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Author: aew328123

  • Game 4 Recap – Winnipeg Jets v. St. Louis Blues

    Game 4 Recap – Winnipeg Jets v. St. Louis Blues

    The start of the Winnipeg Jets – St. Louis Blues game was a lot slower and less eventful than that of the first several games, with neither team taking charge or creating a large amount of (quality) chances. The Jets had some opportunities on their first power play, but Jordan Binnington stood tall and kept the game tied at zero, where it stood at the end of the first period. The Blues actually managed to block one of Patrick Laine’s shots.

    The second period was much more wide open, with both teams trading off quality chances. Connor Hellebuyck has kept the Jets in it (as opposed to decidedly keeping them out of it in games 1-2). The Blues played well (except Jaden Schwartz) and it seemed like the Jets were always on their heels.

    The Blues opened up the third with a power-play goal by Vladimir Tarasenko, his second in two games (funny what happens when Schwartz and Jori Lehtera aren’t his linemates).

    The Jets fired back just after the seven-minute mark of the third period when Mark Scheifele tipped home a shot to tie the game up at 1 a-piece. Binnington and Helebyuck would stand their ground for the rest of the period and this game would head off to overtime.

    Overtime would open up and see some chances at both ends but both goalies stood their ground. Until Mark Scheifele would take the puck up ice and dish it off to Kyle Connor would seal the deal and put the puck into the gaping net. Winnipeg ties the series at 2-2 and sends it back home to Winnipeg for a crucial game 5.

     

  • Game 3 Recap – Winnipeg Jets v. St. Louis Blues

    Game 3 Recap – Winnipeg Jets v. St. Louis Blues

    Once again, the Winnipeg Jets came out playing much better than the St. Louis Blues, taking an 11-4 lead in shots. However, a timely shot by David Perron (who should be immortalized in STL lore because of his unwavering desire to keep coming back to the city), gave the Blues a 1-0 lead, with Jordan Binnington picking up the vaunted goalie assist (#assistington?).

    It stayed that way until the second when Kevin Hayes scored a flukey goal that was tipped in by Alex Pietrangelo. Then Patrick Laine scored. Sure, why not – what’s a game between these teams without Laine scoring. His shoulder has to be tired by now, right? Kyle Connor then makes it 3-1 on a 4 on 3 PP.

    The third period Brough two more goals for WPG – one a nice play, one a rather poor goal let up by Binnington (hopefully no more of those). The Blues managed one, but this was not their game. The final ended up being 6-3, but it was a lot more lopsided than that.

    Connor Hellebuyck wasn’t there to bail them out this time. If the Blues play like this the rest of the way, expect WPG to win in 6.

    I don’t expect the same play in Game 4, Wednesday at 9:30 PM Eastern.

  • Game Recap – 1st Rd. Game 2 – St. Louis Blues v. Winnipeg Jets

    Game Recap – 1st Rd. Game 2 – St. Louis Blues v. Winnipeg Jets

    The Blues experienced a much different start of the game in Game 2, with Oskar Sundqvist scoring early on to take a 1-0 lead. The Blues spent the majority of the first 10 minutes on the power play because of a few rather egregious cross-checks by the Jets, but  were not able to capitalize. When Colton Parayko was not aware that penalty time was expiring and had his shot blocked, Blake Wheeler took advantage and quickly scored to tie it at one. Overall, not a great period, given the opportunities the Blues had.

    The Jets came out flying in the second, and basically dominated the first several minutes, but for a few spectacular saves from Jordan Binnington. After Robert Bortuzzo took a senseless, senseless interference penalty, the Blues, naturally, left Patrick Laine completely open for another goal to give the Jets a 2-1 lead. The Jets kept up their inexorable pressure after, but an incredible play by Robert Thomas led to a Pat Maroon goal to make it 2-2. Sundqvist’s second goal gave them a 3-2 lead – soft goal by Connor Hellebuyck, who has not been nearly good enough this series. Now seems like a good time for a friendly reminder that the Blues traded Ryan Reaves for Sundqvist and high-potential prospect Klim Kostin, which…wow.

    Play evened out after that, with Hellebuyck making a tremendous (see: lucky) save on O’Reilly to keep the blues from taking a 4-2 lead. Shortly thereafter, a (weak) penalty call on Robert Thomas led to another WPG PP goal to tie it at 3.

    WPG was controlling play pretty well at the beginning of the third, but another soft goal, this time by Ryan O’Reilly allowed the Blues to take a 4-3 lead. The rest of the game can pretty much be summed up with this: Jordan Binnington was incredible.

