The Blues missed the playoffs to the surprise of many. Can they turn it around this season and are they done making moves?
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45 Comments
The blues have a defence that needs to prove that it's worth the 36M $ they invested in.
Faulk, Krug and Parako all make 6.5M until 2027 and Leddy is at 4M until 2026. Bennington is 6M until 2027 too.
They hold the key of success for the blues.
Forwards not coming back trickle down to defense and Binner
Armstrong could still make a splash
Blues have been really good at drafting in the first round over the years. I don’t if they will be a threat necessarily but I do believe they could be a wild card team
Its kind of a head scratcher at how bad that D Corps played last year. And they still ended up with 80 points last year and were pretty solid after they sold at the deadline. I could easily see this team get a wildcard spot next year.
The bigger issue is Binnington. Hes been well below average since that cup run and Husso was putting up way better numbers with the same D Corp last year. They kind of need Hofer to be their new Husso for them to have a shot. I think what Vegas did with the Hill Contract was what the Blues should have done for Binnington. They were both in very similar circumstances.
St Louis is in such a strange position as if everything goes right, they could be a cup contender, but they could also fall into a top 10 draft pick, so who knows
It's as if Armstrong had an accident and has been in a coma for free agency.
Blues fan here, may sound controversial but maybe we should change the GM. Armstrong is the one who signed off and gave out these long contracts, with NT or NM clauses, starting off with Binner's contract after we won the Stanley cup. Krug has done the right thing by sticking to his guns; he moved here with his young family clearly looking at long term stability, and bought Pietrangelo's old home. Cannot blame the players for looking after their own interests, but can blame the GM for giving out such contracts.
Thanks for this video Shannon. I knew it would come sooner or later, but love your input.
Really excited to see full seasons of vrana, perunovich, blais. as much as I would like to see another playoff run, I hope they sell at the deadline and end up with more first round picks.
The only good defenseman last year was Faulk. I thought he has done his job since coming over to St. Louis.
I'm a 50+ year Blues fan, but I don't see them making the playoffs next season, and I would accept that, so long as we see the team progressing and the younger players mature at an acceptable rate. It's a good thing the cap will be increased next summer, because the Blues have a boatload of UFAs and they will have some decisions to make. I think Army, after the big Hayes deal fell apart, tried to prepare the fans that this isn't going to necessarily be a one or even two season fix. Best thing the Blues can do now is to not rush the younger players. The Blues are in a 4 team 'middle class' in the Central. Not as good as Dallas or Colorado, probably still better than Chicago and Arizona. They are in the middle with Nashville, Minnesota and Winnipeg, and to be honest, at this moment in time, I'm not sure they are as good as any of those three. Playoffs are always nice, but if we miss out next year, I'm willing to accept that. It would be nice to see at least some incremental improvement. Like Shannon said, 90-94 points would be awesome.
Amanda Kessel?
They got Torey Krug who so many thought was a great D man and he was terrible had one of the worst minus in league.
What I noticed is exactly why MTL is bad on defense and that is the team the forwards do not play well in the defensive zone.Defense is NOT just about the goalie and defense hockey is ALWAYS a team game.
What I noticed watching a few Blues games is they played wide open no care for defense and threw caution to the wind.
I would think most people would now realize having watched how dominate Vegas was that yo udon't need a roster full of high scorers.What you need is players that play SMART and are a PLUS meaning they win the battles and likely keep the puck in the offensive zone longer than in their own end.
Thanks Shannon. Let's see how this blueline does with a new D coach.
WC#2 for the Blues.
Exactly where I didn't want the Blues to be, Not good enough to make a run at the Stanley Cup and not bad enough to get a high draft pick.
Stuck in mediocrity.
Fringe playoff team this year. Gotta think the defense rebounds a bit but don't see them getting out of the first round if they make it. Hard to say if they make any more moves, difficult to make trades when the biggest area of need is defense and all your big money defensemen have NTCs.
