Blues fans think it isn't fair. Those are pretty calculated views where teams are at.
But yes you can bet on Blues that we will win Cup this coming season. if you think we are really legit Stanley Cup Contender or you just like to gamble and hope we have good luck.
I don't see any reasonable arguments why we should be legit Stanley Cup Contender. Forward group is fine and have depth, but d-group too much if's for my liking. But couple big moves and we would definitely be Contender status.
So was Boston not a contender in 2018/19 and 2019/20 or did he regress from a #2/3 tweener to a #4/5 tweener overnight? Krug was 2nd in ATOI for Boston in the playoffs in 2019 and 2020. They lost to the Cup champs each of those years. He was #2 and #3 in ATOI for Boston during the regular season in each of those years. They were 3rd and 1st in the league those seasons. I have a very, very difficult time saying that the Bruins were simply an average team those years, so I assume the argument is that his game fell off a cliff.
Can you articulate which of his skills have significantly deteriorated in the last 13 months? I'm very curious to know how he went from a 2/3 on a contender guy to a 4/5 on a contender guy.
Edit: Also framing him as an elite PP contributor 3 years ago is ludicrous. He led NHL D men in PP scoring in 2019/20. That's 1 season ago. He's played 51 NHL games since he was the league's top PP QB. The notion that his elite PP production is years back in the rearview mirror is objectively incorrect.
Don't bother watching it. Its not an accurate or intelligent season preview for several reasons. First of all, save percentage and goals against average cannot be solely pinned on a goaltender. Binnington played well during the series against Colorado. The defense left him out to dry and to be honest, some of the goals that were scored by Colorado were absolute snipes. Also, these guys don't even know what injury Tarasenko was upset about. Wrist? Shoulder? They aren't really sure. And the Blues got lucky during the cup run?! And the guy on the right says that Binnginton is an unproven goaltender. Absolute trash video.
"The Blues are not going to make the playoffs. The Blues are a couple notches below Colorado and a notch below Minnesota, Winnipeg, and Dallas. Seattle will sneak into the playoffs instead as a wild card team"
I didn't ask to be brought into this thread, but you are not fairly representing my comment about being an elite PP contributor only three years ago. You're leaning into trashing it without knowing what it says. I recommend avoiding such behavior. I clearly state Krug is an elite PP contributor now and should be for a few more years but not six. I was responding to the idea rebutted to me that because he was played that way for the 2019 Bruins three years ago team that yes, contended, but no, did not win, he should be considered one now. I explained my perspective in that thread that the Bruins playoff Krug does not influence my opinion as much as the 2021 playoff Krug who was overmatched as a defender against top forwards.
Now, if I had been asked to comment on the 2020 Krug I would have, but not referencing is not "dishonest" or "ludicrous" in a world where I saw the 2021 playoff Krug which I have to assume you saw too. Please. To me, that is not a player who you can put one injury from top line duty, you need him insulated. Maybe we are arguing over "degree of contenderhood" when you get down to rock bottom. I'm talking about being a real contender which Faulk-Parayko-Krug is absolutely not a contender top 3. The thread this was pulled from is about acquiring a top LD. Krug is a higher end offensive Shattenkirk who is beginning a decline and you can't have him on the top pair like you can't have Dunn on the top pair like you couldn't have Shattenkirk on the top pair. They're specialists especially when they are small. I recall Shattenkirk getting spun like a top in 2016 WCF by the likes of Chris Tierney. Players with this profile have to be used correctly and you have to get their production while they're on ELC or RFA years because paying UFA dollars for that skillset will frequently cripple you, since you do need the upside they provide but those players usually are subpar to average defenders.
I am consistent with this opinion of Krug. If you don't believe that you can dig up me bemoaning in the Game 3 GDT how the Blues had an opportunity to exploit Krug with forecheck pressure and started to, but he wound up with a dominant 4 PP point game since the Blues crippled themselves with penalties. The Bruins defense was also not really the reason that team was contenders, and Tampa bowing out saved both teams' butts. There's still a gap between them and the rest of the league and "contending" in my meaning of it means lining up believing you can beat the top team. The not-intimidating Bruins defense was part of why we thought we could win in 2019, I'll remind you.
Just heard sdpn putting us at 6th. Naming Binny and Tarasenko as the major wildcards.
Kind of agree in them being wildcards, but I also think they will prove something this season.
Love being rated as underdogs. Suits us much better than being favs. I am actually quite stoked of what we can do this season. I like the adds we have gotten, defense are looking better, and to me at least Tarasenko looks "healed" from everything that has happened. Just hoping Binny and Husso are reliable though.
I think we have a real good forward group. I have confidence in Binnington.
The problem is the defense. If Parayko can regain his healthy form, then that will help, but I really don't like the left side.
If Tarasenko is 85% of normal himself and Thomas really goes another level our forward group might be even better in paper vs Cup year.
D-group is bubble team level and even worse. After Parayko its meh and we don't know is Parayko 100% himself.
I don't trust Faulk can play full season how he played his first 15 games last year after he went normal himself, negative player.
Krug should play better and I really don't see it happening.
Too many ifs in my liking.
I consider it as success if we get in playoffs and huge success if we pass 1st round.
Sort of the opposite of last year. Last year I penciled them in as a contender but had a lot to prove. This year I'm penciling them in as not a contender but would not be surprised if they ended up having a good run in the playoffs.
I have changed my mind a bit. I must be feeling very optimistic this morning. We are still not a contender yet. However, if a bunch of stuff breaks in our favor, then I can very much see us as a contender. We need several things to break the right way. But the absolute essentials are...