    2-0. Back to STL Sunday at 7:30 Eastern

  • Gameday Recap- St. Blues – Winnipeg Jets (First Round – Game 1)

    Gameday Recap- St. Blues – Winnipeg Jets (First Round – Game 1)

    The Blues managed to pull out a 2-1 thriller after being down 1-0 going into the third period. The Jets took an early lead in the first period off a laser shot by Patrick Laine, who continues to torch the Blues. Even being down only 1-0, it was clear that the Jets had the upper hand – they were seemingly knocking the Blues off the puck every time they touched it, or the Blues fell victim to their own nerves. Robert Thomas, especially was quite jittery, bumbling several passes and falling down without any contact.

    All that changed in the third period. The Blues started funneling more pucks to the net and creating traffic. David Perron tied the game at 1, and later in the third, Tyler Bozak buried a Pat Maroon feed to take a 2-1 lead – a lead the Blues would not relinquish.

    In the end, the game turned out to look pretty even, with face-off percentage, shots, blocks and power play (in)efficiency largely equal between the two teams. The Blues, however, clearly looked like the better team in the third period – so much so that if that style of play and dominance continues, this will be a very short series.

    I suspect it will not, but given that the Jets were imposing their style of play the whole game and the Blues seemed content to simply ‘feel out’ the Jets to better plan for subsequent games, this was an ugly loss for Winnipeg.

    Look for more Laine in Game 2, with more offensive contributions from the Blues’ top line. Game 2 is Friday at 9:30 Eastern time.

  • 2019 NHL Playoffs – 1st Round Preview – St. Louis Blues v. Winnipeg Jets

    2019 NHL Playoffs – 1st Round Preview – St. Louis Blues v. Winnipeg Jets

    “When I look at [the Stanley Cup], I also see lots of magic moments. I see the dreams of thousands of young people who, at least once, have pictured themselves at hockey’s ultimate moment of triumph, hoisting the Stanley Cup.” — Ken Dryden, 6-time Stanley Cup Winner, lawyer.

     

    We sit here today, a far cry from my last article, impelling St. Louis Blues’ executives to rid the team of Doug Armstrong – architect of a team full of effete players with a poor attitude spreading like a pestilence through the locker room. Blues fans were consigned to ennui and despair with, at best, a chance to draft Jack Hughes.

     

    But I was wrong (though you’ll never get me to admit it). Today, April 10, this new, resurgent version of the Blues begins their quest for the Cup against the Winnipeg Jets. Both teams finished the regular season at 99 points, with the Blues having a record of 1-2-1. That might not seem particularly lopsided, but it was with the Jets winning 5-1, a laughable 8-4, and, what might have been the Blues’ worst loss of the season, a 5-4 OT loss when leading 3-1 going in to the third.

     

    All that said, the firing of Mike Yeo marked an important epoch in the Blues’ season. Since taking over, the Blues have gone 38-19-6 under new coach Craig Berube, good for a .651 points percentage. Contrast this to the Jets, who have posted only 35 wins during that time, and the disparity only grows once a grace period is accounted for to give Berube time to implement his system. Since January 1, the Blues have been one of the, if not the, best teams in the league. Unfortunately, the Blues and Jets have not matched up since December 7 (thank you, NHL?), so it is hard to use results of head-to-head matchups to offer predictive value for the playoffs.

     

    Regardless, one key for the Blues to win this series is to contain Patrick Laine. As one of the game’s elite scorers, he torched the Blues for 6 goals in 4 games, including a 5 goal performance. Even looking outside of this season, Laine has scored 13 goals against the Blues in his short, three-year career.

     

    As far as offensive production, the Blues season stands or falls on the production of the top line of Ryan O’Reilly, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Brayden Schenn. According to Murat Ates, who covers the Jets for The Athletic (a great follow on Twitter for those looking for a perspective from the Jets, @WPGMurat), 5 on 5, O’Reilly, Tarasenko & Schenn have a mark of 55.8 xG% and 22-9 lead in goals scored. Their+13 goal differential is 8th best line in the NHL. As a comparison: Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Blake Wheeler finished the year as a -6 as a line.

     

    Simply put: Line 1 bad = loss.

     

    A wildcard to some, though not to me, is rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington. Binnington who has put up an out-of-this world 1.89 GAA, .927 save percentage, and 24-5-1 (!!!) record this season, but has yet to start a playoff game. Fresh in the mind of all fatalistic Blues fans (myself included), is the disastrous performance of playoff neophyte Roman Turek back in 2000. A series of unfortunate events, too numerous and disheartening to rehash, led to an early exit and a shortened career for Turek because he was never able to fully, and consistently, recover. My hope is that even if some minor things go wrong for Binnington, he has an unyielding calmness that gives me great confidence that he will be able to weather any storm and play valiantly regardless of circumstance.

