yave1964 Posted May 26, 2016 Share Posted May 26, 2016 PRESEASON OUTLOOK: Strong, they continued to tweak the team with the subtraction of Oshie and the addition of Brouwer, Taresenko was another year older and primed to break out, highly touted Colton Parayko joined up on one of the leagues best defenses. Hopes were high. FINAL RECORD: 49-24-8=9 107 points, 2nd best record in the West. Lost in conference finals to the Sharks in 6 games. STRANGE STAT: They were resilient, only the Kings had more wins when trailing after two periods and they were one of only 4 teams to have a winning record when the other team scored first. Individually Brian Elliot was mediocre at home, 20 starts, only 11 wins and a goals against of 2.34 but on the road he was lights out, 12 wins in 18 starts with a stellar 1.80 goals against. Jake Allen was the opposite, his goals against was three quarters of a goal lower at home. They shoulda ran Elliott on the road and Allen at home in the postseason...... HIGH POINT OF THE SEASON: In the postseason they finally beat their white whale by outing the Blackhawks in the first round. Beating the Stars in the next round and doing so in style with a crushing 6-1 victory to end the series was a high note. LOW POINT OF THE SEASON: To me, and hear me out, the low point was beating the Sharks in the first game of the series It was a good game, the Sharks were strong and only the performance of Elliott saved the day. After the game, instead of saying the Blues took everything the Sharks could throw at them and came away with a victory anyway and attempting to place doubt in the Sharks, Coach Hitchcock bitched about his teams performance, calling them out in the press AFTER A VICTORY. To me, the Blues LOST the series right there, right then. Hitch ripped the team in the press after a win and they fell apart, losing 4 of the next five to get eliminated. And his little cutesy war of words with Deboar was uncalled for, unneeded. Hitch seemed to be in love with every camera in the round, he wanted credit for every win and pointed fingers at his players after every loss. IMHO he lost the locker room and the team fell apart. So yeah, there low point was a game one win against the Sharks. WHAT WENT RIGHT: Vladimir Tarasenko (40-24-74) was brilliant and became one of the most dominating wingers in the league. Robby Fabbri (18-19-37) was solid but was absolutely brilliant in the playoffs and looks like a comer. David Backes (21-24-45 83 PIMs) had a nice bounceback season. The goalies, Elliott and Allen were a nice solid one two punch. Paul Stastny (10-39-49) had a good bounceback year. Alexander Steen was second on the team with 52 points. Kevin Shattenkirk continues to be one of the best power play QBs in the game with 26 of his 44 points coming on the man advantage. Brouwer brought a nice combo of offense and toughness. Colton Parayko led the team at plus 28 as a rookie. Alex Pietrangelo had a good year and continues to be a top defender. WHAT WENT WRONG: Jaden Schwartz was injured in the first week of the season and missed two thirds of the year. Jori Lehtera (9-25-34) is okay but not as good as projected, nowhere close. Dmitrij Jaskin whom I thought would break out was awful, only 4 goals in 65 games. Steve Ott is done, cooked baked ready for his gold watch. Jay Bouwmeester continues to suck and to eat into the salary cap. Veterans Scottie Upshall and Kyle Brodziak were brutal in the regular season and downright invisible in the postseason, in 37 combined playoff games they managed a weak 3 goals and 2 assists. Hitchcock ripped on Taresenko after the loss to the Sharks and said he does not play a team game about his best player. Ugly. As good as the goalies both were they never really developed a number one which you really need come the playoffs. MVP: Tarasenko by a mile. Nobody else is even close. FREE AGENTS: some very tough choices begin with the captain, David Backes who is 32 and slipping but still brings heart and soul and some offense and has spent his entire career in St. Louis is looking for a nice long term deal. Troy Brouwer was solid and the Blues need him back. Those two are getting up there but bring a toughness to the team that would be sorely lacking if they are both gone. steve Ott, Scottie Upshall and Kyle Brodziak will not be invited back and will struggle to find work anywhere. TOP PROSPECTS: Ty Rattie looked very good in a short stint and will push to replace one of the geezers among the forwards. Ivan Barbashev is a nice passer who plays at both ends of the ice, if Backes leaves he is a lock for a middle six center spot and may move onto the first line with Tarasenko. If so he is a Calder candidate because of his brilliantly talented linemate. Jordan Schmaltz will push Robert Bortuzzo for the 6th d-man and has potential to move into the middle pairing eventually. Good player. These three should all stick next year with usable parts like Danny Kristo Tommy Vannelli and Zach Pochiro getting called up as injury replacements. OFFSEASON QUESTIONS: do you keep the two goalies or move one and give the other the full time job, or even move both and bring in one guy to handle the job? What to do with Brouwer and especially Backes, do you overpay or give longer term contracts than is advisable to keep them? Hitchcock wrecked the teams Psyche in and after the Shark series, blaming the team during the series and calling out the teams best player and placing the blame on Tarasenko for the woes after. Can they work it out and fix things before October? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruxpin Posted May 27, 2016 Share Posted May 27, 2016 Best thing they can do is sell the team, move it, and change the name. Remember when Coach Q wasn't good enough? Hitch will be history, too. No difference. I don't see how they just let Backes walk. Brouwer might be elsewhere. Make Allen the number one and trade Elliott or ditch both. I don't think either is a full time starter, but Allen is your better bet if they'd quit screwing with his head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted May 27, 2016 Author Share Posted May 27, 2016 35 minutes ago, ruxpin said: Best thing they can do is sell the team, move it, and change the name. Remember when Coach Q wasn't good enough? Hitch will be history, too. No difference. I don't see how they just let Backes walk. Brouwer might be elsewhere. Make Allen the number one and trade Elliott or ditch both. I don't think either is a full time starter, but Allen is your better bet if they'd quit screwing with his head. I havent seen a coach screw up a team in the playoffs like this since Keenan with his Hawks against the Penguins in the 1992 finals. Hitch made himself the star, the media darling and skewered his team. You do not take a young impressionable kid like Tarasenko who has all the talent in the world and rip him, putting the blame on him for not playing a 'team game' whatever the hell that is. The blame for the stinker that they laid in the conference finals falls on his fat doughy shoulders. Worst coaching job that i have seen in a looong time. Okay, actually Therrien against the Senators lost control of his team a few years ago but that was a first rounder. And he is French so he gets a pass. I could not agree more, Allen had mediocre numbers in the minors and is more a product of a great defense in front of him than anything, Elliott is a career backup/part time starter and has no business as the number one. They need to move both and get a real goalie. Of course they tried that a few years ago with Mr. Miller and it bombed terribly and then gave sixty year old Brodeur a shot which ended ugly. I think they ahve just sighed and given up, and are settling on these two after so many failed experiments in net. But seriously, that defense makes anyone look good. I do not see Backes being allowed to get away either, although in truth he is A) 32 years old and B) slipping. But he is somewhat iconic in St. Louis and the fans would riot. But if say, Toronto comes calling with a David Clarkson type of deal, six years, 40 million, something stupid like that, I think you have to thank him for the memories and move on. From a business standpoint, you have to let him go in that scenario or you cripple the team for years with a contract that would not be able to be fulfilled. Backes plays on the edge, tough, mean physical and wears down and breaks down a bit more now, it is only going to get worse going forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruxpin Posted May 27, 2016 Share Posted May 27, 2016 @yave1964 Agree with everything. Please don't mistake what I said as defending Hitch. You won't see that from me. Golf nightmares and all that. But the curse, karma, or whatever you want to call it goes beyond any coach or player at this point. I know it sounds crazy and I don't usually give things such credence, but this is the history of this organization.. Back to Earth: yeah, if Backes is offered something ridiculous by someone, gotta let him go. But I don't let him go as a choice, you know? Just for the PR of it. And since Holmgren and Millbury are not currently GMs... because he IS slipping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OccamsRazor Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 On 5/26/2016 at 8:21 PM, ruxpin said: Hitch will be history, too. @yave1964 say no more......bringing him back is a head scratcher to me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OccamsRazor Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 Blues hire Yeo, will become head coach in ’17-18 http://nhl.nbcsports.com/2016/06/13/blues-hire-yeo-will-become-head-coach-in-17-18/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OccamsRazor Posted July 1, 2016 Share Posted July 1, 2016 https://twitter.com/dbackes42/status/748923045927018496/photo/1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.