-Parayko plays like a healthy Parayko
-We secure a LD at the trade deadline of or near the caliber of Lindholm or Ekholm.
- None of our key pieces regresses
-Some of our younger guys step up a bit.
That's all. It feels like a lot, but it is all entirely possible.
This is how I see it. 1, 3, 4 are all entirely possible, though any of a range of outcomes would be believable.
#2 is the key. Optimism or pessimism about being a real contender vs. just topping out at first/second round fodder pivots around this need. While there might be 1-3 players available, that's a far cry from landing them, and they might not be available. The Blues need Seattle, Anaheim and Nashville to suck, and/or maybe score an extra 2022 1st out of a Tarasenko deal to mesmerize Bill Armstrong into a bonehead move.
If the current 1-2-3 defensemen get pushed down a notch to 2-3-4 minutes by adding a stalwart defender who contributes more offense than Parayko, that is a team I could reasonably think had a chance to compete for a Cup. Any and all creative ideas should be explored to bring this player onboard, as difficult a feat as it will be, and even if it creates another hole to address, as long as the hole it creates is easier to address which it generally should be.
Yeah I would agree with this assessment.
Army, LD please. Stay-At-Home, PHYSICAL who can shelter. Please.
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Regular season, I think we will be okay. I will be surprised if we don't make the playoffs. I am concerned about our defense as it is currently constructed. Once the playoffs start, I am not sure if that defense will stand up. This is especially true if no further additions are made, and Perunovich becomes a regular as many here have projected.
I think we will be in huge problems in regular season about our defense. 82 games will show up our flaws, expecially when we face tougher opponents.
I view we will struggle vs mediocre teams too.
This year will be eye opener. Hopefully I'm dead wrong about it.
As to the bolded, I disagree. You said "His contributions on the PP were elite three seasons ago and should remain strong for another few years (not six though)." You didn't say 'he is elite on the PP and should be for for a few more years.' You used the past tense and set a time frame of 3 years ago to modify the word 'elite' and then used a lesser adjective to describe his status current (and short term future) PP ability. Everything about that sentence structure suggests that he hasn't been elite for several seasons.
As to the conversation about the Bruins, I think we will just have to agree to disagree. Saying that they fell short in game 7 of the Final and were only there because Tampa got swept doesn't tell me that they weren't a contender. If that is the definition, then I think the only contenders each year is the President's Trophy winner and the team who wins the Cup. The Bruins were 3rd in the NHL in 2019 and went to game 7 of the Cup Final. They followed that up by winning the President's Trophy in 2020. But they weren't really a contender because the team they lost to believed that they could beat them and then did beat them by the narrowest of margins? Come on.
I don't think that the Blues are contenders right now with Krug as the #2/3 D man. However, I think that it is possible to build a contender around a blue line with Krug as a 2/3 D man. The Bruins did it. With the proper support around him, Krug is good enough to get top pair or 2nd pair minutes on a contender. The necessary support includes a better #1 D man than the one that we have. Charlie McAvoy was (and is) a better #1 D man than Parayko currently is. In 2019 and 2020, McAvoy/Chara/Carlo was a better supporting cast around Krug than Parayko/Faulk/Scandella is around Krug. Both stylistically and in terms of ability. If either Parayko or Faulk plays like a top 10 NHL D man and the 3rd pairing is above average, then I think that this team is absolutely a contender with Krug logging 21+ minutes a night and top PP duties. I don't think it is very likely that either of them is capable of being a top 10 NHL D man, so I don't have much confidence that this team is a contender with Krug logging that many minutes. Which is why I fully support bringing in a LD upgrade who can push Krug down to 19-20 minutes a night as the clear #4.
My intention wasn't to blast you without context. I wasn't the one who brought your quote into this thread without context and I was responding to the user who did. That same user has spent the entire summer saying that it is impossible to contend with Krug as a #2/3 D man and my entire point is that I believe such an argument is just not true. He can absolutely be the 2/3 on a team if he has an elite partner. We don't have that and I agree with your take that this blue line isn't that of a contender. Barring a massive bounce back season from Parayko, we aren't getting an elite #1 D man, so the only avenue I see to make this blue line good enough is to get a LD that can effectively handle the #2/3 D man role and push Krug down to the #3/4 role while Scandella becomes the clear #5.
Interesting to see the results as a Wild fan. I was curious, because a lot of people are writing the Blues off, but I still think you guys have a good team.
This is really bad behavior. The person brought up 2019 specifically. That is three playoffs ago. That is why I used three. I am telling you, straight out. You are forensically parsing this when I am straightforwardly explaining? Do you hope to prove somehow I don't mean what I say? That is unearnedly arrogant as hell. It is bad behavior in a situation where I am very clear that in no way have I been disputing "“ ever "“ that he has been elite on the PP. Really, you waited four days or whatever to try to get back into it over whether "elite" and "really strong" are the same. And "sentence structure?" What blithering ridiculousness. I've been more than clear what I think of Krug's offense and you can just go and read it, but this right here is BS.
If you had integrity in this exchange you would have owned the bad behavior of assassinating something as "ludicrous" which it plainly is not, and which is an idea that many posters actually agree with. But instead walking me through why you did this with a history of another poster's behavior "“ one who once posted openly that a "black boy" should be "kicked" (it was Subban) "“ is not an accepted reason. "Not my intention" is not an accepted way for me to know you own it. It was the directed and intended consequence but you just want to slide off to the side. It's the kind of thing the lesser posters do. Is that what you want to be? I think not, so do better.