     

    So here we go. One more year. One more chance. I’ll watch. I’ll hope – just as I’ve done every year since 1993 – that the Blues can muster the strength to string together 16 wins. I’ll predict that they’ll be the one team left at the top of the mountain at the end, and tell you all that I am but simply part of the clerisy if they are.

     

    And if not, I don’t want to talk about it.

  • The St. Louis Blues and the Mess of Doug Armstrong

    The St. Louis Blues and the Mess of Doug Armstrong

    Well everyone, it’s time to talk about the St. Louis Lose. Wait, that’s not right, let’s try again. It’s time to talk about the St. Louis Hughes. *Sigh* no, no, hold on, I’ll get it.

     

    It’s been a rough season to be a fan of the St. Louis *ahem* Blues, and at this point everyone either realizes that the team is in the middle of a rebuild or is in desperate need of one. To recap the last few weeks, since firing Mike Yeo shortly after their loss to the Los Angeles Kings on November 19, the Blues have gone 3-5-1 under interim coach Craig Berube, showing some signs of competency in beating Colorado, Nashville, and Winnipeg, but for the most part rolling over and letting teams score at will – just ask Patrick Laine

     

     

    The big questions are, where do we go from here and who should lead it. As far as the latter, I am not sure who it should be, but I am quite certain who it should not be: Doug Armstrong.


     

    To his credit, Doug Armstrong is decent at drafting. Look no farther than Robby Fabbri, Jordan Kyrou, and Robert Thomas to get a glimpse at the talent he his found. This is, however, only one role of a General Manager, and when it comes to two other important roles: trades and contracts, Armstrong has been woefully bad and are the main reason the Blues are in the position they are in now – he has a history of handing out bad contracts and trading players when they are at their lowest value.

     

    Dating back to 2015, Armstrong has offered inexplicable contract extensions to Patrik Berglund, Vladimir Sobotka, Jori Lehtera, Alex Steen, and Jake Allen. These moves hamstrung the team and, upon realizing that these players might not be the ones to build a team around, forced Armstrong into trading valuable assets to get rid of them. While the acquisitions of Brayden Schenn and Ryan O’Reilly have undoubtedly been great, they came at the cost of multiple first round picks (for Schenn), and a first and second for O’Reilly. This was a huge overpayment for those players, in isolation, but Armstrong had to entice the Philadelphia Flyers and Buffalo Sabres to take on the bad contracts of Lehtera, Sobotka, and Berglund.

     

    But great, at least he got out of those contracts – unfortunately, we do not have as many picks as we need to actually start a rebuild. And, somehow, the Blues are still fourth in the league in salary cap, due to the bloated contracts of Steen, Allen, and Jay Bouwmeester. These players are also likely not tradable assets because A) Bouwmeester and Steen have no-trade clauses, and B) they’re not very good. It is very unlikely that any team would want to take on a streaky and underperforming goalie, and a 34 year old winger making close to $6 million/year.

     

    Even more unfortunately, the Blues do not have many young players ready to step up. Thomas and Kyrou have shown flashes, but outside of those two you have only the continually hurt Fabbri, and very underwhelming players like Zach Sanford and Oskar Sundqvist. Many pundits lauded Doug Armstrong for trading Kevin Shattenkirk to the Washington Capitals, but looking at the return, we received a first rounder that had to be traded to get out of another mess, and Sanford, who aside from 5 games this season has contributed virtually nothing.

     

    Turning to some of our better players, including Schenn, O’Reilly, Vladimir Tarasenko, Colton Parayko, and Alex Pietrangelo, sure some of these players could net decent returns, but there is a very low chance that any return a 1:1 value. Tarasenko, O’Reilly, Parayko, and Schenn are all relatively young players – the types of players a rebuilding team needs to build around. Pietrangelo is an interesting option – still only 28 years old, and regardless of one down season, he is a dominant, all-world defenseman. The Blues lack defensive depth, and if he can return 2-3 Parayko level players, the Blues should consider making that trade. Otherwise, there is no sense trading him either.

     

    So here we are, a team with bloated contacts, very few young prospects, and a handful of players that, alone, cannot make the team competent. And no real head coach. This was all created by Doug Armstrong. Worse yet, he is tasked with finding us our next coach. The same man who created a “coach in waiting” position for Mike Yeo (he of the zero cups and underperforming Minnesota Wild), so he could not get away.

