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Blues year in review


yave1964

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PRESEAON OUTLOOK Defending Champs. More or less returned whole roster. Weak conference, no  doubt they were considered one of the elite organizations in the game and inline to make a run at repeating.

 

FINAL RECORD 42-19-10 94 points best record in the Western conference.  Lost in a shocker in the first round in six games to a younger and hungrier Canucks squad.

 

STRANGE STAT OF THE YEAR The Blues lost all three of their seeding round games and then the first two games to the Canucks in the first round for a total of a five game losing streak to start the post covid era. In the regular season, their longest losing streak all year was only four games long way back in October. 

 

HIGH POINT OF THE YEAR In February the blues found goodbye gear, leaving the West in the rear view mirror, From February 18th thru March 3rd they won eight in a row,  outscoring their opponents in those eight games 29-13 to more or less claim the Wests top seed. They split a few games and then the season went on pause.

 

LOW POINT OF THE YEAR Like no team in the game the pause seemed to cancel out all momentum, they were swept in the seeding round slipping from first to fourth, then lost in six games to a Canucks team that most felt were no match for the playoff tested Blues. The blues eliminated in the first round was the biggest shock of this past round.

 

WHAT WENT RIGHT Ryan Oreilly continues to deominate as a two way center, one of the tops in the game at both ends of the ice. Perron and Schenn, a couple of other solid two way performers led the team with 25 goals each. Jaden Schwartz had a solid bounce back year. Young Robert Thomas is bursting with talent and scratched the surface this year with more expected. Zach Sanford was fantastic, AGAIN as a two way forward (sensing a pattern). Barbachev, not quite as good a prospect but still very talented looked like a game breaker at times. Bozak and Sundqvist provided nice secondary scoring.

  What else? Oh yeah the blueline, Pietrangelo was simply brilliant, even with as much pub as he gets he still is underrated. Vince Dunn and Parayko were amazing. In net, Jake Allen came back to life and had the second lowest goals against of any goalie in the NHL, Binnington proved that his come from nowhere year was no fluke going 30-13-7 with a 2.57 goals against.

 

WHAT WENT WRONG Well the first round no show is number one. Beyond that, Steen finally has hit the wall where he no longer contributes like he used to. A horrible trade, adding De Larose who isnt much of a player from the Wings for Fabbri who just needed a chance to play and looks like a solid goal scorer. Faulk came over from Carolina and was expected to be a big deal and has so far been a very poor fit. Bouwmeester had the heart attack mid game in the regular season and his career is likely over. Taresenko who is a brilliant goal scorer was lost in the first couple of weeks of the season and wont be ready at the start of 20-21.

 

FREE AGENTS So here it is, Alex Pietrangelo is an UFA who every team in Hockey should come after hard and heavy. He has stated all things being equal he wants to remain with the Blues and the Blues have to, HAVE TO do everything possible to keep him. How this man has zero Norris nominations (never in the top three!) is beyond me. H will command a paycheck, a huge one and the Blues simply cannot afford to lose him.

 

OFFSEASON QUESTIONS It begins with Pietrangelo, he must come back no questions asked-period. Taresenko came back for the playoffs then reinjured his shoulder. He swears he will take his time and come back when the time is right next year as good or better than ever but two shoulder surgeries within one season puts doubts on the ifs and whens. They simply need to forget the quick exit and put it behind them. Overall my opinion of the team as long as Pietrangelo comes back has not changed. They are in the elite class of the Western conference. 

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On 8/31/2020 at 5:14 PM, yave1964 said:

Binnington proved that his come from nowhere year was no fluke going 30-13-7 with a 2.57 goals against.

 

As he remained solid during the regular season, he suddenly plunged in the postseason, almost doubling his GAA with a SV% of ,851 with Allen taking his place. Maybe he's not a fluke but he's already 27 and I'm wondering if he won't become an Allen 2.0

 

 

On 8/31/2020 at 5:14 PM, yave1964 said:

A horrible trade, adding De Larose who isnt much of a player from the Wings for Fabbri

 

Good catch, Armstrong totally messed up this one. De La Rose has never been able to make his room in his two former mediocre teams, even if they were depleted with injuries. On the other hand. Fabbri seems to have a lot of potential and was really annoying when he played against the Stars.

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