Wonderful assessment. I do feel like the blues lost a bit of depth last season. Some of the best hockey players, O’Reilly Tarasenko Mikkola. I am a person who was a fan of the blues because of the talent that they had. But this Kevin Hayes deal is very interesting to me. Ultimately, I think we’re going to see a lot out of Brayden Schenn this season.
You know what helps fix a bad defense? Doing absolutely fucking nothing on defense. Doug Armstrong, hockey genius
In every team commentary seems like 90 per cent of teams are playoff contenders. When claiming this, could you also state which tems will fall behind your favorite team and wont make it! I know that everyone has bias towards their own team, but we also know that only 16 teams or 50 per cent can make it.
Binner is 🗑️
Is that a Cream color? Or is that jersey just white? I can't tell maybe because of lightning…
Blue are noncontenders
Colton Paryko would be wise to play a more physical game. Several games I attended this year saw Colton really dogging it on the physical aspect of his game.
Hoping Kyrou steps up, glad to see Sunny back, like Faulk.
You look good in that Blues jersey, Shannon !
The Blues played a lot better after the Tarasenko trade. That was a load off the team. Also, I think the defense being so bad was an aberration. They are closer to league average than that. The forwards are strong and deep and Binnington is one of the better goalies in the league who is proven to get it done when it counts. This is a good team, much better than the respect it's getting. A marginal improvement on defense could put the Blues in the top 10 in the league quite easily.
Buchnevich is the most underrated t player in the league.
I dont see the Blues in the playoffs. I think they probably get eliminated before the trade deadline and sell
Letting Petro go and picking up Krug is the heart of the problem. Krug is a liability and serves the team better when he is on the IR
No team with a goalie with the low character of Binnington has a chance for long term success.
Tyler Tucker on top
It looks like they're going to be deadline sellers or at best a playoff bubble team this season. I don't think that they're good enough to finish ahead of enough teams that were ahead of them in the standings last season to do more than miss the playoffs by 5-10 points.
I was hoping the Sabres would trade for Binnington. He only won a Cup. As a starting goalie. Against a stacked Bruins team.
Just give up a little scoring to solidify the crease. But what do I know.
This year kinda feels like Armstrong is hedging his bets. Either they bounce back or he has a lot of pieces that can be traded at the deadline.
I’m hopeful that the new D asst coach will improve this D as well as the PK. The forwards in particular Kyrou & Thomas need to play a much stronger game in their own zone this season. PP needs to evolve with more movement, they were so predictable last season that they were better off declining the PP and playing 5 on 5. Overall Binnington was good and definitely not the problem. All goalies have off nights. Binnington’s biggest problem was his own defense in front of him, there were so many backdoor goals allowed by the D that it absolutely tanked his numbers. There were many many games last year where he was the only guy on the team that showed up for the game. Which led to him justifiably losing his temper and trying to do things that aren’t his job because no one else was doing anything. The key to this coming season is all about team defense.
When Parayko was playing with Pietrangelo and Bouwmeester, his flaws weren't as evident. And, no one on the current roster can defend as effectively as AP and Bouw, leaving Parayko exposed. With all of the NTCs throughout the defensive core, they all need to step it up. We're probably gonna be looking at most of them for a while.
I'm hoping for a Good Training Camp…Last Year was a gut-punch to us fans more for the Roster changes than the losing, IMO. We'll see where we are on Halloween…
The D wasnt the best but Binner has to stop the antics and help the team win he cost them some games last year.
Parayko is such a frustrating player, has maybe the best combo of size and speed for a D man in the league. Just zero physicality.
If they can't find a way to move Krug, send him to the minors. Let's see how fast he waves his no-trade after riding buses for a few weeks. He's probably Armstrong's worst deal.
Really hoping Binnington is more under control this year and plays really well to shut up the haters. I love how fired up he gets but he takes it too far ha.
I would have liked to have heard more about the assistant coaching changes. Last year's D performance was such an aberration I can't help but think it was a result of some bad coaching.