     

    Could the Blues get Jack Hughes? Maybe, though somehow the Blues are not the absolute worst team in the league, that honor belongs to the Chicago Blackhawks. The draft this year is very deep, so at least having a top 5 pick will be a step in the right direction, but with most of this team locked in past 2020, it is going to be a long road back to mediocrity. Aside from the Blues themselves being able to draft Jack Hughes, my hope is that the Blackhawks can get him. Chicago is even worse than the Blues defensively, and I have a suspicion that they would be open to dealing Hughes for Pietrangelo (and more), or possibly even Patrick Kane. Whatever the Blues do, they somehow need to trade away all but a few players.

     

    How can they do it? I don’t know. One thing is for sure though – Doug Armstrong cannot be the one leading the way.

     

    Thanks for reading.

  • The Blues need to hire Joel Quenneville

    The Blues need to hire Joel Quenneville

    Let me restate that for the Twitter generation: the #stlblues need to bring #QTOTHELOU.

     

    Let me start be saying that I recognize having a knee-jerk reaction to the Blues’ lackluster start and calling for a new coach without digging deeper is not the way to run a successful organization, so let’s evaluate how current coach Mike Yeo has performed this season, then get to the merits of hiring Quenneville. The Blues stumbled out of the gate, winning just one of their first five games, but since then have performed semi-respectably, beating teams like Toronto and Vegas rather easily. Unfortunately, when they played the heavy-hitters of the Central, they came back down to earth, blowing a 3-1 third period lead to Winnipeg, and having one of their most embarrassing performances of recent memory in a 5-1 loss to Minnesota, being outshot 45-16. Is this all Mike Yeo’s fault? No. Has Mike Yeo done even one thing to make this team better? It does not seem like this. 

     

    Egregious infraction 1: the constant, and quite frankly baffling, use of Jay Bouwmeester. The Blues are in a precarious position with Robert Bortuzzo being injured and, up until recently, Carl Gunnarsson recovering from an ACL tear, so the Blues were forced into playing Bouwmeester. They were not, however, fired into playing him more than 19 minutes in 8 of the 11 games he has played in, or keeping him on the ice in critical late game situations. Would this be any different under Coach Q? We don’t really know, but looking at Brent Seabrook’s average time on ice, it has fallen about 2 minutes since 2015-2016. While he still gets about 20 minutes of ice time (according to hockey reference), the Blackhawks’ defense is much worse than the that of the Blues, and Seabrook is still capable of generating much more offense than Bouwmeester. If we say an n of 1 is significant (somewhere a statistician’s head just exploded), it stands to reason that Quenneville does not simply look at pedigree and contract value when determining whether to keeping playing an aging veteran exactly as he did in his prime. 

     

    Egregious infraction 2: inability to use young players properly. The Blues have a wealth of young players, including Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou – neither of which has been used well. Thomas, a highly-touted prospect, played the first five games, but was then benched for almost two weeks. Yeo’s rationale was that he was trying to find his confidence: 

     

     

    Nothing does more for a young player’s confidence than a benching 5 games into a 9-game trial. Within those first 5 games, that the Blues were losing all but 1, Thomas saw more than 10 minutes of ice time just twice. This does not help develop young players, and it does not help the current team win. Kyrou faired better under Yeo, slightly, but after not putting up many points in the first few games, he has been relegated to fewer than 10 minutes of ice time in each of his last three games (and has not played in the last 3). This type of player mismanagement makes me nostalgic for Mike Matheny, who once stated that coaches are not in the business of player development. 

     

    Now, would this change under Quenneville? That’s questionable. According to BlackhawkUp, one of Quenneville’s biggest critiques was that he would not trust younger players. However, the Blackhawks, at the time, were a dynasty in the making, with players like Toews and Kane (themselves fairly young), so it is understandable to trust these guys more. His development of Patrick Kane alone is enough to show how strong he is in the player development department. 

     

    This list can go on, but in the end, the Blues need to realize that Quenneville is an all-time great coach, while Yeo has not done anything in his career to prove he can ever reach that level. They are not playing well this year, an Q can help turn that around. It’s far from a given that a reunion is imminent, but the Blues would be foolish not to explore the possibility.

     

    You can watch TXHT Live next Wednesday at 8p EST on both Twitch and Facebook Live.

  • 2018-19 St. Louis Blues Preview

    STL

    Last Season: 44-32-6 94 pts (5th in Central Division; Did Not Make Playoffs)

    Key Additions: F Patrick Maroon, F Jordan Nolan, F Ryan O’Reilly, F Tyler Bozak, F David Perron, and G Chad Johnson

    Key Departures: F Scottie Upshall, F Patrik Berglund, F Vladimir Sobotka, F Kyle Brodziak, and G Carter Hutton

    Top Questions Facing the Blues:

    1. How is Robby Fabbri’s knee?

    It’s been a long road back for Robby Fabbri since first tearing his ACL on February 4, 2017, and re-injuring it in training campy prior to last season. The Blues missed Fabbri’s contribution on offense – even with the addition of Brayden Schenn, the team fell from 12th to 24th in scoring.

