Blues sing a different tune yearly review

[yave1964]

This will be my last team review, I am deliberately skipping the Flyers/wild as their multitude of fans in here have more than adequately covered it for them. Congrats to the Blues for winning it all. I am convinced that the Capitals and Blues winning it the past two seasons is a sign of the apocalypse. Anyway, here ya go....

 

PRESEASON OUTLOOK After barely missing the playoffs the year before, GM Doug Armstrong went out and had a hell of an offseason, bringing in players for each of the four forward lines, O'Reilly, Perron, Bozak and Maroon made the Blues a much better team and a club worth watching. I picked them to lose to the Leafs in the cup finals in the preseason (and kicked myself for it for much of the first half of the year). I think ost people would have been surprised had they not made the playoffs.

 

FINAL RECORD 45-28-9 99 points third in the Central (only one point out of first). Beat the Jets in seven fantastic games in the first round, beat the Stars in 7 games, game 7 in a double overtime thriller on a goal by hometown boy Maroon, wore the Sharks down in six games, and finally for the first time in the fifty plus years of Blues Hockey won the Stanley cup by defeating the Bruins in seven games.

 

LOW POINT OF THE YEAR: Well they started off putrid, coach Mike Yeo was more put down like a sick dog in mid November as they sat at 7-10-3. Taresenko publicly apologized to the fans for the teams awful play, Jake Allen looked like that meme where the goalie cannot stop a beachball, they looked just as bad under Coach Berube, Armstrong in his 10th year as the clubs GM felt his seat heating up rumors were swirling that Taresenko was to be dealt, that Pietrangelo was on his way to Toronto and everyone was in play. Going into the first of the year they were 15-18-4 with the worst record in the West and spiraling out of control.

 

HIGH POINT OF THE YEAR January 5th the Blues recalled Jordan Binnington in exasperation with the awful play from Jake Allen. Binnington, 26, in his 8th year as property of the Blues had a handful of games over the years in St. louis but had bounced around the AHL and ECHL looking mediocre more often than not. He went insane, Channeling his inner Andrew Hammond taking the net from Allen and going 24-5-1 with a microscopic 1.89 goals against then following examples of Dryden, Roy and Ward he played like a ten year vet instead of a rookie winning all 16 games for his team on their way to the cup.

  In terms of high point, on Jan 21st they were 21-22-5 then went crazy, winning 11 in a row steamrolling playoff teams in their wake. From that date all together they went 24-6-4 missing out on winning the division by one point.

  Of course the true high point was winning the cup for the first time in franchise history but wow what a comeback. Kind of like the 78 Yankees or 51 Giants coming back from double digit games down to capture the league Pennant. One for the ages.

 

LOW POINT OF THE YEAR Everything before calling up Binnington. Probably those back to back losses right before the beginning of the year to the Rangers and Pensby a combined 8-2 they were lethargic and looked like a team on their way to being pieced out.

 

WHAT WENT RIGHT Well there is the cup thing. Binnington was the savior of the season, O'reilly had a monster season and an even better postseason to capture the Smythe. Taresenko overcame a wretched start to finish with 33 goals and was a force in the playoffs. Pietrangelo was a solid contributor and a postseason beast. Perron had 46 points in 57 games and was his usual solid 200 foot contributor. Parayko was plus 20 vince Dunn plus 14 both also added timely goals from the back end. Maroon was okay in the regular season but they would not have won the cup without his postseason performance.Strange stat- Schwartz had only 11 goals during the regular season in 69 games but 12 in the playoffs.

 

WHAT WENT WRONG Long list actually, longer than anyone else in the final eight that is for sure. Allen was simply dreadful, he is not to be taken serious as an nhl starting goalie. With the same defense in front of him his goals against was a full goal per game worse than Binnington. Shwartz had only 11 goals and struggled all year Steen and Bouwmeester looked their age. Kids like Fabbri, Mceachern, Blais, Kyrou and Schmaltz all were given long looks and all failed, they appeared in a combined 129 games with only 8 goals and 20 points between them.

  

FREE AGENTS Rugged nasty fourth liner Maroon is an UFA who the Blues simply have to resign. Gunnarson was a 7th defender who filled in admirably when injuries hit the blueline in the playoffs but they have better organizational options and he wont be back. The big problem is all the RFA's who will deservedly want paid, Barbachev, Binnington, Edmundson, Fabbri, Blais, Sundqvist and Sanford all are due for raises.And looking towards next year Pietrangelo and Schenn are both UFA's at the end of next season Pietrangelo is likely watching the Karlsson situation carefully, while not in the 11 million class he will certainly command a huge payday as one of the games most underrated complete defenders, his game has zero holes.

 

OFFSEASON QUESTIONS are they capable of repeating? anyone can but few do, the grind of 26 playoff games the year before tends to wear a team down more than they like to admit. Can Binnington repeat his magic? Probably not but if he is half a goal worse you are still talking 2.40 goals against which makes him a hell of a goalie. O'reilly was the heart and soul, Taresenko caught fire, can others step up? Sure, Schwartz for one is due to bounce back, Schenn was okay neither really bad nor good and is capable of better. Robert Thomas showed glimpses of his enormous skill during his rookie season I have him pegged for a huge leap forward this year. 

  can they resign Pietrangelo? That is the biggie not really being talked about much right now as they bask in the glow but when the season starts if he is still unsigned it will create a buzz. 

 

 fantastic story, congrats to the Blues. enjoy.

 

 That is, again the final team writeup of the year.