     

    While we won’t know how Fabbri’s knee is faring or how well it holds up until the season actually starts, nhl.com‘s Lou Korac reports that the team is optimistic about his level of effectiveness.

     

     

    That said, there isn’t a whole lot of data regarding NHL players coming back from one, let alone two ACL tears within a year, and a study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine concludes that hockey players coming back from ACL injuries experience reduced total games and decreased offensive output in subsequent seasons. However, Fabbri is significantly younger than those analyzed in the study and has rehabbed diligently. Much of the success of the Blues upcoming season hinges on just how effectively Fabbri can slot in to a top 6 or top 9 role.     

     

    2. Can Jake Allen play consistently for a full season?

    This is the big one. I’m not here to knock Jake Allen – he has played exceptionally well for long stretches of seasons past, as well as almost single-handedly carrying the Blues past Minnesota in the 2015-2016 playoffs. That said, the Blues cannot ignore (yet ostensibly did) the fact that Allen has had extreme meltdowns for significant stretches each of the last two seasons. While it has become quite fashionable amongst Blues fans to try to shed the “blame goalie for everything” moniker, last season Jake Allen posted career lows (excluding abbreviated call-up/first season) in save percentage, goals against average, and shutouts. This is not an insignificant reason as to why the Blues missed the playoffs.  To his credit, after a string of woefully bad games between December and February last season, Allen put up generally strong (enough) performances the rest of the season, albeit at a time when scoring was at a dearth for the Blues.

     

    Regardless, having a two month stretch where your starting goalie cannot be relied upon to be even mediocre is going to eviscerate any team’s playoff chances. While Allen was certainly not to be blamed completely, he was simply not good enough last year, and the Blues do not have the luxury of falling back on Carter Hutton (who led the league in save percentage at .931). The Blues must hope that Allen can play consistently throughout the entire season, and that the lows are not too low, otherwise they will have to rely on either untested Ville Husso, or career backup Chad Johnson.    

     

    3. Can the Blues have an effective power play?

    There is no way to sugar-coat this, last season the Blues’ power play was awful. After finishing near the top quarter of the league the previous season, the Blues substantially regressed to second to last with a paltry 15.4% rate. The new additions of Ryan O’reilly (15 power play goals last season) and David Perron (18 power play points), as well as Robby Fabbri’s return should help the Blues execute more efficiently on the power play.  

     

    The real question that coach Mike Yeo has to evaluate is not do the Blues have the players for an effective power play, rather why it was so bad last season. With a team composed of offensively-minded players like Alex Pietrangelo, Colton Parayko, the ever-improving Joel Edmundson, Vladimir Tarasenko, Jaden Schwartz,  and Brayden Schenn, there is no reason the power play should have been as bad as it was. This speaks not to the quality of players, but to the inability of the coaching staff to utilize the players effectively and build a power play strategy that fits within the strengths of the team. Let’s hope, now that they have even more offensive talent, that the coaching staff remedies this deficiency. There is no reason the team should not have a top quarter power play, or better.

     

    4. How will the young players fare?

    This is the question most Blues fans are most looking forward to having answered. The two most likely rookies to get a shot at the NHL level are 2017 first round draft pick Robert Thomas and 2016 second round draft pick Jordan Kyrou. While both are listed as centers, likely only Thomas will be played at that position. Tim Taylor, Director of Player Development, had some high praise for Thomas, stating he hoped he develops into a Jonathan Toews type player. While that is a lofty comparison, one that may turn out to be unachievable, it shows just how high the team is on Thomas’s potential. If Thomas can add the type of defensive prowess Toews brings, along with a high-ceiling offensive upside, the Blues are going to finally get their 1C they’ve been seeking. While Thomas seems to be more of a sure-fire contributor, the jury is still out on Jordan Kyrou. While Kyrou has dazzled fans with sleek goals, and received notoriety as the OHL’s Player of the Year, it still remains to be seen whether his style of play will transfer to the bigger, faster, NHL level. If it does, a Thomas-Kyrou combination can be a formidable duo for years to come.   

     

    Ultimately, this season presents of great optimism for the Blues and their fans. If all goes well with the emergence of the younger players, return of Fabbri, and integration of the new players, this team is poised to contend with the likes of Nashville and Winnipeg for the top spot in the Central Division and maybe the Western Conference.